((Automated translation by Reuters, please see disclaimer https://bit.ly/rtrsauto))
(Clarifies BYD's turnover in paragraph 3)
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Third quarter net profit reached 11.6 billion yuan
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Revenue up 24% to 201.1 billion yuan
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Electric vehicle makers benefit from broader stimulus measures (old vs. new)
Chinese electric vehicle maker BYD 1211.HK 002594.SZ posted an 11.5% rise in third-quarter net profit on Wednesday, as it maintained strong sales momentum, helped by recovery incentives of the government.
Net profit rose to 11.6 billion yuan ($1.63 billion) in the July-September quarter, the company said in a stock filing. For the first nine months, net profit increased 18.1% to 25.2 billion yuan.
Third-quarter revenue increased 24 percent from a year earlier to 201.1 billion yuan ($28.24 billion), BYD's first clear quarterly revenue victory compared to Tesla TSLA.O since the Chinese automaker stopped producing gasoline-powered vehicles in 2022.
Tesla's revenue for the July-September quarter reached $25.2 billion. The two companies were almost tied in the fourth quarter of 2023 in terms of revenue.
Tesla again beat BYD in global EV sales between July and September.
BYD, whose cars accounted for more than a third of China's total EV and plug-in hybrid vehicle sales this year, shattered its monthly sales record in September and its quarterly sales also hit a new high in the third quarter.
The local champion and its peers, such as Tesla, have benefited from a tailwind thanks to the extension of “old for new” stimulus measures that favor greener cars. Car sales in China last month halted a five-month decline thanks to subsidies, industry data shows.
By the end of October, 1.57 million applicants had registered to benefit from a national grant of up to more than $2,800 per person to trade in old cars for greener vehicles , according to official data.
Local Chinese authorities have also distributed up to 20,000 yuan in additional subsidies to EV buyers under programs that will expire at the end of the year.
BYD has driven growth through aggressive discounts on its best-selling models. Its best quarter was mainly due to strong growth in plug-in hybrid vehicle sales, which jumped 75.6% year-on-year to 685,830 units in the third quarter, thanks to its latest generation of plug-in hybrid technologies that enable users to save more fuel.
In comparison, BYD's sales growth of pure EVs (rather than hybrids) slowed to 2.7% to 443,426 units in the quarter and BYD lost share in the EV segment to other competitors in China, according to Reuters calculations.
BYD, which still sells more than 90% of its cars in China, has set a higher annual sales target for this year (), a Morgan Stanley report in September showed, and aims to double exports to reach 450,000 vehicles this year, a downward revision of the target of 500,000 annual overseas deliveries set in March.
BYD, which has led an offensive in European markets despite additional tariffs, sold 94,477 cars overseas in the third quarter, up 32.6 percent from a year earlier.
($1 = 7.1222 Chinese yuan renminbi)
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