HONG KONG: BYD aims to ramp up production of more luxury models this year, boosting its credentials beyond just stylish but budget-friendly cars.
It is also planning to repurchase more shares, the automaker said in a filing Sunday, as it seeks to revive a stock price slump resulting in a 15-month low earlier this month.
The Shenzhen-based company also said it BYD’s stock market performance has taken a hit as broader fears of a renewed industry price war spook investors.
Shares in China more broadly have tumbled on wider concerns over the country’s economic performance. The Chinese EV maker’s Hong Kong-listed stock closed down 1.9% on Monday, bringing losses this year to around 13%.
BYD on Monday upped the price pressure on rivals by unveiling a revamped version of its flagship Qin Plus plug-in hybrid sedan that starts at 79,800 yuan (RM53,000) - 10,000 yuan (RM6,646) cheaper than last year.
BYD has said in the past it’s determined to produce battery-powered EVs that are cheaper than fossil fuel powered cars.
After the Qin Plus move, rival SAIC-GM-Wuling Automobile Co., a joint venture between General Motors Co., SAIC Motor Corp. and Wuling Motors Holdings Ltd., said it would also cut the price of its Xingguang sedan by 6,000 yuan.
The ongoing price war has already shown up in BYD’s results. It guided toward a preliminary 2023 net income of between 29 billion yuan and 31 billion yuan, short of analysts’ estimates of 31.5 billion yuan.
Record deliveries in the fourth quarter, when BYD overtook Tesla Inc. as the world’s top seller of electric cars, didn’t translate into another bumper profit.
Fourth-quarter net income will be between 7.2 billion yuan to 9.2 billion yuan, according to Bloomberg calculations, down from the previous quarter’s 10.9 billion yuan.
BYD previously conducted a 1.8 billion yuan A-Share buyback in June 2022. BYD’s A-Shares listed in Shenzhen closed 1.3% higher after Chinese stocks resumed trading following the Lunar New Year break.
