U.S.-traded shares in BYD, China’s biggest maker of electric vehicles, rose by 5.4% today after the company posted a 410% bulge in first quarter profit compared with a year earlier.

Net profit in the three months of the year soared to 4.13 billion yuan or nearly $600 million versus 808 million yuan during the first three months of 2022. Sales increased by nearly 80% to 120.2 billion yuan from 66.8 billion yuan a year earlier as local buyers flocked to EVs in China, the world’s largest auto market. BYD is also making a large push to expand overseas.

Approximately 6% owned by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway, BYD has emerged to rival Tesla as world’s largest EV maker. BYD’s current market capitalization of $100 billion in Hong Kong – its primary listing — exceeds GM and Ford combined. The Shenzhen-headquartered company sold 552,076 new energy vehicles in the first quarter, a surge of nearly 93% from a year earlier.

EVs were a focus at this month’s Auto Shanghai – the country’s most important auto show since the end of its “zero-Covid” policies in December. Among suppliers, BYD generated buzz with a new Seagull model priced at approximately $11,000 — one of the most affordable.

BYD’s overall business is more diversified than its EV rivals – it also makes handset components, semiconductors and photovoltaics. BYD ranked No. 579 on the Forbes Global 2000 ranking of the world’s top publicly traded companies in 2022.

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BYD Chairman Wang Chuanfu holds a fortune worth $20 billion on the Forbes Real-Time Billionaires List today. BYD board member Lu Xiangyang, a cousin of Wang who also leads investment firm Youngy Investment Holding, is worth $13.9 billion, and BYD director Xia Zuoquan, who leads investment firm Zhengyuan Capital, is worth $3.8 billion. China has the largest number of billionaires in the world after the United States.

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@rflannerychina