BYD Co.’s first-half profit jumped 204.7% as the new energy vehicle maker broke its delivery record and retained its crown as China’s biggest-selling auto brand. Net earnings for the six-months ending June 30 reached 10.95 billion yuan (US$1.50 billion), up 204.7% from 3.6 billion yuan a year earlier, on a 72.7% rise in revenue to 260.12 billion yuan, BYD said in a stock market filing Tuesday. The company posted a 6.82 billion yuan net profit for the April-June quarter, up 144.7%, a calculation showed. That was a smaller increase than in the first quarter when profit jumped fivefold. The second quarter earnings, the second highest quarterly number, was within BYD’s net profit forecast of between 6.37 billion yuan and 7.57 billion yuan. The Shenzhen-based automaker, whose investors include Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway, has managed to cement its leadership in the world’s largest auto market in the face of intensifying price competition and slowing demand. BYD outsold Volkswagen-branded cars in China for the first time in October. Buoyed by its Dynasty and Ocean series of plug-in petrol-electric hybrids cars and battery-only electric vehicles (EV), BYD set a monthly sales record in July after deliveries hit 700,244 vehicles in the second quarter. Still, profitability is under pressure from a price war initiated by U.S. EV rival Tesla Inc. at the start of the year and which has drawn in over 40 brands. BYD’s still-robust financial performance will help as it navigates another period of market discounting with a preferred strategy of cutting prices on newly released models. On the weekend, BYD unveiled a slightly cheaper range of 2023 Tang vehicles at the Chengdu Auto Show. “Since it has offerings across almost all segments and price-points, BYD as a whole has been net-impervious to price cuts,” said Jack Shea, chief financial officer at Shenzhen-based hedge fund Snow Bull Capital Inc., which has invested in both BYD and Tesla. Citigroup’s Jeff Chung described BYD’s performance in a post-earnings research note as “exceptional” in the face of the sector-wide price war, China’s slowing economy and EV subsidy changes. Known for selling affordable cars to the masses, BYD has also been making progress in bolstering its appeal to a wider range of consumers. The Shenzhen and Hong Kong-listed carmaker unveiled two luxury brands — Yangwang and Fang Cheng Bao — enabling it to sell EVs in the 1 million yuan price category, more than double the cost of some of its earlier higher-end vehicles. It also pushed two cheaper models, called the Seagull and Dolphin, to undercut its peers. BYD has also joined a wave of Chinese EV makers looking abroad, with showrooms in countries such as Singapore and Australia. Of the 612,425 battery-only EVs sold by BYD in the first half, 10% were exports, according to data from the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers. Tesla sold 889,015 EVs globally in the same period. (SD-Agencies) | 