BYD reports first annual profit drop as EV battle reaches ‘knockout stage’

BYD has posted its sixth consecutive month of profit decline, with the Chinese automaker confirming a near-20 per cent drop in profit for 2025 and an even bigger 38.2 per cent decline in the final three months of last year.

According to the Financial Times, BYD reported a full-year net profit of ¥32.6 billion ($8.22bn), with operating cashflow declining by 50 per cent, ending years of uninterrupted financial growth for the company.

BYD’s profit margin fell, according to Reuters, by 1.8 percentage points to a still-healthy 20.5 per cent.

It marks the automaker’s third consecutive quarterly profit decline and follows a reduction in its workforce in 2025.

The slide has carried over into 2026, when BYD’s market share in China fell from 27 to 17 per cent to the end of February.

The Financial Times reported BYD chair Wang Chuanfu as warning that rivalry between brands in China had reached “fever pitch” and was now entering a brutal “knockout stage”, suggesting a period of consolidation for the Chinese auto industry following its massive expansion since 2020.

The hybrid and electric vehicle (EV) maker is now turning to exports for growth, including potentially unlocking sales in the US – the world’s largest new-vehicle market outside China, where it is not currently on sale.

BYD sold 2.3 million EVs globally in 2025 – more than Tesla’s 1.6 million, toppling its US rival as the world’s best-selling EV brand for the year.

However, BYD’s total of 4.6 million sales, including plug-in hybrid vehicles (PHEVs) fell short of its previously stated target of 5.5 million sales in 2025.

In New Zealand last year, BYD was the country's third most popular Chinese carmaker, clocking 3789 registrations.

This was enough to see the brand wind up 11th overall, one single registration behind GWM in 10th and several hundred units adrift of MG in ninth. All three marques outgunned the likes of Honda and Subaru.

BYD has had a much stronger start to 2026, though. To the end of February, it is seventh overall with 836 registrations. It is expected to rise a few spots to the end of March, too, following a surge of EV sales amid the country's current concerns with the rise in petrol prices.