BYD posts 350% jump in Q3 net profit on sales surge

SHANGHAI -China's biggest electric vehicle (EV) maker BYD said its third-quarter net profit jumped 350 per cent from a year ago, helped by a wider range of product offerings and strong sales that saw it beat Tesla in the world's largest auto market.

BYD's net profit for the July-September quarter reached 5.72 billion yuan ($788.75 million), while that for the first nine months increased 281 per cent to 9.31 billion yuan, the company said in a stock exchange filing on Friday.

The result was in line with a forecast the company published last week.

Having scrapped gasoline vehicles from its product mix this year, BYD has, more than any other automaker, been able to capitalise on a range of incentives for electric cars offered by China's central and local governments.

The company, which is 19 per cent owned by Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway, has also been able to significantly reduce costs per vehicle on the back of robust sales and a broader product range than other EV competitors.

BYD's combined sales of pure electric and hybrid plug-in vehicles increased 250 per cent in the first nine months to 1.2 million units, outpacing a 110 per cent rise for the overall EV segment. Tesla sold just over 318,000 electric vehicles in China during the first nine months of the year.

($1 = 7.2520 Chinese yuan renminbi)