BYD net jumps 34pc to 40.2b yuan

Staff reporter and agencies

BYD's (1211) net profit jumped 34 percent year-on-year to 40.2 billion yuan (HK$43.08 billion) last year as it wowed consumers with a range of electric and hybrid cars packed with high-tech features.

The Chinese auto giant also plans to allocate up to 60 billion yuan of idle funds from the company and its subsidiaries to buy secure, liquid and low-risk financial wealth management products and bond products, it said in a stock market filing.

Its sales reached 777 billion yuan, beating market estimates and surpassing US billionaire Elon Musk's Tesla.

BYD has risen quickly to the top of China's car market - the world's biggest and most competitive in terms of electric vehicles. This year alone, BYD has unveiled a new ecosystem that allows EVs to charge for 400 kilometers in just five minutes and introduced advanced driver assistance technology in even its most basic models. Investors have sent its shares to a record and BYD's Hong Kong-listed stock is up around 51 percent this year.

BYD also sells about the same number of EVs as Tesla - 1.76 million in 2024 versus 1.79 million. If passenger hybrid car sales are included, BYD's total deliveries last year climbed to 4.27 million, almost as much as Ford Motor.

BYD has forecast it can sell between 5 million to 6 million vehicles this year. It's already off to a strong start, with sales in the first two months of 2025 up 93 percent year-on-year to 623,300 units.

For the fourth quarter, its net profit expanded by 73.1 percent to a record 15 billion yuan and the revenue was up 52.7 percent at 274.9 billion yuan.

The Chinese EV maker also increased the dividend by 28 percent to 39.74 yuan per 10 shares.

Its subsidiary BYD Electronic (International) (0285) posted a net profit of 4.27 billion yuan, up by 5.55 percent from one year ago, and increased the final dividend by 5.5 percent to 56.8 fen.