Chinese automaker BYD sold a record number of electric vehicles in 2022 and saw its net income more than quintuple.
In detail, the automaker reported revenues of 216 billion yuan (about 29 billion euros), up 96% year on year, and a net income of 16.6 billion yuan (2.2 billion euros). euro), compared to 3 billion yuan in 2021 (+446%). Analysts polled by Bloomberg had expected a value of around 16 billion yuan.
The results were supported by a strong demand for electric vehicles in China, thanks to an incentive campaign in this sense. Last year BYD chose to focus exclusively on the production of hybrid and electric vehicles, abandoning cars with traditional engines.
BYD sold 1.86 million electric and plug-in hybrid and electric cars in 2022, more than the previous four years combined, accounting for about 30 percent of all non-traditional vehicle sales in China. In the same period, rival Tesla delivered 1.31 million cars in China.
New luxury electric car launches will broaden BYD’s offering and should fuel further earnings growth, although margins could suffer from Tesla’s price war in China. BYD, backed by Warren Buffett, is also attempting to expand abroad, particularly in Norway, Denmark, the United Kingdom, Thailand and Australia.