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BEIJING, January 30  (TMTPOST)— BYD Co., a Chinese electric vehicle (EV) maker backed by legendary billionaire investor Warren Buffett for more than a decade, is raking in profit with much-than-expected speed in the past year, driven its ongoing record-setting momentum of sales.

Source: Visual China

BYD estimated a net income of RMB16 billion to RMB17 billion (US$2.37 billion to US$2.52 billion) for 2022, increasing 425.42% to 458.26% from the previous year, and revenue for the past year topped RMB420 billion, with a yearly growth of more than 94%, according to a filling on the Hong Kong exchange on Monday. Based on the annual data, BYD shattered its quarterly record as its net income in the quarter ended December 31 to be RMB6.689 billion to RMB7.689 billion, rising around 30% from the previous quarter.

The annual performance was much better than estimates of Chinese securities firms. Haitong Securities recently expected BYD to post revenue of RMB400.676 billion and net income o RMB15.607 billion in 2022. Cinda Securities forecasted annual net income of the EV giant to increase 402.4% year-over-year (YoY) to RMB15.3 billion.

In the filling, BYD attributes its performance partially to the ongoing explosive growth of the new energy vehicle (NEV), a sector including battery electric vehicles and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles. Despite complicated broader environment and multiple unexpected headwinds, BYD took the first place in the NEV sector by sales with robust YoY increase, which “significant improves earnings and effectively relieves the cost pressure brought by the rising prices of upstream raw materials”. The company also noted shares gains from major overseas customers and optimization of its business structure help offset the impact of prolonged subdued demand for consumer electronics on the mobile handset components & assembly service segment, and maintain the long-term stability and healthy development of the segment.

In the start of this month, BYD announced to sell 235,197 NEVs in December, a new record for ten months in a row. With sales topped 200,000 units for the fourth consecutive month, BYD met its annual target of 1.5 million vehicles for 2022 a month earlier and kept recording triple-digit monthly growth in sales since entering into 2022. BYD also extended lead over its U.S. rival Tesla. Tesla not only failed to meet its own annual target of 1.5 million but also was overtaken by BYD, whose annual sales suggest at least 500,000 vehicles delivered more than Tesla in the past year.