BEIJING, October 31 (TMTPost)— China’s top electric vehicle (EV) maker BYD Co. Ltd set another profit record and once again beat Tesla by gross margin in the past quarter.

Credit：Visual China

BYD posted revenue of RMB162.15 billion in the quarter ended September 30, rising 38.49% from a year ago, according to a filling earlier this week. The company increased net income 82.16% year-over-year (YoY) to RMB10.41 billion that quarter, and diluted earnings per share grew 8.35% YoY to RMB358.

This is BYD’s first time to rake more than RMB10 billion in a quarter. The net income in the third quarter surged 42.4% from the previous record set in the last quarter of 2022, when BYD posted profit of RMB7.311 billion. And new profit record is roughly in line with the company’s estimated range of RMB9.546 billion to RMB11.546 billion that released more than a week ago.  During the first three quarters of this year, BYD generated RMB422.28 billion with a 57.75% YoY growth, and the net income gained 129.47% YoY to RMB21.37 billion.

While BYD’s net income in the third quarter alone barely equals to the first two quarters of the year, growth of both the top and the bottom line has somewhat eased. The interim financial report showed the automaker recorded RMB10.954 billion of net income in the first half of the year, with a YoY growth of 204.68%. The report suggested BYD generated RMB14 billion with a YoY increase of 67% in the quarter ended June 30, the slowest quarterly growth in more than a year, while the net income jumped 133.97% to RMB7.07 billion, gaining 65.2% from a previous quarter.

More impressively, BYD’s gross profit margin in the third quarter edged up 1.07 percentage points YoY to 19.79%, widening its gap between Tesla. The U.S. EV giant reported a gross margin of 17.9% that quarter, falling from 25.1% a year earlier, when it had not yet begun the price cuts. This is the second straight quarter that Tesla was overtaken by BYD in terms of margin. In the June quarter, BYD posted gross margin of 18.72%, up 4.33 points YoY, for the first time triumphing Tesla, while the latter’s margin dropped 6.8 points YoY to 18.2%, highlighting the profit was severely dented by major price cuts.

 BYD’s profit buildup resulted from its robust sales. At the beginning of this month,  the EV giant released it sold 287,454 new energy vehicles (NEVs) including battery electric vehicles (BEVs) and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) in September, refreshing its sales record for the fifth straight month and first topping 280,000 units of sales in a month. Recent sales represent a 42.8% year-over-year (YoY) increase and around 4.8% more than the previous record BYD made in August.

In a filling that about preliminary estimates as of the third quarter, BYD commented that quarter saw NEV industry remained good momentum and its sales kept refreshing sales record, consolidating its No.1 place in the global NEV market. Amid ongoing intensified competition in the third quarter, BYD delivered powerful resilience by continuing improvement in the brand power, increase in the advantage of scale and the strength of cost control in the industrial chain.  

However, the filling didn’t disclose any impact of the recent European Union (EU)’s investigation could have on BYD. EU officially launched an anti-subsidy probe into EVs from China at the beginning of this month, about three weeks after European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced EU’s executive body is going to take the action.

The European Commission will decide whether to impose tariffs more than the current 10% standard rate for cars in the coming 13 months. The possible tariff will affect not just Chinese automakers but also foreign brands that produce vehicles there such as Tesla, Renault and BMW. The move may result in tariffs close to the 27.5% level already imposed by the U.S. on Chinese EVs, Bloomberg cited people familiar with the matter following von der Leyen’s announcement. Caixin learned last week that BYD, SAIC Group and Geely were among automakers being investigated.

本文内容来源：钛媒体英文站