BYD has restated its ambition to become one of Australia’s favourite auto brands, with the fast-growing Chinese brand’s local operating chief forecasting a top-three sales ranking as soon as 2026.
BYD Australia COO and former Honda Australia director, Stephen Collins, told CarExpert that a slew of new product launches across key vehicle segments in the remainder of 2025 and next year should see the company on the annual sales podium within 12-18 months, which would put it ahead of household names like Mazda, Kia and Hyundai.
“We’re not really pitching a [volume] number,” Mr Collins said. “[But] I think if you took our position last year we were number 16… if you look at today, I think we’re number eight. We’ll finish [2025] around that sort of mark, and we want to continue that trajectory.
“For the next year, the volume is quite fluid, but I think our aspiration would definitely be close to the top three,” Mr Collins added.
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While BYD’s local operating chief noted this is “a big, big ambition”, an imminent product onslaught – including the launch of the new Atto 1 and Atto 2 affordable EVs, as well as the Sealion 5 and Sealion 8 plug-in hybrid SUVs – should help the Chinese brand maintain its upward trajectory on the Australian sales chart.
“Beyond that we just want to keep improving. We’re not going to stop and we just want to keep progressing,” Mr Collins said.
Previously, BYD’s previous independent Australian distributor famously stated the brand would eventually overtake long-time market leader Toyota, which in 2025 sold 241,296 vehicles, placing it well ahead of Ford (100,170), and Mazda (95,987).
Fellow Chinese auto brands GWM, MG and Chery also have ambitious Australian sales goals. GWM, Australia’s oldest Chinese auto brand, wants to be a top-five brand by 2027 with the help of at least seven more new models in 2026, while MG wants to be a top-three brand here by 2030, and Chery wants to be a top-10 brand as soon as possible.
GWM is Australia’s top-selling Chinese auto brand so far this year to September with 39,343 sales, but BYD is next best with 37,923 sales (up 149.8 per cent year-to-date) and is closing in rapidly with just over two months of the year to go.
BYD is currently sitting in eighth in the yearly sales race just behind GWM and well ahead of MG (32,620), but it outsold GWM in the last two months, and seems to have entrenched itself in the top six, having ranked fifth in June, seventh in July and sixth in August and September.
Leading the BYD charge Down Under are the Shark 6 plug-in hybrid (PHEV) ute (14,111) and Sealion 7 mid-size electric SUV (8483), followed by the Sealion 6 PHEV mid-size SUV.
Next month the brand will be expanding into more attainable segments, including Atto 1 electric hatch and the Atto 2 small electric SUV, which could see BYD become a top-five brand by the end of this year.
However, BYD’s local COO said the company’s new Denza premium brand will not be listed under BYD’s sales in VFACTS numbers.
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