BYD expects to double new energy passenger vehicle sales in Q1

Shanghai (Gasgoo)- BYD expects to have a YoY sales surge of new energy passenger vehicles over 200% in the first quarter, and also a YoY sales growth of more than 20% in passenger vehicles in the same period. However, BYD expects its net profit in the first quarter will plunge from 75.24% to 91.75% on an annual basis, which equals a loss ranging from RMB 50 million to RMB 150 million. Last year, its net profit in the same period reached RMB 605.8 million. 

Due to the expected plunge for the first quarter this year, BYD stock suffered decline limit after opening on Mar. 28. Though it saw a slight growth later, its share price still underwent large decline.

Although BYD is expected to see YoY sales surge of new energy vehicles in the first quarter this year, its profitability of the segment, especially that of electric buses will drop drastically, and thus exert great pressure on BYD as a whole due to the phase-out of NEV subsidies. The increasingly intense competition in traditional fuel-powered vehicles market will impact the profitability of this segment to some extent despite a large expected sales growth of the traditional fuel-powered vehicles. 

Wang Chuanfu, chairman and president of BYD said that sales and gross profit will see improvement in the second quarter with the launch of new models, like the new BYD Tang. Moreover, BYD is expected to reach an annual battery production capacity of 28GWh in 2018.

In accordance with the financial report of 2017, revenue of vehicles reached around RMB 54.5 billion. Among them, NEV revenue totaled RMB 38.5 billion with a YoY sales growth of 13.06%, taking up 37.55% of BYD's total revenue. Specifically, BYD's PHEV models still dominate the segment, taking up around 60% market shares of the Chinese PHEV passenger vehicle segment.

Wang Chuanfu also stated that the company maintained the sales championship in NEV segment for three consecutive years, though it underwent the phasing out of NEV subsidies and intense market competition in 2017.

In addition, with breakthroughs in Skyrail business in 2017, BYD received orders from various cities in foreign countries. The construction of the first commercial operating rail has been finished and been delivered in September, 2017. What's more, BYD received orders of high-end mobile phones from class-leading mobile phone producers, accelerating the sales growth of metal parts business.