BYD 2024 Annual Report: 777.1 Billion Yuan Revenue Surpasses Tesla for the First Time

On the evening of March 24, 2025, BYD "unsurprisingly" delivered yet another "record-breaking" annual financial report.

In 2024, the automaker achieved annual revenue of 777.1 billion yuan, marking not only its first breakthrough through the 700-billion-yuan threshold but also its first-ever surpassing of Tesla (whose revenue converted to 702.2 billion yuan after currency exchange).

While the 29.02% year-on-year revenue growth was already remarkable, even more strikingly, BYD's net profit attributable to shareholders surged 34% to 40.254 billion yuan.

Meanwhile, BYD's net profit margin rose from 4.99% in 2023 to 5.18% in 2024, positioning it firmly in the upper tier of global automakers in terms of profitability.

The dual growth in revenue and profit solidifies BYD’s status as the primary beneficiary of both the 2024 price war and the rapid expansion of China’s new energy vehicle market.

As 2025 unfolds, BYD is visibly pivoting away from last year’s price-centric competition, aiming instead to widen its lead through technological dominance. Initiatives like "Intelligent Driving for All" and "Megawatt-Level Fast Charging" signal a strategic shift toward deploying high-impact tech innovations.

Against this backdrop, a closer read of BYD’s 2024 financial report reveals a recurring theme: strategic confidence.

Record-breaking performance is precisely what fuels BYD’s bold transition to a technology-driven playbook in 2025.

a lone rider galloping

BYD’s historic revenue and profit figures were built on a surge in vehicle sales.

In 2024, the automaker sold 4.27 million vehicles globally, representing 41% year-on-year growth. Analysts project BYD’s 2025 sales to rise 23% to 5.24 million units, while the company’s official guidance sets a target of 5 million to 6 million units.

Geographically, China remains BYD’s core market, accounting for 3.84 million vehicle sales in 2024. Overseas markets contributed 417,000 units, marking an 80% year-on-year increase.

Notably, BYD’s net profit per vehicle rose significantly to 8,500 yuan in 2024, up from 8,000 yuan in 2023.

The price war continued to impact BYD, with the average selling price (ASP) per vehicle dropping from 150,000 yuan in 2023 to 145,000 yuan in 2024. However, the simultaneous increase in net profit margin despite lower ASPs highlights BYD’s success in driving down supply chain costs.

In late 2024, a leaked email revealing BYD’s request for supply chain price reductions went viral online. While such cost-cutting demands are common industry practice, BYD’s ability to squeeze out efficiencies stems from its vertically integrated model — over 90% of components, including critical "three-electric" systems (battery, motor, and electronic control), power semiconductors, and vehicle platforms, are developed and produced in-house.

This technological edge was evident when BYD launched its "Megawatt Flash Charging" technology. The company emphasized that its proprietary 1200V silicon carbide (SiC) modules enable 1000kW ultra-fast charging — a feat currently unmatched by competitors.

"All parts except tyres and glass are self - developed" - this jesting phrase, though exaggerated, shows BYD's high self - development ratio.

Moreover, BYD's large sales volume can give full play to the "economies of scale", and reduce R&D and manufacturing costs through mass production.

Under the effect of cost reduction and efficiency improvement, in 2024, BYD's automobile gross margin reached 22.31%, an increase of 1.29% year - on - year; the overall gross margin reached 19%, much better than that of new forces such as Li Auto and Xiaomi.

Ultimately, a series of favorable indicators like "good sales" and "high profits" point to one result: BYD has become one of the most profitable car companies globally; in the field of new energy vehicles, its performance is comparable to Tesla's.

In 2024, BYD's cash reserves were about 154.94 billion yuan. Even with an annual R&D investment of 54.1 billion yuan, such cash reserves are enough to ensure that BYD can quickly respond to technology trends.

"As ample cash reserves strongly support each period of our business's rapid development," said Wang Chuanfu, which is true.

Beneath the Surface

However, after delivering its best-ever financial results and achieving a trillion-yuan market capitalization, whether BYD can sustain its sprint remains a focal point of industry attention.

A closer examination of 2024 reveals that the automaker's performance was not entirely flawless. Beneath the surface still lie critical areas requiring strategic reinforcement and focused attention.

High-End Deceleration

BYD's premiumization strategy, anchored by the 2022 relaunch of Denza and 2023 brand portfolio restructuring, has yet to achieve full success as of late 2024. Current indicators reveal persistent gaps in its high-end market penetration.

A telling metric shows BYD's 2024 average per-vehicle revenue declined CNY 5,000 (approx. $690) year-over-year, remaining below its 2022 peak of nearly CNY 180,000 (surpassing Volkswagen and Toyota at the time). While demonstrating operational prowess through improved per-unit net profit despite ASP erosion, this paradox underscores underwhelming performance in premium segments.

Data breakdown of BYD's luxury marques in 2024:

Denza: 126,000 units
Yangwang : 7,454 units
Fang Cheng Bao : 56,000 units

Collectively accounting for merely 5% of BYD's 3.8 million annual deliveries, these premium brands' market impact remains statistically marginal compared to mass-market offerings.

In comparison, HUAEWI HIMA delivered 445,000 units in 2023 with an average transaction price (ATP) of CNY 350,000 per vehicle (official data), while Li Auto exceeded 500,000 units at an ATP of CNY 277,000 (calculated from financial filings).

BYD's countermeasures in the premium segment, however, have yielded suboptimal results despite strategic deployments:

Denza launched the redesigned Z9 sedan, featuring the proprietary Yi-Sanfang chassis architecture and Celestial Pilot autonomous driving system, targeting dominance in the CNY 300,000-400,000 executive sedan category.
Fang Cheng Bao retained the Leopard 5/8 models as core products, with the Leopard 8 integrating Huawei's Qiankun ADS 3.0 autonomous platform to enhance technological competitiveness.
Yangwang unveiled the U7 flagship sedan, commencing pre-orders in November 2024.

