BYD Seal News

One of the world’s largest carmakers' recent entry into Australia is proving fruitful, as China’s BYD finds itself sitting amongst the nation's top 10 brands.But BYD hasn’t only just managed to nab itself 10th or even 9th - in June 2025 the brand was the fifth-most popular behind Toyota, Ford, Mazda and Hyundai.In fact, in the entire first half of the year BYD has sold 23,355 cars in Australia putting it ahead of competitors like Isuzu (21,883), MG (21,674), Nissan (20,604) and Subaru (19,910).The first six best-selling brands in terms in the first half of 2025 will be familiar: Toyota, Mazda, Ford, Kia, Hyundai and Mitsubishi. But then? GWM and BYD.While GWM’s growth compared to the first half of 2024 is up a steady 17.0 per cent, BYD’s rise since the same period last year is meteoric. Compared to its 9548 sales up to June 30 in 2024, BYD’s 23,355 sales so far this year means it’s up 144.6 per cent.Eighth on the ladder year-to-date is an impressive feat for a brand most Australians likely hadn’t heard of just a couple of years ago, but the brand recognition brought about by its Atto 3 and the few models launched since has clearly worked.The brand has even made it into the ute market before mainstays like Kia, with its plug-in hybrid Shark 6 ute having broken the five-figure sales barrier. The brand has shifted 10,424 Sharks since its launch earlier this year.It’s unsurprisingly BYD’s most popular model, followed by the Sealion 6 PHEV (4375 YTD) and its electric Sealion 7 sibling (3756 YTD).The Atto 3 remains popular enough despite sales halving compared to the same point last year, now 1854 units this year-to-date, followed by the Seal sedan (1609 YTD, down 60.7 per cent) and Dolphin hatch (1337 YTD, up 7.1 per cent).The only thing that seems like it could see BYD come undone is a report from last week via Reuters that production at some BYD factories has been “cut by at least a third”, but it’s yet to be seen whether this is confirmed, or whether this will have a direct impact on Australian sales.

Chinese electric car maker BYD is following a secret five-year massive growth plan, which will see it sell half its vehicles overseas by 2030. This will make it a vehicle manufacturer on the same scale as Toyota and Volkswagen, according to a new report.The report by news outlet Reuters cites four people “familiar with the matter” who said BYD’s executives have committed to an ambitious strategy, which will see the electric vehicle brand undergo such an enormous output and sales increase that the company will rival even the world’s largest car manufacturers.BYD has just become the largest selling brand in its home country of China, overtaking Volkswagen last year with 4.27 million units sold.Last year BYD sold 417,204 vehicles overseas and this year the company plans to double that number to 800,000.  The Reuters report revealed BYD met privately with the company's investors to notify them of the growth plan, but it is not known if an actual 2030 predicted sales figure was disclosed.According to the insiders the way that the company wants to be able to achieve their grand plan is by localising production throughout the world. The plan outlines the need to have factories operating in Hungary, Uzbekistan, Brazil and Thailand in order to be able achieve its goal.BYD’s global growth plan will not include the United States, where recent high tariffs against Chinese carmakers have prevented the brand selling its cars there and made the company focus on Europe as the key to its success. Australia, too, will be part of BYD’s plan. Currently Australia doesn’t impose tariffs on Chinese carmakers and this combined with our fairly new and strong interest in electric cars has seen a multitude of Chinese brands arrive here offering what the established mainstream brands could not — very affordable electric cars.  This includes brands such as Geely, Zeekr, MG and Deepal.In April this year alone BYD sold 3207 in Australia, outstripping even Volkswagen with 2076 sales by an enormous margin. And all of BYD’s cars are electric or hybrids.BYD, which started as a battery maker before turning its hand to producing vehicles, arrived in Australia in 2022 with its first EV, the Atto 3 small SUV. The brand soon brought more vehicles to Australia including the Dolphin, Seal, Sealion 6 and Sealion 7 and the Shark 6. 

Having already turned its hand to passenger cars, SUVs and utes in Australia, Chinese brand BYD appears poised to conquer the wagon segment, with details of the incoming BYD Seal Travel Edition leaking in China.

BYD might have just changed the EV game around the world, revealing a charging breakthrough that can deliver 400kms in driving range in just five minutes.

