Chinese electric vehicle maker BYD reported 4.23 billion yuan ($643.75 million) net profit in 2020, up 162 percent from 2019. 

Warren Buffet-backed BYD, which started making masks early last year, shortly after the COVID-19 outbreak began, did not give details about its current manufacturing capacity of masks. In May it said it could make 50 million masks a day.

The Shenzhen-based car company, which has partnerships with Japan's top automaker Toyota and German Daimler in China, sold 426,972 vehicles in 2020, 7.5-percent lower from a year earlier.

Overall auto sales in China fell 1.9 percent to 25.3 million vehicles in 2020, according to China Association of Automobile Manufacturers.

BYD said 2020 revenue jumped 22.6 percent to 156.6 billion yuan, with 2.3 billion yuan were from the government electric car subsidies.

The car manufacturer also said it expects net profit in the first quarter this year to grow 77.6 percent to 166.3 percent compared to same period last year, citing positive auto sales.

(With input from Reuters)