BYD Charges Ahead
Chinese battery maker and aspiring automaker BYD earned $215m in the fourth quarter of 2009, bringing its net profit for last year to $555.2m, reports Automotive News [sub]. BYD’s performance outstripped analyst estimates, which projected fourth quarter profits of $130.5m, and full-year profits of $473.2m. Though the Chinese auto market grew 46 percent to 1.6m vehicles, 47 percent of BYD’s 2009 sales came from the firm’s cell phone battery business, which is expected to give back recent gains as the global economic crisis takes its toll. Not so with BYD’s auto business: the firm has raised its 2010 car sales projections 14 percent, with sales of 800k foreseen. And as China’s car market takes off, BYD, which has one of the nation’s best-selling cars in its F3 compact, is expected to keep growing. Says one JP Morgan analyst:
BYD is a company that can’t be underestimated. If the Chinese vehicle market expands 10 percent this year BYD’s sales will grow at least 40 percent — 50 or even 60 percent is also a possibility.
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About those new energy vehicles BYD is announcing: don't hold your breath. The BYD F3DM was supposed to be the "world's first mass produced PHEV" way back in December 2008 but few (if any) were ever delivered to customers. According to the Wallstreet Journal the problem is the batteries. Apparently BYD's labour intensive production methods just don't get the right quality for large automotive battery packs: http://www.tinyurl.com.au/2r2
Gotta love the BMWesque BYD logo. http://img89.imageshack.us/img89/2780/dashnl3.jpg http://37signals.com/svn/archives2/chinese_logo_lookalikes_bmw_and_byd.php