Jan 30 Reuters China39;s BYD Co , the world39;s biggest seller of battery electric vehicles BEVs and plugin hybrids, expects its 2022 net profit to be more than five times the amount it booked a year earlier, it said on Monday.

With sales of 1.86 million cars, it expects a net profit of 1617 billion yuan 2.372.52 billion versus 3 billion in 2021, an exchange filing showed.

The company said it had it achieved strong sales growth and significantly improved profitability and had effectively relieved the cost pressure brought about by the rising upstreamraw material prices.

The Shenzhenbased automaker stopped producing combustion engine vehicles last April.

Sales of its Qin and Han sedans, BYD39;s bestselling models, increased by 82.6 and 132.2, respectively, in 2022, while those of Tesla39;s Model 3 fell by 17.5, according to the China Passenger Car Association.

BYD still trails Tesla in terms of global sales of fully electric cars by almost 400,000 units, though the Chinese company is planning to ramp up sales quickly at home and abroad with its new series of BEV products such as its Seal model.

1 6.7498 Chinese yuan renminbi

Reporting by Zhang Yan, Brenda Goh and Hong Kong newsroom; editing by Jason Neely

Source Reuters