Re-elected the global new energy vehicle sales champion! BYD sold 3.02 million vehicles last year, and it is expected to earn a maximum of 31 billion yuan.

BYD (002594.SZ) handed over its best report card since its listing.

On the evening of January 29th, BYD released its performance forecast for 2023. During this period, the company realized a net profit attributable to shareholders of listed companies of 29 billion-31 billion yuan, up by about 86% year-on-year. The non-net profit attributable to shareholders of listed companies was RMB 27.4 billion-RMB 29.7 billion, up by about 90% year-on-year.

This performance is basically in line with market expectations. IChoice data shows that the average forecast of BYD’s net profit in 2023 is 28.332 billion yuan, which is almost the same as the median forecast of the company’s performance.

On the whole, the new energy vehicle industry continued to maintain a high-speed growth trend, and BYD’s new energy vehicle sales reached a record high, further consolidating the leading position of new energy vehicle sales in the world. The competition in the industry is more intense. With the rapid growth of the company’s overseas sales, the scale advantage of continuous expansion, and the ability to control the cost of the industrial chain, the profit has been greatly improved.

Judging from the production and sales data, BYD produced a total of 3,045,200 new energy vehicles in 2023, a year-on-year increase of 62.24%; Accumulated sales of 3,024,400 new energy vehicles, up 62.30% year-on-year.

BYD’s sales in 2023 clearly outperformed the industry. Minsheng Securities Research Report pointed out that the national sales of new energy passenger cars are expected to reach 8.62 million in 2023, up 31.7% year-on-year; Benefiting from the further improvement of the quantity of new models and the product pedigree of each price segment, BYD achieved the target sales of 3 million vehicles, significantly outperforming the industry.

In addition, BYD has continued to lay out in the sea. In 2023, BYD sold 243,000 new energy passenger cars overseas, a year-on-year increase of 334.2%.

Since the second half of 2023, BYD has continuously strengthened its overseas layout. In July, BYD announced the establishment of a factory in Brazil, with an annual production capacity of 150,000 vehicles. In September, Uzbekistan’s state-controlled automobile group announced that it would establish a joint venture company with BYD. The first/second phase of the factory plans to produce 500,000 units per year, and the output will reach 300,000 units after the completion of the third phase. In December, BYD announced that it would build a new energy vehicle production base in Segde, Hungary.

Minsheng Securities Research Report believes that BYD’s going out to sea is expected to usher in rapid development in Europe, Southeast Asia, Australia and New Zealand, helping sales to rise again in 2024.

Soochow securities gave a more optimistic judgment about the future. According to its research report, BYD actively promotes the layout of overseas markets, and the volume of overseas markets helps sales growth. 2024-2025 is the year of products, and the estimated sales volume is about 4 million and 5 million respectively, up by 33% and 25% respectively.

As for BYD’s other major business-mobile phone parts and assembly business, its profitability has also increased with the recovery of the consumer electronics industry.

BYD said that thanks to the increase in the business share of large overseas customers and the recovery of Android customers’ demand, the rapid growth of new energy vehicles and new smart products, the capacity utilization rate has been significantly improved, the business structure has been further optimized, the profitability has been significantly improved, and the profit has increased substantially.

From 2020 to 2022, the gross profit margin of BYD’s mobile phone parts and assembly business was 11.20%, 7.57% and 6.06% respectively, showing a downward trend year by year. The semi-annual report in 2023 showed that the gross profit margin of this business was 8.77%, up 2.70 percentage points year-on-year.

Although the performance is very gratifying, BYD’s share price has not kept up. On January 29th, the company’s share price fell by 3.99%, hitting a new low since May 2021. BYD’s latest market value is 519.5 billion yuan.