There is no doubt that Chinese-made cars, especially new energy vehicles (NEVs), are truly dominating the world automotive market as the world slowly, but surely, transitions into electric.
A new report coming from China confirms that BYD still stands out as the No. 1 passenger car manufacturer with the highest single-quarter net profit for the first quarter of the year. And BYD is not resting on its laurels, even though it has already overtaken Tesla as the world’s No. 1. This can be gleaned from the said report, which shows a total of 9.155-billion yuan (US$1.28 billion) first-quarter net profit.
Instead of keeping it, BYD surprisingly ploughed back 14.223-billion yuan (US$1.98 billion) into its single-quarter research & development – really higher than its net profit. This clearly shows their continued substantial R&D investment, which is indispensable for many automakers since NEV technology is still considered to be in a phase of rapid development.
Here in the Philippines, local consumers are really looking closely at the BYD brand because of the truly interesting first impression they have already shown with their series of introduced cars – from sedans to SUVs to pickups.
In a far second place for first-quarter profit for 2025 is Geely with 5.672-billion yuan (US$791 million), while it also had a single-quarter R&D expenditure of 3.328-billion yuan (US$464 million). The SAIC Group is in the third spot, with 3.023 billion yuan (US$422 million) and an overall R&D expenditure that also surpassed its net profit, reaching 3.881-billion yuan (US$541 million).
For your added information, the others in the Top 10 ranking are: No. 4 – Great Wall Motors; No. 5 – Changan; No. 6 – BAIC; No. 7 – Seres; No. 8 – Li Auto; No. 9 – Leapmotor; No. 10 – Xpeng. The report also said that new energy vehicle brands like Li Auto, Leapmotor, and Xpeng are now showing progress, with Leapmotor and Xpeng being just a step away from achieving profitability.
The report also noted that Geely and BAIC’s quarterly R&D expenditures were less than their net profits. While Geely’s expenditure remains a significant figure, BAIC’s R&D spending appears negligible compared to that of other companies. Here in the country, Geely is trying to make an uphill comeback after that PR debacle when many broken Geely cars and SUVs piled up in many dealerships simply because of a lack of necessary parts and supplies.
We have to admit that the world automotive market landscape has changed in recent years. Internal combustion engine vehicles are now facing a big challenge with the electrification pushed by new car manufacturers. With the introduction of Tesla as the promising world leader several years back, Chinese manufacturers suddenly came out as its biggest challengers, with BYD surging ahead recently. But while the hybrid vehicles, being pushed by the Japanese, were once considered merely transitional, they have gained sensational market traction lately. And this is shown in another recent report by the China Passenger Car Association, in which plug-in hybrid and extended-range hybrid vehicles showed growth of 31.5% and 16.5% respectively in the first half of 2025.
