This represents a year-on-year increase of 1013 percent-1179 percent, and a quarterly increase of 17 percent-35 percent.

's net profit in the fourth quarter is expected to be as high as RMB 7.7 billion ($1.1 billion), as its new energy vehicle (NEV) sales increased significantly.

The largest Chinese maker of NEVs forecasts its net profit for the full year 2022 to be RMB 16 billion to RMB 17 billion, up 425.42 percent-458.26 percent year-on-year, according to an earnings preview it released today on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange.

Considering BYD's net profit of RMB 9.3 billion in the first three quarters of 2022, the latest estimate implies it will post a net profit of RMB 6.7 billion to RMB 7.7 billion in the fourth quarter.

This represents a year-on-year gain of 1013 percent to 1179 percent and a quarterly gain of 17 percent to 35 percent.

After non-recurring gains and losses, BYD estimates it will have net profit of RMB 15.1 billion to RMB 16.3 billion for 2022, implying a figure of RMB 6.7 billion to RMB 7.9 billion for the fourth quarter.

BYD's earnings per share for the full year 2022 will be RMB 5.5 to RMB 5.84, according to the earnings forecast.

The company's annual revenue for 2022 is expected to exceed RMB 420 billion, BYD said.

BYD's strong performance in 2022 was mainly due to the continued explosive growth of China's NEV industry, and the company saw strong growth in vehicle sales, despite a complex and challenging external environment and many factors that exceeded expectations.

BYD's NEV sales became the world's No. 1, and the sales growth drove a significant improvement in earnings and effectively easing cost pressures from rising upstream raw material prices, it said.

In the cell phone parts and assembly business, the segment's earnings were under pressure because of continued low demand in the consumer electronics industry, resulting in low capacity utilization, BYD said.

However, benefiting from the increased share of large overseas customers and business structure optimization, the cell phone parts and assembly business achieved stable and healthy development, the company said.

BYD sold 235,197 NEVs in December, a new all-time high and the fourth consecutive month of more than 200,000 units, data released earlier this month showed.

BYD stopped production and sales of vehicles powered entirely by internal combustion engines in March 2022, and all of its vehicles are now NEVs, including passenger cars as well as commercial vehicles, and they sold 234,598 and 599 units in December, respectively.

In the fourth quarter, BYD's sales of NEVs were 683,440 units, up 156.74 percent year-on-year and 26.87 percent from the third quarter.

For the full year of 2022, BYD's cumulative NEV sales were 1,863,494 units, up 208.64 percent from 603,783 units in the same period last year.