BYD’s Q3 net profit tumbles 88.58%, warns on 2019 profit

Shanghai (Gasgoo)- Chinese automaker BYD reported on October 29 an 88.58% year-on-year plunge in the third-quarter (Q3) net profit in the wake of a three-consecutive-month decrease in monthly sales volume taking place during the same period.

The automakers said its Q3 net profit attributable to the listed company's shareholders amounted to RMB119.723 million. Meanwhile, the revenue for the third quarter dropped 9.17% from a year ago to around 31.638 billion.

However, this year's cumulative indexes as of September still climbed over the previous year—revenue grew 5.44% to roughly RMB93.822 billion and net profit was up by 3.09% to RMB1.574 billion.

The Q3 financial downturn was substantially linked to its sliding sales performance. In September, BYD sold 40,729 vehicles, facing a double-digit year-on-year decline of 14.99%. Before that, the automaker had suffered 16.96% and 13.95% decrease in July and August sales respectively.

The NEV sales shrink was the major fact leading to the overall downturn. BYD saw its combined sales of BEVs and PHEVs fall 11.84%, 23.44% and 50.97% year over year in July, August and September after Chinese government scaled back subsidies.

The company said its 2019 net profit is expected to go between RMB1.584 billion and RMB1.774 billion, down from RMB2.7802 billion for 2018.

BYD said the annual profit plunge in NEV business may happen due to such reasons as the continuous sluggish for overall market demand, the changing price system of fossil fuel-powered vehicles and the sharp backslide in green-car subsidies. Nevertheless, fuel-burning vehicle business is expected to revive thanks to stable sales growth of new models like the BYD Song (photo source: BYD).