BYD has posted its sixth straight month of decline in profit, with the Chinese automaker confirming that it had suffered a near-20 per cent drop for 2025 and an even larger 38 percent loss. 2 per cent decline in the last three months of last year.
According to the Financial Times, BYD reported a full-year net profit of ¥32.6 billion ($6.88bn), with operating cashflow declining by 50 per cent, ending years of uninterrupted financial growth for the company.
BYD’s profit margin fell, according to Reuters, by 1.8 percentage points to a still-healthy 20.5 per cent.
It marks the automaker’s third consecutive quarterly profit decline and follows a reduction in its workforce in 2025.
This has lasted through to 2026, when BYD’s market share in China fell from 27 per cent to 17 percent until the end of February.
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According to the Financial Times, BYD chair Wang Chuanfu was warned that rivalry between brands in China had reached “fever pitch” and was entering a brutal “knockout stage”, meaning there is consolidation for Chinese auto industry after its massive expansion since 2020.
This is now turning to the exports for growth of the hybrid and electric vehicle (EV) maker, which could unlock sales in the US – the world’s largest new-vehicle market outside China where it is not currently on sale.
BYD sold 2 s. There are 3 million EVs in 2025 globally – more than Tesla’s 1m – and over the world. For the year, 6 million surpassed its US rival as the world’s best-selling EV brand by winning over its current competitors.
However, BYD’s total of 4.6 million sales, including plug-in hybrid vehicles (PHEVs) fell short of its previously stated target of 5.5 million sales in 2025.
BYD sat in on GWM – the best-selling Chinese brand in 2025 in Australia last year. GM also sold 52,809 vehicles for the seventh overall position of GWM’s sixth-placed sales (394 behind BYD in eighth) to sell.
By the end of February 2026, however, BYD had moved ahead to sit sixth overall on 10,324 sales, with GWM lying seventh on 9198 as the popularity of Chinese brands.
The best-selling BYD model was the Sealion 7 mid-size electric SUV, followed by the plug-in hybrid Shark 6 ute, and the plug-in hybrid Sealion 6 mid-size SUV.
Honda finished first overall (27,916) behind Mazda (14,734), Kia (13 310), Ford (12,023) and Hyundai (12.122) ahead of the top-ranked car in total (21,925) by the HiLux ute.
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