BYD's Overseas Push Drives Quarterly Profit Growth

By Jiahui Huang

BYD's net profit rebounded despite slightly lower revenue in the second quarter, showing that the world's top electric-vehicle seller may have turned a corner with the help of its rapid expansion overseas.

China's leading carmaker has been working to put soft domestic sales in its rear-view mirror following an intense price war and slowing demand in the world's largest auto market. Its exports now account for a rising share of total sales volume as the EV maker bets on its overseas growth, especially in Europe and Latin America, to drive its next phase of expansion.

The Shenzhen-based company said Friday that net profit for the first half of 2026 fell 21% from a year earlier to 12.33 billion yuan, equivalent to $1.83 billion. Revenue fell 7.1% to 344.82 billion yuan.

That put second-quarter net profit at 8.25 billion yuan--a 30% jump from a year earlier--given net profit of 4.08 billion yuan in the first quarter, a Wall Street Journal calculation showed.

Quarterly revenue was 194.59 billion yuan, given revenue of 150.23 billion yuan in the preceding three months, declining 3.2% from the previous year.

Both figures fell short of market expectations. Analysts had expected net profit of 8.99 billion yuan on revenue of 216.55 billion yuan for the three months ended June, according to a Visible Alpha-compiled consensus.

The results come as BYD's growth engine is shifting overseas, where the company has found faster growth and higher margins.

Margins stood at 18.85% in the first half, up from 18.01% a year earlier.

Write to Jiahui Huang at jiahui.huang@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

August 28, 2026 07:18 ET (11:18 GMT)