China’s BYD forecasts record first-quarter net profit

Chinese electric vehicle giant BYD expects to see record profits in the first quarter of the year, according to preliminary results published on Tuesday, as booming sales saw it ship more than a million cars.

However, a bruising China-US trade war and tensions between Beijing and other Western capitals threaten to cast a shadow over the company’s global ambitions.

The company expects net profit to hit between 8.5 billion yuan ($1.2 billion) and 10 billion yuan, up from 4.6 billion yuan in the same period last year.

That would represent year-on-year growth of between 86% and 119%.

“The company achieved record NEV (new energy vehicle) sales for the first quarter,” the Shenzhen-based firm said in a Hong Kong Stock Exchange filing.

BYD last week announced that sales in January-March topped 1 million vehicles for the first time, with a 39% increase in sales of pure electric passenger vehicles to 416,388.

The firm—which adopts the English slogan “Build Your Dreams”—has enjoyed a giddy few months of surging sales after annual revenue surged to 777.1 billion yuan in 2024, eclipsing rival US titan Tesla.

Announcing the preliminary results on Tuesday, BYD said it had also “experienced substantial growth in international NEV sales.”

But Donald Trump’s tariff blitz could impact the firm.

The US president has imposed 25% tariffs on imports of all cars as well as sky-high blanket levies on Chinese goods. That comes on top of existing measures by predecessor Joe Biden that effectively bars the use of Chinese technology in smart cars.

Meanwhile, the European Union is reportedly investigating whether the Chinese government provided unfair subsidies for BYD’s first European factory, in Hungary, where electric car production is scheduled to start later this year.

© 2025 AFP