BYD out to change the EV world with broad range from 2022

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Little known Chinese car maker BYD is planning a big, bold EV powerplay it says will shake up the Australian car market.

BYD – an acronym for Build Your Dreams – plans to be the first brand to unleash a range of EVs that are on price parity with petrol-powered cars.

The company has hinted it will have the most affordable electric car on the market – likely below $40,000 – and do it without traditional dealerships or service networks.

BYD also plans to set a sales record in the fledgling local EV market within its first full year on sale with what it claims will be the most significant new electric car arrival in Australia.

The managing director of importer Nexport, Luke Todd, claims this week’s confirmation that BYD would be sold here is “the largest, most important announcement in transitioning from ICE vehicles to zero emission vehicles in Australia”.

All BYDs planned for Australia will have a range between charges north of 500 kilometres.

“There’s been plenty of great work done by Tesla, Hyundai, Nissan, BMW to get where they are … but what we do is vastly different.

“We will be the first product that will have a suite of vehicles in a price point parity point to legacy type vehicles. Our vehicles will be price parity to petrol or diesel vehicles. That’s the holy grail of where EVs have been trying to get to and it means we don’t need subsidies from government.”

While Todd wants governments to continue working on expanding EV charging networks, he says BYD is not calling for government subsidies to incentivise selling cars, instead saying the product “stands up on its own”.

BYD an EV powerhouse in China

While few Australians have heard of BYD, until 2019 it sold more electric cars globally than any other brand; only in 2019 did Tesla overtake it.

In China it is an EV powerhouse.

And while it also sells plug-in hybrid vehicles, for Australia the local importer Nexport is planning an EV pureplay.

There are plans to establish the brand as a tech and electric car leader, casually brushing aside Tesla along the way and showing the big boys of the market – every brand from Toyota and Mazda through to Mercedes-Benz and Audi – how it’s done. At least that’s the plan…

“The biggest competitor for us is somebody that’s not on the market,” says Todd confidently. “We’ll leapfrog everybody else. There’s some competitors coming onto the market that are currently in the tech space that we would feel that they are our main competitors.”

Those potential competitors include Lynk & Co, Nio, Polestar, Rivian and others; brands that have been big on talk and flashy tech but are still in their infancy in sales.

Challenges, but a different direction

Todd admits establishing a brand will be difficult.

“Of course there’ll be challenges, but we are doing something different. We’re not just bringing another car brand to Australia.

“We are in a different league. What we’re doing is hyper-charging that from being in a position where we [Australia] are at the moment, to being a world leader by bringing high quality electric vehicles that will be affordable.

“We’re not just trying to introduce a brand that does the same as what other cars do. We are changing the dynamic, we’re changing the market.”

Key to the shift will be no dealerships, which Todd describes as “cumbersome”.

Instead there will be at least one “big, flashy” experience centre, starting in Sydney. It’ll take inspiration from the Tesla and Apple stores, which are designed to be inviting and showcase the technology.

“We’ll have one flagship store in Sydney and potentially some in other states. We were also talking to a current large retail store, about the opportunity to position vehicles in their retail outlets.”

So, there could theoretically be a BYD touch-and-see centre embedded within a Harvey Norman or Myer or some other large retail outlet.

Buying a car will be done online through the EVdirect.com.au portal that is a key part of the strategy. As with Honda from mid-2021 and Mercedes-Benz from 2022 (each of which is shifting to an “agency model”), customers would purchase cars directly from the manufacturer rather than a dealer.

“It doesn’t mean we’re taking shortcuts,” insists Todd. “What it actually means is we have more money to invest in after-sales service that people really want. So we’re talking, come to your door safety checks, come to your door servicing.”

Todd says the motivation for BYD to succeed is on improving communities.

“We’re not about climate climate activists activism. But what we are about is creating better communities. And we can do that through the introduction of more zero emission vehicles in our communities, so will our marketing will be heavily focused on healthy lifestyle.”

Longer term the BYD vision for Australia involves manufacturing cars here. Nexport has purchased land near Moss Vale, south of Sydney, and is planning on an engineering and manufacturing hub – as well as a cheeky micro-brewery to keep the local community happy.

Show us the BYD EV metal

As for the cars BYD will sell here, they’re yet to be revealed.

Nexport has imported a BYD Han into Australia, albeit with the steering wheel on the left.

And despite speculation that is one of the cars to be sold in Australia, Todd is adamant it won’t be.

“There’s the Han … we will not be releasing that product, because the next sports design is far better.”

Instead, there will be a yet-to-be-revealed sports sedan on sale by the end of the year.

Before that there will be an SUV, likely a similar size to the Mazda CX-30, Nissan Qashqai and Kia Seltos.

While both will officially be on sale this year, first deliveries are slated for 2022.

The closest Australians have got to BYD until now is on some electric taxis and buses running around Sydney.

Along with its quest to reinvent the new car market BYD also wants to play a major role in converting the NSW bus fleet to electric by 2030 (a NSW government target) and shifting every taxi in the country to electric by 2025.