Warren Buffett owns more of a Chinese electric car company than General Motors

Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway conglomerate has a larger stake in Chinese electric automaker BYD than it does of General Motors, according to a letter to shareholders. Berkshire Hathaway holds an 8.2% stake in Hong-Kong listed BYD and is the company’s eighth-largest holding by market value as of Dec. 31, according to the letter which was released on Saturday. In contrast, the firm held 3.7% of General Motors, the 15th-largest holding.

Shares of BYD are up more than 300% over the last 12 months. Those of GM have climbed 65% during the same time period. A Berkshire Hathaway unit first invested in battery and electric car company BYD in 2008. The Shenzhen-based company has become a major automaker in the world’s largest car market, and sold more than 130,000 pure-electric passenger cars last year. That’s far more than start-up electric car rivals like Nio, which delivered just over 43,700 cars last year.

In January, GM became the latest traditional automaker to accelerate its push into electric vehicles by announcing a goal to end production of all diesel- and gasoline-powered cars, trucks and SUVs by 2035.

Warren Buffett owns more of a Chinese electric car company than General Motors, CNBC, Mar 1