(1) Chinese Cars. Financial Times (FT), Mar 27, 2012 (in the column of The Lex Column)
("And now a profit warning: the company said that its first-quarter net profit could fall 95 per cent from a year earlier. That wiped another 5 per cent off the share price on Monday [Mar 26]. Poor performance in BYD's battery segment, which makes up a 10th of sales, is partly to blame. The bad news, however, is that BYD's car segment--which makes up half of revenue and carries gross margins one-fifth higher than its [BYD's[ average--will do little to turn things around. * * * But [BYD's] electric cars are a sideshow. To date, only 300 of BYD's electric cars are driven in China--only thanks to government support")
My comment:
(a) It is unclear whether by "electric cars" FT includes electric buses also.
(b) There is no need to read the rest.
(2) 2011 Annual Results Announcement. BYD, Mar 25, 2012
http://bydit.com/userfiles/attachment/20120325-2011 ANNUAL RESULTS ANNOUNCEMENT.pdf
("Rechargeable Batteries and New Energy Business Due to slowdown of traditional handset industry and shrinking
market share of notebook computers, the market demand for lithium-ion batteries was affected during the reporting period. On
the other hand, the slump in the European and US economies directly impacted the demand for electric tools and toys, further
affecting upstream suppliers of nickel batteries." page 7)
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