BYD’s Fangchengbao Reaches 400,000 Vehicles as Profit Slump and Shareholder Exit Cast a Shadow

BYD is navigating a sharply contrasting landscape. Its premium Fangchengbao brand just crossed the 400,000-vehicle sales milestone, and exports hit a record, but the company is simultaneously grappling with a brutal profit slide, a shareholder sell-off, and deepening production bottlenecks that threaten to derail its growth narrative.

A large block trade in Hong Kong underscored the growing unease. An unidentified seller offloaded 370,000 shares worth around HK$33.5 million, triggering a 3% intraday drop in the stock. The transaction landed in an already weak trading session, a telling sign of investor skittishness as the automaker’s fundamentals wobble.

Those jitters are well-founded. BYD’s first-quarter net profit crashed 55% to roughly 4.1 billion renminbi, while revenue shrank nearly 12%. Operating cash flow took a particularly heavy hit, squeezed by higher financing costs, foreign-exchange losses, and dwindling revenue from vehicle sales. The deterioration goes well beyond the headline delivery numbers.

Domestic sales are the main drag. BYD moved around 321,000 vehicles in April, and the year-to-date tally is down 26% from the previous year. China’s decision to halve electric-vehicle tax breaks this year — capping the saving at 15,000 yuan per car — has only intensified the price war and sapped local demand.

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Compounding the sales weakness, BYD is wrestling with production constraints. Chief executive Wang Chuanfu acknowledged in mid-May that supply shortages are hampering the Dynasty and Ocean model lines. The culprit is a factory-wide switch to the second-generation Blade battery, which is temporarily throttling output. Management has dispatched leadership teams to three major plants to accelerate the capacity ramp-up. While the supply situation for the Tai 3 is improving, other new models remain tight.

Yet there is a silver lining on the export front. BYD shipped a record roughly 135,000 new-energy vehicles abroad in April. A single freighter left Shanghai carrying nearly 5,000 cars bound for Australia, where the brand has doubled its market share in just four months and now ranks second only to Toyota. The push into Europe continued with this week’s announcement of the Ti7, a seven-seat plug-in hybrid for the British market designed to help offset the margin erosion at home.

The Fangchengbao milestone adds a further positive note. The premium brand crossed the 400,000 cumulative sales mark on Wednesday, with the last 100,000 units delivered in only four months, largely thanks to the Tai 7 model. BYD is also showcasing technological muscle: a Song Ultra EV recently completed a 4,300-kilometer drive across China using the company’s latest fast-charging technology, which can replenish most of the battery capacity in five minutes — or roughly 12 minutes in extreme subzero temperatures. To support the system, BYD now operates nearly 6,000 dedicated fast-charging stations spread across more than 300 Chinese cities.

The shareholder sale and profit plunge serve as a stark counterpoint to these achievements. Investors are watching monthly delivery figures with increasing scrutiny, and the stock remains vulnerable until domestic sales recover and operating cash flow stabilizes. For now, BYD’s export engine is providing a critical buffer, but the home-market gap still needs to close before the wider pressure eases.