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Electric & new energy vehicles
BusinessChina Business

BYD chairman Wang Chuanfu expects sales growth to slow in 2024, banks on export surge to shore up profitability

  • Even a 20 per cent increase will be difficult to achieve, given weak market sentiment, analyst says
  • BYD’s overseas volume will reach 450,000 units in 2024 and will make a ‘disproportionately higher contribution’ to its earnings mix: HSBC

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BYD’s YangWang U9 electric supercar is displayed at the 45th Bangkok International Motor Show 2024 in this file photo from March. In the first two months of this year, BYD delivered 325,706 cars to customers, an increase of 2.9 per cent from the same period in 2023. Photo: EPA-EFE
Daniel Renin Shanghai
BYD, the world’s largest electric-vehicle (EV) maker, is targeting a 20 per cent increase in sales this year, just a third of last year’s tally, as overcapacity concerns and a price war loom over the sector in mainland China.
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Wang Chuanfu, the Shenzhen-based carmaker’s chairman and president, told an investors’ conference on Wednesday that deliveries in 2024 could top 3.6 million units, 20 per cent more than last year’s 3.02 million units, according to the meeting’s minutes seen by the Post. The projected year-on-year increase would represent just a third of the 62.3 per cent jump recorded last year.

Wang also forecast that exports will more than double to 500,000 units this year, as BYD steps up its go-global campaign.

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BYD did not respond to a request for comment.

“Overall demand for EVs [in China] is set to fall in 2024, as consumers refrain from buying items such as cars due to concerns about job prospects and incomes,” said Zhao Zhen, a sales director with Shanghai-based dealer Wan Zhuo Auto. “A 20 per cent increase will not be easy to achieve, given the current weak market sentiment.”

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