China's domination goes next level: 2026 BYD Sealion 7 and Chery Tiggo 4 Pro power up new car challengers for a super fast start to 2026 sales, leaving legacy rivals in their wake

High demand and the production volume to meet it has pushed two emerging challengers in the Australian new vehicle market to even greater heights in the first month of 2026.

With 2025 new model additions including the Shark 6 ute, city-sized Atto 1 electric hatch and compact Atto 2 EV SUV, as well as the larger pure-electric Sealion 7 and plug-in hybrid Sealion 8 SUVs, BYD’s year-on-year sales for the month of January grew by a spectacular 640.9 per cent.

In outright numbers, that’s 5001 units sold compared to 675 in the same month last year.

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In particular, the Sealion 7’s popularity has seemingly put the squeeze on several established medium SUV contenders like the Honda ZR-V (-15 per cent), Kia Sportage (-30.7 per cent), Nissan X-Trail (-34.2 per cent) and even the normally segment-leading Toyota RAV4 (-65.4 per cent), the latter two in run-out mode.

Given the pure-electric Sealion 7’s size, specification and starting price ($54,990, before on-road costs), arguably its most direct competitor is the Tesla Model Y (from $58,900, BOC), the latter down 38.1 per cent in January, the BYD outselling it four to one (1171 units to 288).

At the same time, Chery more than doubled its January sales (+105.8 per cent), largely thanks to the ongoing success of its Tiggo 4 Pro, which comfortably led the small SUV category ahead of 2025 segment heavyweights like the Hyundai Kona, GWM Haval Jolion and MG ZS.

With a starting price of $23,990, drive-away, it’s not hard to see why the Tiggo 4 Pro, easily the most affordable small SUV in the country, has made such an impact.

Chery Tiggo 4 Pro

GWM Tank 500 PHEV

Again, some long-standing players in this part of the market like the Mazda CX-30 (-3.9 per cent), Mitsubishi ASX (-90.9 per cent, in new model ramp-up) and Subaru Crosstrek (-22.8 per cent) took a backwards step, year-on-year.

Another solid improver from China for January sales was GWM (+31.3 per cent), while other volume brands, LDV (-19.5 per cent) and MG (-16.5 per cent), declined.