Chinese EV maker BYD's revenue beats Tesla for the first time CNN Business

BEIJING (Reuters) – Chinese electric vehicle maker BYD posted an 11.5% rise in third-quarter net profit on Wednesday as it maintained strong sales momentum, helped by government trade-in incentives.

Net profit rose to 11.6 billion yuan ($1.63 billion) in the July-September quarter, the company said in a stock exchange filing. In the first nine months, net profit was up 18.1% to 25.2 billion yuan.

Third-quarter revenue rose 24% year-on-year to 201.1 billion yuan ($28.24 billion), for the first time BYD's quarterly revenue surpassed that of Tesla, whose July-September quarter revenue reached $25.2 billion.

Tesla still beat BYD in global EV sales from July to September.

BYD, whose cars account for more than one-third of total sales of EVs and plug-in hybrids in China this year, broke monthly sales records in September and its quarterly sales also hit new highs in the third quarter.

The local champion and its peers such as Tesla have enjoyed a tailwind from the old-new incentive system extended in favor of green cars. Last month, there was a five-month decline in China's increase in car sales subsidies, industry data showed.

By the end of October, 1.57 million applicants had registered to take advantage of national subsidies of more than $2,800 each to trade in old cars for green cars, official data showed.

Local governments in China are handing out up to 20,000 yuan in additional subsidies to EV buyers in a plan to expire at the end of the year.

BYD led the growth with aggressive discounts on its best-selling models. Its best quarter was primarily driven by strong growth in plug-in hybrid sales, which jumped 75.6% to 685,830 units in the third quarter, thanks to the latest generation of plug-in hybrid technology that saves users more fuel costs.

By comparison, sales growth of BYD's pure EVs (rather than hybrids) fell 2.7% to 443,426 units in the quarter and it is losing share in the EV segment to other EV rivals in China, according to Reuters calculations.

BYD, which still sells more than 90% of its cars in China, has set a higher annual sales target for this year, a Morgan Stanley report showed in September, and aims to double exports to 450,000 vehicles this year, a downward revision to 500,000 in March. Foreign shipments are targeted.

BYD, which is leading a push into European markets despite facing additional tariffs, sold 94,477 cars overseas in the third quarter, up 32.6% from a year earlier.