Sales for China’s largest automaker, BYDhave fallen for the fifth month in a row, and the company also cut its previously stated export target for the year after missing its 2025 target by around one million cars.
Accordingly ReutersAccording to a stock market filing from BYD – one of Australia’s top 10 best-selling brands last year – 210,051 cars were sold globally in January 2026, down 30.1 percent compared to January 2025.
Exports accounted for almost half of that at 100,482 vehicles, while BYD produced 29.1 percent fewer cars year-on-year, continuing a downward trend in production that dates back to July 2025.
In January, the automaker revised its export forecast for 2026 from 1.5 million cars – announced in November – to 1.3 million.
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The result comes even though BYD has overtaken Tesla In 2025, BYD will become the world’s largest electric vehicle (EV) manufacturer, although BYD’s EV sales declined in December and January.
BYD sold a total of 4.60 million cars worldwide in 2025 – more than any other Chinese automaker – including 2.26 million electric vehicles, enough to eclipse Tesla’s 1.64 million deliveries and take the top spot.
Tesla faced significant challenges of its own, with lower sales in key markets due to factors such as model changes – also because of its peak sales Model Y Mid-size SUV – as well as the consequences of CEO Elon Musk’s role in the US government.
Due to the downturn, Tesla posted its second consecutive year of declining global sales after its first annual decline in 2024, and the U.S. automaker recently announced that it will discontinue its long-standing Model S and Model X models (which are no longer offered here) globally this year.
Australian new car sales figures for January 2026 have not yet been released and are expected later this week, but BYD is expected to continue to post strong local growth as its Australian offering expands.
BYD Australia entered the local top 10 in 2025 with 51,415 sales in 2025, more than double its 2024 result of 20,458, and is just 394 deliveries behind seventh place Haval – a margin that prevented BYD from becoming Australia’s best-selling Chinese car brand last year.
Local sales were led by the BYD Shark 6 ute – a Ford Ranger and Toyota HiLux rival with plug-in hybrid power – as the automaker continues to expand its hybrid offering, particularly in its home market of China.
BYD’s Australian model range expanded in late 2025 with the launch of the Atto 1 City Hatch, which became Australia’s most affordable electric vehicle, and the Atto 2 small electric SUV, while an update to the Atto 3 mid-size SUV is expected to go on sale here before April.
The Sealion 5 and Sealion 8 plug-in hybrid SUVs are also set to go on sale locally this month, while the Seal 06 mid-sized plug-in hybrid sedan and wagon are due to launch sometime later this year, along with updates to the Dolphin electric hatch and Shark 6 ute.
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