EV Sales At Warren Buffett-Backed BYD Quadrupled In March

BYD, the Shenzhen-headquartered vehicle and battery maker backed by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway, said today sales of new energy vehicles more than quadrupled in March from a year earlier to 104,878 compared with 24,218 a year earlier.

For the first quarter of 2022, it sold 286,329 new energy vehicles, compared with 54,751 in the first three months of 2021, an increase of 423%, the company said in an announcement.

Earlier this month, BYD domestic rivals XPeng – backed by Alibaba, NIO – backed by Tencent, and Li Auto all reported big increases in March and first-quarter deliveries in China, the world’s largest auto market and second-largest economy.

BYD’s overall business is more diversified than its rivals – it also makes handset components and photovoltaics. Among its customers are Dell, Apple, Xiaomi and Huawei.

BYD said last week net profit in 2021 fell by 28% from a year earlier to 3.0 billion yuan, or $478 million, owing to a shift in its product mix. Overall, sales increased by 37.7% to 211.3 billion. Auto revenue climbed by 33.8% to 109.6 billion yuan, whereas its mobile phone components, assembly service and other products grew by 44.1% to 85.5 billion yuan. About 30% of total revenue was from international markets in 2021, down from 38% in 2020.

Berkshire Hathaway holds 225 million shares, or a 7.7% stake, in BYD.

BYD Chairman Wang Chuanfu is worth $19.9 billion on the Forbes Real-Time Billionaires List today.

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@rflannerychina