BYD, the Chinese protégé of Warren Buffett, is nothing if not over-ambitious – much like China itself. The Shenzhen based carmaker was meant to teach the world how to mass produce electric cars, while Beijing was meant to teach other governments how to wean their drivers off Big Oil.
Now Beijing is questioning the whole direction of its green car policy, and BYD is disappointing the market, yet again, with another profit warning: time for a dose of realism all around.
Late on Monday BYD (1211:HKG), backed by the iconic US investor’s Berkshire Hathaway, warned the Hong Kong market that net profit for the first three quarters of this year may be down 85-95 per cent. Its shares have fallen 60 per cent so far this year.