BYD News

The Ford Ranger might have found itself back on top of Australia’s sales charts in March, but a dig into the numbers reveal cracks in the sales ambitions of the Ranger, Toyota HiLux and Isuzu D-Max.

One of BYD’s sub-brands, Fang Cheng Bao, has set pricing for its electric mid-sized SUV in its home market, China.The Fang Cheng Bao Titanium 3 not only comes with a host of unusual features as options, but also a price tag starting from 139,800 yuan, or A$30,700.While the electric mid-size SUV has already been seen via photos and some specifications revealed by the Chinese government’s approval documents, the competitive pricing and some of the more specific features of the Titanium 3 have been confirmed as pre-sale commences.The SUV is set to be offered in five variants in China, the most expensive of which is priced at 203,800 yuan (A$44,800) and comes with a roof-mounted drone pod with a DJI drone for aerial photography and video.The five variants range from rear-wheel drive to 4WD, and are equipped with either a 65kWh or 72kWh battery, but all five have the same claimed electric driving range of 501km.The Titanium 3 comes with a karaoke microphone in its top two variants, though the heating and cooling compartment that can act as a refrigerator is likely going to get more use.The Titanium 3’s specifications when it comes to drivetrain and performance are pretty standard on the numbers front, with the rear-drive version wearing a claimed 160kW/310Nm set of figures, and the 4WD variants a claimed total of 310kW and 510Nm.Most importantly, Fang Cheng Bao’s model line-up doesn’t seem to be off the cards for Australia.A BYD spokesperson didn’t confirm anything regarding the Fang Cheng Bao sub-brand, nor the Titanium 3 specifically.However, the larger Fang Cheng Bao 5 has been spied testing in Australia, and while it’s been speculated that it may launch here as the BYD Leopard 5, nothing has been confirmed.What has been confirmed is the incoming Denza sub-brand from BYD, which should target more premium rivals than BYD’s other models.

Fledgling carmaker Leapmotor intends to make a splash in the small hybrid SUV space late this year with the launch of the B10 REEV.

Australia’s premium small SUV hybrid class is about to experience a shake-up with the arrival of the Alfa Romeo Junior.

BYD’s local distributor EVDirect says it has notched up 40,000 sales less than three years after the brand arrived in Australia and is projecting a further 40,000 sales this year alone.Although the figures are yet to be officially verified in March’s national vehicle sales data, set to be released by the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries later this week, the announcement indicates that BYD has flown past Tesla to achieve the feat.Tesla is understood to have recorded 40,000 total sales in the second half of 2022, nearly eight years after the brand officially opened its first showrooms Down Under with the Model S sedan and later the Model X. Both models have now been discontinued for Australia.Sales for Tesla in Australia didn’t take off until 2019 when it debuted its popular Model 3, followed by the Model Y in 2022, the latter remaining Australia’s most popular EV.Last year, Tesla sales dipped to 38,347 cars following a record 46,116 in 2023. As of February this year it has sold 2331 cars, a 65.6 per cent decline on the previous year.Since arriving locally in 2022 with the electric Atto 3 SUV, BYD expanded its model range more aggressively than Tesla, now including plug-in hybrids in its line-up. It's a strategy EVDirect CEO David Smitherman said is responsible for BYD’s swift rise.“What we’re providing Australian customers is a choice they haven’t previously been able to enjoy. With the Shark 6, Sealion 7, and soon the Essentials range, we’re introducing new vehicles in segments and at price points never seen before,” said Smitherman.The Essentials range, which includes new entry-level grades for the Dolphin and Atto 3, are stripped-back versions of their respective models, with less standard features but a considerably lower entry price.For example, the Dolphin Essential is the first EV in Australia to be offered at less than $30,000, before on-road costs.Sales are only expected to climb for BYD as it continues its product assault on Australia with its Denza sub-brand later this year, which includes the B9, a plug-in hybrid Toyota Prado-rivalling SUV.The future is a little less clear for Tesla, with its polarising CEO Elon Musk turning many prospective buyers in Australia, the US and Europe off the brand with his controversial role as an advisor to the Trump administration.In the US, Tesla shares have lost 50 per cent of their value since they peaked at US$479 a share on the Nasdaq last December, while this month, BYD announced it officially exceeded Tesla in revenue last year at $170 billion, approximately $15.5 billion more than Tesla.The updated Model Y, which is set to arrive in Australian showrooms by May, could add some life to the embattled brand, with Tesla Australia confirming the Launch Edition allocation for Australia has already been exhausted. Exactly how many units that entails, though, remains unclear.BYD has been nipping at the heels of Tesla on the global market since the end of 2023, when it briefly usurped it as the world’s best-selling EV brand before Tesla reclaimed the title in the first quarter of 2024.2025 could officially be the year that Tesla loses its EV crown, with the brand going all out on alternative markets as it finds itself locked out of the US due to a blanket 100 per cent tariffs on Chinese cars.

