BYD, a leader in electric vehicles in mainland China, sold 1.17 million vehicles in the first three quarters of this year, surpassing Tesla and becoming the world champion in electric vehicle sales. However, according to the financial report, although Tesla lost to BYD, its net profit was nearly 7 times that of BYD. One of the main reasons is that there is still a significant gap in car prices.
Mainland China is the largest producer of electric vehicles and the largest market. However, at the moment, of the mainland’s many new energy vehicle brands, BYD is not only the best in sales, but also the only profitable electric car factory.
According to Lu Media First Financial Report, BYD released its third quarter financial report on the 28th, showing revenue in the first three quarters of this year was RMB 267.69 billion (approximately NT $ 1.19 trillion, the same below), an increase of 84.4% over the same period last year; the top three Quarterly net profit was 9.31 billion yuan, an annual increase of 281.1%, of which the third quarter net profit was 5.72 billion yuan, a substantial increase 350.3%, a record in just one quarter.
As of September this year, BYD sold a total of 201,300 new energy vehicles, an annual increase of more than 183%. This is the first time BYD’s monthly sales have exceeded 200,000 vehicles; cumulative sales this year reached 1,175,300 vehicles.
From the launch of the first electric vehicle in 2008 to May 2021, it took BYD 13 years to achieve sales of new energy vehicles in excess of 1 million units. This year’s sales and net profit increased significantly. Professional institutions generally give BYD’s performance this year more optimistic to predict.
BYD this year before Tesla becomes the first electric car maker in the world to sell more than one million units per year. In contrast, in the first three quarters of this year, Tesla delivered 909,000 vehicles worldwide and, due to sales pressure, recently reduced prices in mainland China. Among them, the Model 3 starting price dropped to 265,900 yuan, and the Model Y starting price dropped to 288,900 yuan, returning below 300,000 yuan; the long-life version of the Model Y dropped 37,000 yuan, which is the version with the highest drop. The industry believes this move has a direct impact on BYD’s high-end models.
It is worth noting that although Tesla is lagging behind in sales, its profits are much higher than BYD.
Tesla’s cumulative revenue in the first three quarters of 2022 was $ 57.14 billion (approximately RMB 414.66 billion), an annual increase of 58.3%; its net profit in the first three quarters reached $ 8.87 billion (about RMB 64.37 billion), an increase of up to 177.3%, net profit is nearly 7 times that of BYD.
The report pointed out that BYD’s net profit is much worse than Tesla’s, which is inseparable from the price of bicycles between the two sides. At present, the price of BYD bicycles has increased to around 180,000 yuan, but the price of Tesla bicycles is close to 300,000 yuan. To increase profit margins, BYD plans to launch a new high-end brand in the fourth quarter.
Additionally, Tesla is a global leader in autonomous driving technology and its Fully Self-Driving (FSD) beta software has been updated to version 10.69.2. Currently, FSD has 160,000 users in North America, and Tesla plans to bring FSD to the world in November this year.
And BYD is inferior to Tesla in autonomous driving technology. As the current path of new energy vehicles gradually shifts from electrification to intelligence in the second half, BYD urgently needs to fill this gap.
(Editor in chief: Zhuang Yanyu)
