Visitors look at a BYD Qin and other cars at the stand of BYD during the 15th Shanghai International Automobile Industry Exhibition, known as Auto Shanghai 2013, in Shanghai. April 21, 2013. [Photo/IC]

BEIJING - China's leading electric car maker BYD Company, listed in Hong Kong, said Sunday that its net profit decreased 15.5 percent year-on-year to 361 million yuan ($58.7 million) in the first half of this year.

The profit fall was "mainly due to the decrease in the traditional automobile business", the Shenzhen-based carmaker said in a statement.

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Its turnover rose 4.0 percent year-on-year to 25.2 billion yuan. Earnings per share stood at 0.15 yuan, down 15.88 percent year on year.

BYD said its revenue from the automobile business declined by 6.48 percent year-on-year to about 11.9 billion yuan in the first half of this year.

Due to the intense competition in China's auto market and the adjustment to China's policy of subsidizing energy-saving cars, BYD's automobile business was affected and it sold about 180,000 units in the first half, down 27 percent from a year earlier, said BYD chairman Wang Chuanfu.

Wang, however, said BYD, a pioneer of China's new energy vehicles, recorded an impressive improvement in sales volume of its new energy vehicles with a substantial sixfold increase year-on-year.

The sales revenue grew to about 2.7 billion yuan, accounting for around 10 percent of BYD's turnover.

In the second half, Wang said BYD will launch the plug-in hybrid SUV model "Tang" and the first pure electric sedan of "DENZA", which has been jointly developed with German carmaker Daimler AG as planned.

Shares of BYD Company closed at HK$49.2 ($6.3) on Friday at the Hong Kong stock exchange, down 3.9 percent from the previous closing.