Shares in BYD (BYDDF) were up around 5% to 53.34 on Monday following revelations that the Chinese electric vehicle maker had for the first time since 2018 eclipsed rival Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) with US$100 billion ($170 billion) in revenue.
Better-than-expected fourth-quarter full-year earnings saw BYD, the world's largest electric vehicle maker, report revenue of 777 billion yuan (US$107 billion or $170 billion) for the 12 months ended December 31, beating analyst estimates of 766 billion yuan.
While Tesla still maintains a substantial lead in net profitability, today’s result is seen as a significant milestone in BYD’s rapid ascent in the global car market.
Nowhere is this ascent more prevalent than within vehicle numbers: BYD and Tesla delivered comparable fully electric vehicle numbers last year of 1.76 million and 1.79 million respectively.
Overall, BYD’s total vehicle deliveries, including hybrid models, hit 4.27 million units, which puts it closer to a league of entrenched global players like Ford Motors in the U.S.
BYD’s management has told the market to expect sales of between 5 million and 6 million vehicles in 2025.
While Tesla has struggled to maintain its position in China, BYD now commands around 15% of the market share across all China’s passenger vehicle categories.
Here are the key numbers posted today
• Net income up 34% year-on-year to 40.3 billion yuan, exceeding market expectations of 39.5 billion yuan.
• Sales in the first two months of 2025 surged 93 per cent year-on-year to 623,300 units.
• Full year gross margin was 19.4% vs 18.5% a year earlier.
• Fully battery electric sales (BEVs) grew just 13% to 595,413 in Q4 vs. a year earlier.
Technology
Underscoring BYD’s success are its technology innovations, including a unique charging ecosystem that enables EVs to charge for 400 kilometres in just five minutes.
While BYD’s overseas expansion continues to gain momentum across Europe, parts of Asia including Singapore and Thailand, and Australia, tariffs on Chinese-made automobiles have precluded the company from entering the US passenger vehicle market.
New developments
Last month BYD announced it was rolling out advanced driver-assist systems (ADAS) standard across its lineup, with higher-end models getting Lidar.
It remains to be seen how BYD's "God's Eye" will stack up initially against ADAS systems from rivals such as XPeng (XPEV), Huawei and Tesla.
However, given that BYD is a low-cost provider it is already forcing many China rivals to follow suit.
Meanwhile last week, BYD unveiled a new superfast, 1,000-kilowatt charger - capable of providing essentially a full charge in five minutes – which also promises to be a game-changer for the EV industry.
Last Sunday, BYD began deliveries of the Denza D9, a large SUV from the EV giant's premium Denza line.
BYD also launched its affordable Qin L sedan, a potential challenger to XPeng's hot-selling Mona M03; it's a similar size to the Tesla Model 3, but at roughly half the price.
