Shanghai (ZXZC)- BAIC Motor Corporation Limited (BAIC Motor) said on April 30 that its operating income for the first quarter totaled RMB46.752 billion, growing 17.45% compared with RMB39.806 billion a year earlier.

The Q1 net profit dropped 12.73% year on year to RMB3.552 billion, among which the net profit attributable to owners of the parent amounted to RMB1.232 billion with a double-digit decline of 22.77%. 

Besides, total operating costs by the end of March this year jumped 17.83% to RMB40.236 billion. To be specific, the quarterly operating costs (RMB33.649 billion), selling expense (RMB4.451 billion) and R&D costs (RMB98.433 million) surged 23.36%, 41.44% and 29.69% respectively from the year-ago period.

For the first three months, the automaker’s self-owned brands gained an impressive year-on-year increase of RMB33.3% with 44,527 vehicles sold in total, of which the sales of the BAIC EU5 reached nearly 20,000 units.

Joint venture’s brand maintained a blooming sales momentum. Bejing Benz saw its Q1 sales rise 14.3% to 145,000 units, while Beijing Hyundai had a quarterly wholesale volume of 132,000 units and a delivery volume of 191,000 units. 

At the Auto Shanghai 2019, BAIC Motor brought the all-new SUV model “Zhida”, which is equipped with the AI interactive system, high-definition dual display, iFlytek’s voice control system and other intelligent systems. To seize the opportunity under the fast development of new-generation information technologies, such as big data, cloud computing and AI, the automaker has formed a wide partner circle embracing Baidu, Xiaomi, Bosch, iFlytek, Autohome as well as CRNeT.