BYD Co. sold 173,977 electric-powered cars in August, a record for the Chinese automaker backed by Warren Buffett, according to data released Friday.
(Bloomberg) — BYD Co. sold 173,977 electric-powered cars in August, a record for the Chinese automaker backed by Warren Buffett, according to data released Friday.
Based in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen, BYD has been on an upward sales trajectory this year, with EV shipments rising each month since March, despite the industry being dogged by supply-chain snags and Covid-related disruptions.
BYD’s August sales figure was 7.3% higher than the 162,214 units sold in July and 188% up from the same month last year.
While sales have steadily grown, BYD’s shares are experiencing a more volatile year, rising to as high as HK$331.40 in Hong Kong in June from a low of HK$166.90 in March. Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. offloaded 3.05 million shares — a small portion of its stake — in BYD as of Friday, prompting a slide in the stock that’s wiped about $13 billion from the company in seven days.
BYD still has a market value of over $100 billion, the third highest for an automaker after Tesla Inc. and Toyota Motor Corp.
China’s Covid policies could also cloud the automaker’s outlook, with Shenzhen facing a potential second lockdown in the wake of a shutdown in Chengdu to contain an outbreak. If that eventuates, two cities with a combined population of almost 40 million people will be locked down in response to about 1,000 Covid cases.
BYD said on Aug. 29 that its first-half net income tripled from a year earlier, reaching 3.6 billion yuan ($522 million), the top end of its forecast. Revenue rose 66% to 150.6 billion yuan on strong sales, it said.
BYD has announced its entry to several overseas markets in recent months, spreading as far as Denmark and Germany to Israel, Japan and Cambodia.
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