David Fickling, Columnist

China’s EV Makers Have a Good Reason to Delay Paying Bills

Electric-car companies are taking longer to pay their suppliers. That may not be such a bad thing.

January 21, 2025 at 9:00 PM UTC

David Fickling is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering climate change and energy. Previously, he worked for Bloomberg News, the Wall Street Journal and the Financial Times.

Joining the blue-chip club.
Photographer: Na Bian/Bloomberg

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What if the soaring sales and investment of China’s electric-vehicle industry was mainly a matter of hidden debt?

That’s the argument made about BYD Co. by GMT Research, a Hong Kong-based financial analyst business known for its forensic short-seller-style investigations of Chinese companies’ accounts.1