How BYD toppled GWM: Australia's new favourite Chinese automaker emerges as 2026 BYD Shark 6 and Sealion 7 leapfrog GWM's Cannon, Tank 300, and Haval Jolion

There’s now officially a new best-selling Chinese brand in Australia.

China’s BYD has overtaken the long-standing GWM in the Australian new vehicle sales race in Australia.

Read More About BYD

• BYD topples Ford, Honda, and MG in global new-car sales race, but when will it be a challenge to GM, Hyundai or Toyota?
• New brand’s dominance laid bare: How BYD overtook rivals to go from challenger to world leader in just a few years - report
• It's official, China has won: New Toyota RAV4 Hybrid can't get here fast enough for Toyota as BYD, GWM and Chery run riot in Australian new-car sales race

Over the same period GWM sold a total of 9198 vehicles, which is still up 28.0 per cent year-on-year.

Although GWM is the longest-standing Chinese carmaker that’s still selling cars in Australia – it arrived locally in 2009 – BYD’s rise to sales success has been meteoric over the last few years.

BYD did offer a few select vehicles in Australia during the 2010s and early 2020s, including the T3 electric van and e6 electric wagon, but it re-launched officially with the Atto 3 in 2022.

Its best-selling vehicles in the first two months of 2026 were the Sealion 7 mid-size electric mid-size SUV (2498 sales), as well as the Shark 6 plug-in hybrid (PHEV) dual-cab ute (2166 sales).

BYD now also has an ever-growing range of electric and PHEV offerings. Examples include the Atto 1 and Sealion 5 which are currently the cheapest EV and PHEV, respectively.

There’s also the Atto 2 electric small SUV and Sealion 8 three-row PHEV SUV and it doesn’t seem like BYD is slowing down any time soon.

While BYD has overtaken GWM in terms of outright sales volume so far in 2026, this isn’t to say GWM hasn’t been experiencing sales success.

In the first two months of 2026 a total of 3593 examples of the GWM Haval Jolion have been sold, which is up 38.6 per cent year-on-year. Given BYD only sells EVs and PHEVs, it doesn’t have a product that directly competes against it.

The same can be said for the GWM Haval H6, which is the Chinese brand’s second best-selling vehicle in Australia so far in 2026. A total of 2179 examples were sold over the first two months of 2026, which is up 6.1 per cent year-on-year.

There are petrol, hybrid and PHEV versions of the H6 sold in Australia, therefore making the Sealion 6 PHEV the closest rival. BYD sold a total of 1327 examples of the Sealion 6 in the first two months of 2026, which is up 2.6 per cent year-on-year.

GWM doesn’t provide a sales split between petrol, hybrid and PHEV H6 sales so it’s unclear whether it sold more H6 PHEVs than BYD Sealion 6s over the same period.

However during 2025, 19.2 per cent of H6 and H6 GT sales were PHEV-powered. For context, a total of 13,217 H6/H6 GTs were sold throughout 2025, meaning over 2500 examples  had a PHEV powertrain.

Where it’s clear BYD is succeeding over GWM however is with the Shark 6 PHEV dual-cab ute. As noted above, 2166 examples have been sold so far this year.

For context, GWM sold a total of 2031 examples of the Cannon and Cannon Alpha ute. The Chinese brand now combines the sales figures for these different utes.

GWM does offer the Cannon Alpha PHEV and will also soon offer the smaller Cannon PHEV in Australia, but BYD is having much more sales success in the PHEV ute market.

Both BYD and GWM have aggressive product roll-out plans which will likely see both brands shoot further up the sales charts in Australia.

BYD, for example, will likely launch the Seal 05 PHEV sedan and wagon pair in Australia, among others which haven’t been confirmed yet.

It’s also putting an emphasis on its separate Denza luxury spin-off brand which is scaling now in Australia. It already offers the B5 and B8 luxury PHEV off-road SUVs, as well as the D9 electric people mover, but has flagged numerous other models for Australia.

GWM on the other hand has a total of 10 new or refreshed models due to launch during 2026. There’s the aforementioned Cannon PHEV, as well as the Ora 5 electric crossover and another Ora electric model, among others.

It is also planning to introduce its Wey premium marque in Australia in the second half of 2026. The launch line-up hasn’t been confirmed yet.