BYD’s profits declined 33% in the third quarter, highlighting the urgency of the Chinese electric vehicle maker’s overseas push following Beijing’s campaign against aggressive competition in the domestic sector, reports the Financial Times. BYD has become the world’s largest and fastest-growing producer of EVs and the chief global rival to Elon Musk’s Tesla. But the third-quarter results show a continued slowdown for the group after a period of breakneck growth.
The Shenzhen-based group on Thursday reported net income of RMB 7.8 billion ($1.1 billion), compared with RMB 11.6 billion from the same period last year. The result fell short of analysts’ expectation of RMB 9.6 billion, but was an improvement from RMB 6.36 billion in the second quarter.
The company’s stock hit a record high in May after it made breakthrough announcements on battery charging and driverless technology, but second-quarter earnings came in lower than expected, hit by Beijing’s crackdown on aggressive discounting and supplier payment practices. Share have fallen more than 30% from the May peak.