BYD’s ultra-luxury YangWang marque is about to launch its third product - a high-performance sedan, with a surprising flat-engine twist.

BYD's latest model could enter the $40k EV family SUV price war with Leapmotor's C10 and Geely's EX5.

BYD says it's just getting warmed up in Australia, promising a "proliferation of product" with a focus on "utes and SUVs" as it seeks to make good on its promise to dethrone Toyota at the top of the new-car sales charts. The brand currently has six models in Australia – the Dolphin, Atto 3, Seal, Sealion 6, Sealion 7 and Shark 6 ute – but says it will launch two new models this year, with the roll

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The rapid and seemingly unstoppable expansion of Chinese carmakers is something to behold.But is it too far-fetched to think all cars will be Chinese within the next 20 years? Or is it naive not to see it as a strong possibility?For a long time I’ve thought the emergence of new Chinese cars in Australia and globally was the natural progression of the car industry. New brands morph from alternative fledgling brands to mature and established ones. We saw this with Japanese brands such as Toyota, Mazda, Mitsubishi and Nissan which gained popularity in the 1960s and ’70s before becoming established go-to brands in the 1980s and ’90s as they fought homegrown heroes Ford and Holden for space in Australia's driveways. And it stayed that way until the first decade of the 2000s ticked over.Holden and Ford’s ranges and sales shrank giving way to the Koreans who filled the gap with Hyundai and Kia which have climbed high into the top 10 thanks to an excellent range of SUVs and EVs.They’re now marching towards the only brands that stand in their way - Mitsubishi, Ford, Mazda and Toyota - which, by the way, have about three EVs between them.And given another five years Kia and Hyundai may have been able to topple Toyota from number one. But it might be too late for that. The presence of a large and fast-growing force is creating major uncertainty for the established brands in the Australian market - the rise and rise of Chinese brands. At the end of 2024 there were 12 Chinese brands operating in Australia and this year we’re expecting at least another seven to arrive. To put that in perspective we currently have a total of 50 car brands in Australia and nine are Japanese. By the end of 2025 the Chinese tally could easily be 20 brands or 30 per cent of Australia's brand make up.Several Chinese brands have been in Australia for years and have already done the hard yards. It took MG a couple of attempts to find a foothold but it was the seventh best-selling brand in 2024, while GWM came in at 10th. LDV is further down but still sold more than 16,000 vehicles here last year.The newer Chinese arrivals show huge promise with most of them offering affordable electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids when the established brands have only a handful among them, usually at higher prices.BYD, Zeekr, Leapmotor, Geely, Deepal, XPeng, Smart, JAC, Aion, Chery and Jaecoo will spend 2025 launching a multitude of new vehicles here. BYD will be one to watch having sold more cars here last year than Mercedes-Benz and it will likely enter the top 10 best sellers next year. Geely, which is the ‘Volkswagen of China’ in terms of its size and how many brands it owns, is another to watch.Chinese car manufacturers' speed of production, the development of new platforms and technology, the low cost of batteries, availability of electronics and the breakthroughs being made in charging systems, plus the sheer amount of money and Chinese government support behind them make competition almost impossible for many other brands.It’s almost certain that some established brands will bow out of Australia, unable to compete with Chinese brands. It’s also feasible that within the next decade more than half the Australian market could be made up of Chinese brands. And surely some Chinese brands won’t be able to cut it here and leave, too.Who could survive? Well, time has shown that even the mighty like Holden have fallen if they don’t make the cars people want to buy. The sheer brute force of Chinese brands being able to offer what people want quickly and at a low price, and at an always improving tech level could be too difficult for many other brands to fight off.In an extreme scenario this could lead to a 100 per cent Chinese brand market within 15 years. Sounds far fetched? Well they’re a third of the way there already.