Chinese carmaker BYD, the world leader in electric vehicles, on Tuesday reported record profits for 2023 despite a price war in China, in a market marked by strong demand for clean vehicles, AFP reported.

China, the world’s largest producer of greenhouse gases in absolute terms, aims to sell mostly electric and hybrid vehicles by 2035.

China’s EV market has grown rapidly in recent years, particularly thanks to purchase subsidies that will be phased out at the end of December 2022.

To keep up with the economic downturn, dozens of local manufacturers have launched a price war in China, the world’s largest auto market.

In early 2023, “the recovery of car purchases was relatively slow due to (…) fluctuations in market prices,” BYD chief Wang Chuanfu acknowledged in a statement.

Despite this, BYD posted a net profit of 30.04 billion yuan (3.83 billion euros) last year, up from 16.6 billion yuan a year earlier, the group said in a statement.

This result is in line with the forecast announced by BYD in January (between 29 and 31 billion yuan).

This represents an increase of 80.7% year-on-year.

In fiscal 2022, BYD’s net profit grew much faster (+445.8%).

“Aggressive pricing”

BYD’s sales in 2023 also increased year-on-year (+42%) to 602.3 billion yuan (76.8 billion euros).

BYD (“Build Your Dreams”) is a leading Chinese manufacturer of electric vehicles.

Not all of BYD’s local rivals can boast such results: XPeng last week reported a loss of 10.4 billion yuan (1.3 billion euros) last year.

BYD’s “biggest advantage” over its rivals is that it produces in very large quantities, Tu Le, an analyst at specialist firm Sino Auto Insights, told AFP.

This allows him to “make huge savings” and thus control his costs and set “aggressive pricing,” he noted.

Last year, BYD sold more than 3 million cars (+67.8% compared to the same period last year).

The group was founded in 1995 in Shenzhen, a metropolis in southern China that is home to the headquarters of many technology groups (Huawei, Tencent, etc.).

Initially specializing in the development and production of batteries, in 2003 the company switched to the automotive sector.

BYD currently sells hybrid and electric vehicles in about sixty countries, especially in Europe.

In December, the group announced the construction of a plant for the production of electric vehicles in Hungary.

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