BYD posts 55% profit plunge

BYD is doing two very different things at once. It is growing like a company trying to lock up the future of electric driving in China — fleets, chargers, software, overseas markets. But it is also showing what that growth costs right now. The latest hard number is ugly: first-quarter net profit fell 55.38% year over year to 4.09 billion yuan, and revenue dropped 11.82% to 150.23 billion yuan. ### Why did profit fall so hard? The short answer is China’s EV price war. BYD sold 700,463 new-energy vehicles in the quarter, down 30.01% from a year earlier and almost 48% from the prior quarter. Early-year demand was softer, purchase-tax support got less generous in 2026, and carmakers kept cutting prices to defend share. BYD also took a hit from foreign-exchange losses, which pushed financial expenses sharply higher. (cnevpost.com) ### So why is BYD still acting aggressive? Because the company seems to think scale is the way out. On May 9, BYD signed a 100,000-vehicle procurement framework with Car Inc, China’s biggest direct-operated car-rental platform. The deal is not just about selling cars. It also includes installing BYD flash chargers at eligible rental locations across China, which turns a fleet order into infrastructure expansion. (cnevpost.com) ### Why does the Car Inc deal matter? Rental fleets are a useful proving ground. They put a lot of drivers into the cars, they create repeat charging demand, and they help normalize EV use for people who may not want to buy one yet. Car Inc had already bought nearly 30,000 BYD vehicles last year after the two companies started working together in 2025. The new agreement is much bigger, so BYD is clearly trying to make rental fleets part of its charging-network flywheel. (cnevpost.com) ### How big is the charging push now? Bigger than the headline deal suggests. BYD says that as of May 6 it had built 5,924 flash-charging stations across 311 cities, with more than 1 million app users and over 21 million kWh delivered. The company’s March platform launch promised up to 1,500 kW from a single connector and a 10% to 97% charge in nine minutes, with a goal of 20,000 chargers in China by the end of 2026. (cnevpost.com) Basically, BYD is no longer just selling cars — it is trying to own the refill experience too. ### Is the battery-tech story all positive? Not quite. A livestreamed charging test of a Fangchengbao Leopard 3 using BYD’s second-generation Blade Battery reportedly showed battery temperature rising to 169.6°F during ultra-fast charging. That number drew attention because it sits above China’s recommended 149°F threshold for lithium iron phosphate cells, and battery specialists quoted in the coverage warned that repeated exposure to that kind of heat could speed up wear. (autonews.gasgoo.com) One viral test is not the same thing as a systemic failure — but it does spotlight the catch with megawatt charging: heat management is the whole game. ### Is anything offsetting the China slowdown? Yes — overseas momentum. BYD said on May 5 that it had become the UK’s best-selling EV brand in 2026 so far, with 12,754 EVs sold from January through April and more than 7% market share there. That does not erase the squeeze at home, but it helps explain why some investors still see the bad quarter as a trough rather than a trend. (interestingengineering.com) ### What is the real story here? It is not “BYD is collapsing,” and it is not “BYD is unstoppable.” It is that BYD is trading margin for position. The company is still expanding into fleets, charging, and export markets fast enough to shape the next phase of EV adoption. But until pricing in China calms down, every growth win comes with a reminder that scale alone does not guarantee healthy profits. (bydukmedia.com) (cnevpost.com)