BYD still hopes to attain previous 2015 sales goal, CEO says

Gasgoo.com (Shanghai September 13) - BYD's poor sales this year and its recent major employee cut have become major talking points in the industry. Last week, the manufacturer held its first emergency meeting of the board of directors, Xinhua reported today. At the event, CEO Wang Chuanfu said that the recently cutbacks were unavoidable, but that the manufacturer's goal of becoming the largest domestic manufacturer by 2015 would not change.

BYD's net profit in August was 88.63 percent, or 273.6 million yuan ($42.8m), lower than last year. According to comments from the manufacturer, the drop in returns and profits was due mainly to poor performance in BYD's automobile business. Further drops in the third quarter were predicted.

Due to its exception sales result last year, BYD increased its sales team. With the automobile industry having cooled down significantly in 2011, several automobile insiders believe that it was only reasonable for BYD to lay off some of their staff.