November 1, 2026
| BYD | Q3 2026 | Change | 9M 2026 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Operating revenue | ¥221.49 billion | +13.59% | ¥566.30 billion | +0.01% |
| Net profit to shareholders | ¥10.02 billion | +28.08% | ¥22.34 billion | -4.24% |
| Net profit excluding one-offs | ¥8.63 billion | +25.25% | ¥21.00 billion | +2.51% |
| BYD balance sheet | Sept 30, 2026 | Dec 31, 2025 |
|---|---|---|
| Inventories | ¥221.58 billion | ¥138.42 billion |
| Trade receivables | ¥56.47 billion | ¥37.00 billion |
| Bills payable | ¥78.86 billion | ¥22.46 billion |
| Advance receipts (contract liabilities) | ¥92.95 billion | ¥51.47 billion |
| Cash and cash equivalents | ¥29.78 billion | ¥68.40 billion |
Source: BYD 2026 Third Quarterly Report (unaudited), filed with HKEX October 29, 2026. Changes are against the same periods of 2025.
A better quarter, paid for on the balance sheet
BYD‘s third quarter answered the question its first half left open: the company can grow profit again while its home market shrinks. Quarterly profit rose 28% and, without one-off gains, still rose by a quarter. The same third quarterly report shows what that growth costs to carry. BYD ended September holding inventory worth about as much on its books as its entire third-quarter revenue, and it names the overseas car business as the main reason.
Exports are now where BYD’s risk sits as well as its growth. Stock and money owed by customers have piled up far faster than sales, the company’s own write-downs on that stock are rising, and only next spring’s annual report will show whether the cars sell at the prices booked.
Where the export growth sits
Inventories rose by 83 billion yuan in nine months, to almost a quarter of BYD’s total assets. The report’s explanation is “the growth in the overseas automobile business and the increase in inventory.” Trade receivables, money customers owe BYD, rose 53%, again “mainly due to the increase in the overseas automobile business.” Receivables financing nearly doubled on letters of credit, a standard payment instrument in export trade.
September showed the volume side. BYD’s wholesale rose 15.8% that month while its retail sales in China fell 28.9%, in the CPCA’s maker rankings carried by GCBC’s September China sales report. Cars that leave the factory without a buyer at home go abroad or into stock, and the balance sheet now shows both. Part of the build-up is the price of the push abroad that GCBC’s first-half China analysis traced in July: a car shipped overseas can stay on the maker’s books for weeks longer than one sold at home.
Suppliers and customers are funding the build-up
Nine months of operating cash flow came to 54.5 billion yuan, up 33%, so the business itself is not short of cash. The balance sheet shows where much of that came from. Bills payable, the notes BYD issues to pay suppliers later, more than tripled. Advance receipts from customers of its car business rose 81%.
On GCBC’s arithmetic, those two lines grew by roughly 98 billion yuan since December, close to the 103 billion yuan added to inventory and receivables. The sizes match closely enough to say that suppliers and customers are carrying much of the build-up. Ordinary trade payables fell by 14 billion yuan over the same months.
Cash and cash equivalents fell by more than half, to 29.8 billion yuan. The cash flow statement shows the outflow going to investment spending and to debt repayments of almost 110 billion yuan, while the operating business brought cash in. BYD repaid short-term borrowings while leaning harder on bills, which shifts the funding from banks to its supply chain.
The write-downs have started
Impairment losses on assets reached 2.71 billion yuan for the nine months, up 68%. The report ties it to “the provision for inventory impairment correspondingly made as a result of the expanded inventory scale.” Credit write-downs roughly tripled to 0.94 billion yuan, in line with the rise in receivables.
Both are small against nine-month profit of 22.34 billion yuan. Their direction is what matters: BYD is already marking some of its stock below cost. Exchange losses added a separate cost, turning last year’s finance income of 2.94 billion yuan into a 7.37 billion yuan expense, a risk that grows with a business earned in other currencies.
Gross margin widened anyway, to about 18.5% for the nine months from about 17.9% a year earlier, on GCBC’s arithmetic from the income statement. Part of the profit gain came from research and development spending, which fell 17%.
Why US readers should care
Cox Automotive’s February research on Chinese brands treats their US entry as a question still to be settled, and found only a quarter of US dealers familiar with BYD. BYD sells no passenger cars in the US, so none of this stock is headed for American dealer lots. The pressure to move that inventory lands in the markets BYD already exports to. If it clears the stock on price, rivals there feel it first, and the cars’ residual values follow.
What to watch
BYD’s 2026 annual report, due in late March, should give the split of revenue and margin by region that the quarterly report leaves out, so it can show what the overseas business earned. It will also show year-end inventory against September’s 221.58 billion yuan. Lower stock with write-downs near this year’s pace would mean the exports sold through at price. Higher stock, or a full-year asset impairment well above the nine-month figure, would mean BYD is clearing it with discounts.