While the CNY million-class marque Yangwang's modest sales (7,454 units) reflect market realities, Denza and Fang Cheng Bao's combined 183,000 units (4.8% of BYD's total volume) expose critical bottlenecks in premiumization.

The 2025 roadmap signals intensified efforts:

Denza's CNY 400,000+ N9 full-size SUV
Fang Cheng Bao's compact SUV codenamed Titanium 3

Strategic imperative notwithstanding, the efficacy of BYD's premium push remains clouded by execution risks and intensifying competition in China's smart EV arena.

Tech Frontier Pursuit

BYD's technological pursuits in critical domains like intelligent driving systems remain suboptimal in 2024, despite early-mover advantages.

While the automaker unveiled its Celestial Pilot autonomous driving platform in 2023, the system's commercial deployment has been constrained to select Denza models. More crucially, its technological cadence lags behind industry frontrunners across three pivotal benchmarks:

Transition from HD map dependency to mapless navigation
Nationwide operational capability (NOA) implementation
End-to-end autonomous driving solutions

This technological gap exposes deeper R&D-implementation alignment challenges. Industry insiders note potential bottlenecks in BYD's vertically integrated strategy:

Chip development: Progress remains opaque on proprietary autonomous driving chips
Algorithm architecture: Shifted focus to foundational algorithms, with advanced ADAS features dependent on third-party solutions

The issue reflected is that BYD's "R&D - implementation" chain for some technologies may be too long or face difficulties, making the implementation time unpredictable. Another possibility is that BYD misjudged the technical trend, underestimating the market importance of "intelligent driving".

In the pure electric vehicle field, BYD's battery, motor, and chassis technologies are industry - leading, especially the "Yun Nian" series chassis, which is highly recognized by users.

Regarding energy replenishment technology, the only highlight "dual - gun charging" was previously only used by the Denza and Yuan brands, unlike other pure electric vehicle companies that have "high - voltage fast charging" and "battery swapping" as their "trump cards", making it seem less competitive.

precisely because of this, BYD's launch of the "mass intelligent driving" and "megawatt - flash charging" technology system after the 2025 Chinese New Year is seen as a move to "turn weaknesses into strengths".

Overall, in 2024, BYD did bring many highlights to the industry with its DM 5.0 technology, but it's also true that it hasn't made significant breakthroughs in the more popularly discussed intelligent and energy - related technologies.

Overseas Challenges

BYD needs to enhance its overseas performance in 2024. It's not that it's lacking, but it needs to be better.

In 2025, BYD set an overseas sales target of 800,000 vehicles, which is nearly a 100% increase from 2024. BYD is now present in Asia, Europe, and the Americas.

BYD's overseas strategy changed significantly in 2024. It not only partnered with foreign dealers but also built factories overseas to meet local laws and reduce costs.

Specifically, BYD's Thailand factory started production in July 2024, and its Brazil factory is under construction. Other planned factories include those in Hungary (to start production in October 2025), Turkey (to start production in March 2026), Germany, and Indonesia.

With models like Seagull, Dolphin, Seal, Song, and Han, BYD topped China's export sales chart in the first two months of 2025, surpassing Chery. However, as Chinese automakers increasingly focus on overseas expansion, BYD faces mounting challenges abroad.

Li Bin has declared 2025 as NIO's "big overseas year," while new - force brands like Zeekr and XPeng also aim to speed up their overseas layouts. Especially in the European market, BYD is set for a tough battle.

Proactive Change

Looking back, leading new - energy vehicle makers have delivered their "strongest - ever" annual reports, hitting new highs in revenue and sales. This is due to two core reasons.

One is they seized the historic chance of China's new - energy vehicle boom, becoming "pigs flying in the wind."

The other is, following the "Matthew Effect," leading makers keep taking market share from mid - and small - sized brands to bolster their position.

In such a market environment, the "pros" are obvious as some makers stand out. But the "cons" are market saturation and less Vitality. For makers, replicating past rapid growth is harder.

In short, "past common sense" may not work in the new competitive landscape.

Take BYD as an example. In 2024, it relied on "price wars" and supply - chain cost - cutting to win in volume, revenue, and profit. But in 2025, it didn't copy 2024's strategy. Instead, it aimed to "lead in technology" to drive sales.

This indicates that simply copying the "price war" strategy may not help them achieve their 2025 sales targets.

Following this logic, we have seen BYD actively exploring "new growth points": holding several press conferences at the beginning of 2025 and aggressively promoting technological systems such as "full - scale intelligent driving" and "megawatt - flash charging."

In essence, BYD's core goal is to shed its "low - price image" and replace it with a brand image of "technological leadership" and "premium quality."

It is safe to predict that in the next nine months, BYD will release more "core technologies," which will mainly be applied to the three brands of Denza, Fangcheng Bao, and Yuan.

The key question is whether BYD is currently on the "slope" with room for growth and the ability to meet its 2025 targets, or if it has already peaked and will only decline, unable to replicate its stellar 2024 performance.

Looking at the sales figures for January and February, BYD has seen significant year - on - year growth: a 47.5% increase to 300,000 units in January, and a 164% surge to 320,000 units in February.

However, on a month - on - month basis, BYD's sales dropped by 41.6% in January; and rose by 7.4% in February.

March's figures are crucial. Whether there is growth and the extent of it will directly show the success of BYD's "mass intelligent driving" strategy, determine if the annual target is met, and indicate if BYD has found new growth through "technological leadership."

There are no "ever - winners" in the business world, only sensitive and decisive "wave - riders of the times."

Will BYD be that company?