China’s BYD says H1 net profit could more than triple By Reuters

HONG KONG (Reuters) – Chinese electric vehicle giant BYD Co (OTC:) LTD forecast strong growth in its six-month net profit on Friday, buoyed by robust car sales and increased market share.

Net profit for the first six months of the year would rise as much as 225.4% to 11.7 billion yuan ($1.64 billion) from 3.6 billion yuan the year before, it said in a filing to the Shenzhen stock exchange.

The bottom end of its forecast range was 10.5 billion yuan, up 192.1% from the year before.

“The sales volume of the company’s new energy vehicles has achieved strong growth from a high base in the same period last year, and continued to consolidate its leadership in new energy vehicle industry,” BYD said in the filing.

BYD and U.S. rival Tesla (NASDAQ:) set record deliveries of their China-made vehicles in the second-quarter, according to industry data, as a fight for market share heats up.

BYD has proposed a $1 billion investment plan to build electric cars and batteries in India in partnership with a local company, sources have said, with a longer-term to build a full lineup of BYD-brand electric cars in India.

($1 = 7.1348 renminbi)