Chinese car maker BYD has launched the next stage of its campaign to unseat Tesla as the number one EV brand in Australia, delivering its first Seal sedan at a newly opened service facility in Mascot, Sydney.
And the electric sedan’s first customer knows a thing or two about cars. Sydney Roosters chairman and car industry mogul Nick Politis was handed the first set of Seal keys by BYD’s Asia Pacific general manager of sales, Liu Xueliang.
Politis, Australia’s best known car dealer, tipped the brand to become a sales force in the local market.
“The fact that they’re on track to become the biggest EV company in the world speaks for itself,” he said.
Politis also has a vested interest in the company’s success through the AP Eagers dealer group, which has a retail joint venture with BYD importer EV Direct.
“I wanted an electric car and they’re so well priced,” he said.
The Seal is priced from about $51,000 drive-away, undercutting Tesla’s cheapest Model 3 sedan by about $14,000.
BYD has sold more than 10,000 vehicles since launching the Atto 3 compact SUV late last year.
Mr Xueliang said the company had taken more than 20,000 orders for the Atto 3 alone.
The Seal is the third EV launched by the company in the past 12 months.
It recently launched Australia’s cheapest electric vehicle, the Dolphin, which sells for less than $40,000 drive-away.
“Next year, we plan to bring two completely new EVs to Australia,” Mr Xueliang said.
Both vehicles – a ute and a family-sized SUV – will be plug-in hybrids, which can run on electricity for up to 100km but have the back-up of a petrol engine.
The brand plans to launch at least two new vehicles a year as part of an aggressive strategy to become the fifth-biggest car maker in Australia within two to three years.
It eventually aims to topple Australia’s favourite brand, Toyota, before the end of the decade.
The chief executive of EV Direct, Luke Todd, said the “lofty goal” was “certainly achievable”.
“We’ve been very successful in the first 18 months and we think that our trajectory will continue to grow very strongly,” he said.
“It won’t surprise me if the Seal sales volume surpasses the Atto 3, because of the level of interest,” he said.
Future expansion could include the introduction of a luxury brand to sit above BYD.
Todd said the distributor was in discussions with BYD about the potential of the new Yangweng brand in Australia.
Yangweng is developing a high-end SUV, the U8 plug-in hybrid, to compete with vehicles such as the Mercedes-Benz G-Wagen.
“We are in discussions about potentially bringing U8 to Australia but that’s not been confirmed as yet,” he said.
There were two other high-end brands, Fang Chen Bao and Denza, that could potentially arrive locally at some stage.
“Right across the whole segment in China, BYD has a product range that is suitable for more and more of the domestic market and we’re looking to do that in Australia as well,” he said.