By surpassing Tesla in sales, Chinese BYD has become the world's largest electric vehicle manufacturer, achieving record revenues of 160 trillion won last year. Within China, there is a sense of optimism as BYD has also outperformed Tesla in terms of performance. Wang Chuanfu, BYD's chairman, said, "We are no longer a follower" and set a goal to become the world's first.
According to BYD's annual report released on the 25th, the company's revenue and net profit last year were 777.12 billion yuan (about 157 trillion won) and 42.054 billion yuan (about 8.1 trillion won), respectively. This represents an increase of 29% and 34% compared to the previous year, marking a record high. The Chinese publication, Pengpai News, noted, "Notable is that Tesla's revenue last year was $97.69 billion (approximately 143.5 trillion won)," stating, "BYD's revenue surpassed Tesla for the first time." However, Tesla's operating profit remains ahead at $7.076 billion (approximately 10.4 trillion won).
Despite the record performance, BYD has not provided specific explanations, leading to various analyses. The UK Financial Times said, "Unlike Tesla, which only sells pure electric vehicles, BYD benefited from increased demand for hybrid cars within China." Reuters stated, "BYD continuously released affordable models, contributing to the fierce price war that has occurred over two years in the largest automobile market in the world, China."
In terms of sales volume, BYD's total sales of pure electric and hybrid vehicles last year reached 4.2721 million units, a 41% increase from the previous year. Of this, passenger cars accounted for the majority of sales, increasing by 41% to 4.254 million units. Despite global protectionist trends, exports performed well, with overseas sales rising to 407,700 units, a 72% increase compared to the previous year. This means that one out of ten vehicles was sold overseas. BYD has expanded to over 100 countries and regions across six continents as of the end of last year.
BYD's research and development (R&D) investment is also worth noting. Last year, BYD invested a total of 54.2 billion yuan (about 11 trillion won) in R&D, marking a record high with a 36% increase from the previous year. Consequently, BYD's cumulative R&D investment has surpassed 180 billion yuan. Recently, BYD unveiled its "super e-platform," capable of traveling 400 km with a 5-minute charge, shocking the market. Chairman Wang stated, "In the future, in the wave of intelligence in the global automotive industry, Chinese automotive brands are no longer followers. We will take the lead in this trend to work with more Chinese automotive brands to go (outside China) and rise (to the top of the world)."
Thanks to these impressive results, BYD's stock price is also surging. BYD's stock, listed on the Hong Kong stock exchange, closed at 403.4 Hong Kong dollars on the 24th, representing more than a 51% increase since the beginning of the year. On the 20th, due to the impact of the super e-platform announcement, it even reached an intraday record high of 426.6 Hong Kong dollars. However, in terms of market capitalization, it remains far behind Tesla. Tesla's market capitalization is $895.4 billion (approximately 1,315.4 trillion won), which is 14 times that of BYD (463.4 billion yuan, approximately 93.7 trillion won).