BYD, earning 30 billion a year, holds 100 billion in cash! Wang Chuanfu said...

In 2023, China's automotive industry will show a trend of "starting low and going high, gradually improving" in the complex external environment. In the end, China's annual automobile sales reached 30.094 million units, a year-on-year increase of 12.0%, ranking first in the world for 15 consecutive years.

As the "first brother" of new energy vehicles, BYD (002594) has achieved a significant increase in operating performance, with operating income exceeding 600 billion yuan, net profit exceeding 30 billion yuan in 2023, and plans to distribute cash dividends of 9 billion yuan.

For shareholders, Wang Chuanfu, chairman of BYD, issued an open letter, continuing to be optimistic about the strong growth momentum of China's new energy vehicle market in 2024, entering the era of 10 million vehicles, and the penetration rate is expected to break through.

7 million new energy vehicles rolled off the assembly line

At the beginning of 2023, due to the switch of promotional policies and market price fluctuations, the recovery of automobile consumption is relatively lagging behind.

It is worth noting that in 2023, China's new energy vehicles will continue to develop rapidly, with annual sales reaching 9.495 million units, a year-on-year increase of 37.9%, the world's highest for 9 consecutive years, the penetration rate has climbed to 31.6%, and the penetration rate of passenger cars has exceeded 40% in December last year, and the pattern of China's auto market has undergone profound changes.

With a complete and mature industrial chain and leading electric intelligent technology, China's new energy vehicles have continued to improve their product and brand power, and have been widely recognized by consumers around the world, with annual NEV exports reaching 1.203 million units, a year-on-year increase of 77.6%.

In this context, BYD will develop rapidly in 2023, and all businesses will perform well.

On the evening of March 26, BYD officially released its 2023 annual report, achieving an annual operating income of 602.3 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 42.04%, a net profit of 30.041 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 80.72%, and a net profit of 280.462 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 82.01%.

Among them, the revenue of automobiles, automobile-related products and other products business was about 483.453 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 48.90%, and the revenue of mobile phone parts, assembly and other products business was about 118.577 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 20%, and the two businesses accounted for 80.27% and 19.68% of the group's total revenue respectively.

The net cash flow generated by BYD's operating activities reached 169.725 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 20.51%, and monetary funds have increased from 51.471 billion yuan at the beginning of 2023 to 109.094 billion yuan at the end of the year, accounting for 16.05% of total assets.

In terms of automotive business, BYD once again set a new record on March 25, becoming the first auto brand in the world to achieve the 7 million new energy vehicles off the assembly line with the unveiling of the all-new Denza N7 as a model off the assembly line in Jinan. Since the "1 million new energy vehicles rolled off the assembly line" in May 2021, BYD has reached a new height of 7 million units in less than 3 years.

In an article on its official WeChat account, BYD said that it occupied 7 of the top 10 passenger car sales in the third week of March. BYD's first model, the U8, was delivered to 5,000 units this month, taking only 132 days, setting a record for the fastest sales of a million-level SUV model in China.

In terms of profit distribution, considering the company's overall operating situation, financial situation and shareholders' interests and other comprehensive factors, BYD plans to distribute a cash dividend of 30.96 yuan (tax included) to all shareholders for every 10 shares, with a total cash dividend of about 9.012 billion yuan.

Accelerate your journey to sea

In the annual report, Wang Chuanfu, chairman of BYD, also issued an open letter to shareholders, saying that he continues to be optimistic about the strong growth momentum of China's new energy vehicle market.

Wang Chuanfu said that BYD, as a pioneer and leader in the global new energy vehicle industry, has steadily promoted the improvement of brand power and the strategic layout of going overseas, achieved rapid business development in the context of increasingly fierce competition in the industry, and has been the leading seller of new energy vehicles in China for 11 consecutive years and has been the global new energy vehicle sales champion, and has created a history of Chinese car companies ranking among the top 10 in global sales for the first time.

At present, BYD continues to improve its brand matrix, and has formed a multi-brand gradient layout built by the "BYD" brand, the "Denza" brand, the "Yangwang" brand and the "Equation Leopard" brand, and the market performance of each brand in 2023 is outstanding, and the multi-brand strategy has achieved initial results.

Among them, the launch of the "Qin PLUS Champion Edition" successfully broke the monopoly of the joint venture and became the first Chinese brand model to win the annual family car championship in 13 years, the "DENZA D9", the first luxury MPV of the "DENZA brand", continued to dominate the sales list and won the annual sales champion of all categories of MPVs in 2023, and in September 2023, the "Yangwang U8 Luxury Edition" was launched, becoming the first monthly sales of million-level new energy SUVs, creating a milestone in the high-end of Chinese automobiles.

In 2023, BYD's overseas sales of new energy passenger vehicles exceeded 240,000 units, a year-on-year increase of 337%, becoming the Chinese brand with the largest export of new energy vehicles in 2023.

Up to now, BYD has entered 78 countries and regions around the world, and has invested in overseas regions such as Brazil, Hungary and Thailand. Wang Chuanfu said that while consolidating and expanding the development advantages of the domestic market, BYD is actively accelerating its overseas layout and promoting the transformation of global vehicle electrification.

"Looking forward to 2024, although the external environment is still complex, China will continue to expand and release the new potential of domestic demand, accelerate the development of new quality productive forces, and promote high-quality economic development in stable operation with the keynote of "seeking progress while maintaining stability, promoting stability through progress, and establishing first and then breaking down". Wang Chuanfu expects that in 2024, China's new energy vehicle market will continue its strong growth momentum and enter the era of tens of millions of vehicles, and the penetration rate is expected to break through again.

BYD's official WeChat public account article said that at present, the single-week penetration rate of new energy vehicles in China has exceeded 48.2%, a record high, and it is expected that the penetration rate of new energy vehicles will exceed 50% in the next three months.

In the automotive field, Wang Chuanfu said that BYD will strengthen the research and development of core technologies and independent controllability, continue to improve product competitiveness, grasp the market consumption trend, continue to promote the layout of multi-brand matrix, accelerate the process of business going overseas, and help China's auto industry lead the global wave of new energy vehicles. In the consumer electronics business, BYD will fully grasp the development opportunities brought by AI, titanium materials and other new applications to continuously expand its market share.

In terms of new intelligent product business, Wang Chuanfu said that BYD is optimistic about the market prospects of AI servers, and will continue to actively invest in R&D resources and increase the layout of AI server-related products and solutions. BYD will continue to deepen cooperation with top customers in various segments, and smart home, gaming hardware, drones and other sectors will maintain a good momentum of development, driving the long-term sustainable development of the business scale of new smart products.