A new ultra-efficient BYD model has been exposed by China’s vehicle regulator.Dubbed the Seal 08, the all-new electric model will arrive as a sibling to the Qin L EV in China, a cut-price sedan offered with internal combustion engine (ICE), plug-in hybrid (PHEV) and battery-electric powertrains.This model, however, will only be available with an electric powertrain. Specifically, a small 46.1kWh lithium iron phosphate Blade battery pack, paired with a 110kW electric motor.Despite its small size, the Sealion 08's 10kWh/100km efficiency means the sedan has an impressive 461km of driving range, albeit in the more lenient CLTC protocol. It also puts it comfortably ahead of the updated Tesla Model 3 (on paper), which achieves a peak rating of 13.2kWh/100km under the more stringent WLTP cycle. A top-spec variant will carry a larger 56.6kWh unit that will provide 545km, while it also gets a more powerful electric motor that delivers 160kW.In terms of design, the Seal 08 mirrors the Seal with its 'Ocean Series' silhouette, which includes the same front end, roofline and tailgate as the Seal.That said, it gets different LED headlight clusters, no fancy LED running lights on the lower bumper, physical door handles, less sophisticated wheel designs and different LED tail-lights.According to CarNewsChina, this is because it will fit under the Dynasty series in China, a more budget-friendly offering that the publication said is targeted at younger, cash-strapped buyers.The Ocean Series, which makes up most of the offerings on the Australian market, such as the Seal, Dolphin and Sealion 7, is alternatively targeted at a more upmarket clientele.As such, the Seal 08 is being floated with a price tag of around 150,000 yuan ($32,422) in China, although it would certainly carry a premium should it land in Australia.CarsGuide has contacted BYD’s local operations to determine whether the Seal 08 is a chance for the Australian market as a cut-price follow up to the brand’s more premium Tesla Model 3 and Hyundai Ioniq 6 competitor, the BYD Seal.It comes after CEO of BYD’s local distributor David Smitherman told CarsGuide he was pushing for more models in Australia."BYD has got a huge appetite for Australia and is very keen to bring product to the market," said Smitherman"In my role, I’m saying let's get lots of products to Australia to meet every segment."

Electric cars are finding their footing in the new car market, but used EVs remain mysterious. You can’t check the oil, the service records won’t tell you much and the single most expensive part — the battery — typically requires full replacement if there’s an issue, rather than repair. Good news is that data from online auction house Pickles shows that battery health is in line with — if not better — than manufacturer predictions. Which should help allay one of the biggest fears of buying a second hand electric car.The vast majority of electric cars on sale today have an eight-year or 160,000km — whichever comes first — battery warranty. These typically guarantee the battery health of any car will remain above 70 per cent. If not, the manufacturer will replace the unit free of charge. Battery health refers to what percentage of the battery’s original capacity remains usable and dictates maximum driving range. For example, if a car was capable of travelling 500km from 100 per cent charge when new, a battery health of 80 per cent would see your maximum range fall to 400km. Additional aspects, including fast-charge time, may be affected as well. Pickles has found the average battery health of vehicles sold to be in excess of 90 per cent, even for vehicles that have travelled more than 120,000km. Many of these cars would have travelled this distance in less than five years, which is an impressive result. Additionally, cars over four years old with lower kilometres retained, on average, more than 93 per cent battery health.Data was collected from the ‘Pickles EV battery health assurance process’, which uses consistent third party software and has been run on 250 vehicles so far. See the below table for observed battery health against kilometres travelled. “This underlines that Pickles is selling used EVs with very healthy batteries, as early data suggests battery health is in line with manufacturer expectations,” said Brendon Green, Pickles General Manager, Automotive Solutions.Some brands fared better than others, though exact reasons why would be speculative. Hyundai and BYD had the highest average battery health rates, followed by Tesla. Partially this can be attributed to Tesla being around for longer. With advancements in battery temperature management such as liquid cooling and heat pumps, lifetime health has generally improved. Admittedly, Pickles’ sample size is small compared to the 90,000-strong new electric car market last year. The auction house had 334 electric cars come through in 2024, a huge leap from 2023’s 115 units. Naturally, the used market has lagged behind the new one but there’s an important milestone coming up, with the government’s FBT exemption for electric vehicles coming up to three years old in July. This will see numbers increase as cars come off lease. Along with bringing broader choice, prices are only expected to fall further in response to intense new-car discounting and a flood of the market.Not ideal for those who purchased new electric cars, but a great thing for those looking to get into an EV without the capital for a new purchase. Pickles' data shows used petrol and diesel vehicles remain 20 per cent above pre-COVID prices, electric vehicle are back to, or below, those values.Interestingly, the report shows that a much greater number of electric cars are selling to private buyers (51 per cent) versus the split for petrol and diesel vehicles (24 per cent) which are motor trade heavy. Green said that EVs may have attracted a “marginally smaller” dealer pool, but the private buyer interest is a good thing for Pickles and its sellers as they are typically less outright price sensitive. “In general, EV buyers are far more educated than any other vehicle buyer category that we’ve seen so far. They do a lot of research, because they’re all stepping away, often for the first time, from a traditional ICE . “They’ve probably test driven them elsewhere and gone, right, I want a Tesla Model 3 with two years and 30,000kms and there’s three of them on Pickles already,” explained Green. 

BYD has revealed yet another offering in its range of hybrids overseas, the Seal 05 DM-i.

With so many new brands and models entering what appears to be a softening new car market, what started as a price skirmish is quickly evolving into all out war, with BYD announcing further reductions on cost-of-entry to some of its most popular models.

BYD is a relative minnow in the Australian car market. Yes, it’s had some modest success with its range of electric cars, but it’s still well-short of reaching the top 10 in sales and having a real impact on the market… or is it?

It’s been another huge year at CarsGuide, especially when it comes to our video content.