More than 20 Chinese car brands could operate in Australia by the end of this year, and BYD has subtly cautioned that not all are worth spending your money on.
Electric Cars
BYD has issued a subtle warning to Australians considering the purchase of a car from one of the newest Chinese upstart brands to reach local roads, over a more established – but still fresh – entrant like itself.
It follows comments from Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, warning car brands new to the market that are looking to supercharge vehicle sales without backing them with appropriate servicing and parts.
At least nine new Chinese car brands are expected in Australia over the next 18 months, to join the 16 – out of 66 marques in total – already in local showrooms.
Industry analysts and car-company executives have warned there isn't space for all of them, and that many brands – both familiar names and recent entrants – will be forced to shut up shop in the coming years.
As the world's sixth-best-selling car maker, BYD is better placed than most of its rivals to survive – and it has issued what can be interpreted as a subtle warning to Australians considering smaller, less well-known rivals.
"We trust the Australian consumer in making the right choices," BYD Asia Pacific managing director Liu Xueliang told media, including Drive, through an interpreter at the Melbourne motor show.
"Australian consumers have very smart decision-making power, and when they're choosing a vehicle.
"With more and more different brands entering the Australian market, the biggest beneficiary will be consumers themselves, because they have more choices. Healthy and fierce competition, it actually promotes the take-up of this EV market and industry."
China is now Australia's number-one source of new vehicles, overtaking Japan in recent months thanks to record sales for the likes of BYD and GWM.
Chinese car brands have looked to export markets such as Australia, Europe, Asia and South America to grow their global footprint amid fierce competition at home.
While about 34 million cars were sold in China last year, rather than Australia's 1.2 million, it is split between up to about 150 marques – many being electric-car startups that must grow to a certain scale in order to be profitable.
The level of competition has sparked a price and discounting war in the hybrid- and electric-car market – dubbed a "brutal knockout stage" by the global boss of BYD – so severe that the Chinese government has attempted to intervene.
A number of smaller Chinese car brands have begun to close their doors at home, and the first signs of others shutting their operations elsewhere have begun to appear.
"Unfortunately, there was a Chinese player in Thailand [which], due to certain reasons, they actually opened their company in Thailand, but then they exited the market," Liu said through an interpreter, referencing bankrupt electric-car startup Neta.
"For BYD, we always have a very open attitude towards other competitors. We opened our after-sales service centre [in Thailand] to any EV from any car brand [after its rival's closure].
"Our standpoint is that in Australia, we want to aim at making sure all the EV owners can use and welcome their new EV into this market ... without any concerns.
"[This] week we're going to have our 100,000th delivery in Australia. I have been asked the same question when I visit different dealerships, and it's always about how satisfactory that [dealers] feel about our parts?
"All the sales persons, they always say, 'Yes, we're very satisfied with your parts'."
There are currently 105 "fully-operational" BYD dealers across Australia, with 30 more in the process of opening.
The Chinese car giant says it is aiming to operate 150 dealers by the middle of this year, 98 per cent of which will have full sales, service and parts supply capabilities, rather than just taking orders and handing over cars.
"We are speeding up the network development in the Australian market," said Liu.
"We just started our network in the Northern Territory, and in the coming future, you will see a lot of this after-sales service network being built up in the rural regional areas.
"We did know the story about some consumers living in the rural regional area needing to drive two hours to get their car serviced, which is exactly why we need to speed up our network development, especially in the after-sales space."
"... After-sales service is also very critical to earn us the trust from the consumers."
BYD currently sells more cars per dealer per year on average than any other brand – at 989 vehicles per location – compared to 857 for Toyota, 477 for Ford, and 617 for Mazda, according to Australian Automotive Dealer Association (AADA) data.
Electric Cars Guide
Alex Misoyannis has been writing about cars since 2017, when he started his own website, Redline. He contributed for Drive in 2018, before joining CarAdvice in 2019, becoming a regular contributing journalist within the news team in 2020. Cars have played a central role throughout Alex’s life, from flicking through car magazines at a young age, to growing up around performance vehicles in a car-loving family. Highly Commended - Young Writer of the Year 2024 (Under 30) Rising Star Journalist, 2024 Winner Scoop of The Year - 2024 Winner
