BYD is now a top 10 brand in Australia and to crack the top 5, the company is not only expanding its model range and dealer network, but is also targeting fleet sales.
“For us, fleet is one of the key opportunity markets. It’s pretty simple: 35 percent of all new car sales are fleets. These aren’t demos and all that stuff – these are real corporate fleets, governments, etc.,” BYD Australia chief operating officer Stephen Collins told Australian media, among others Daily Sparkz.
“It’s stable. These customers want purpose-built vehicles, lifelong ownership is really important to them…Where the opportunity lies…corporate sales and fleet business.
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“For the strong, established OEMs, around 35 percent of their volume is such business. For us it was previously 10 percent.”
“So we’ve built a fleet department, we’ve developed processes and pricing and we have scorecards. We’re working really hard to improve our performance in this fleet area.
“We are not ignoring the retail opportunities, but we will expand our fleet opportunities.”
Last year, 82.8 percent of BYD’s 52,415 sales in Australia went to private buyers, 15.9 percent went to corporates and the remainder went to government buyers and rental fleet buyers.
This proportion of private buyers was by far the highest among the top ten best-selling brands in Australia, followed by GWM (62.5 per cent) and Mazda (59.7 per cent).
Excluding the Atto 1 and Atto 2, which were launched in late 2025, the Atto 3 was the BYD vehicle with the lowest share of private sales at a still-high 75.7 percent, leaving about a quarter of its sales to fleet buyers.
While vans typically make up a high percentage of fleet sales, the Shark 6 – which was Australia’s fifth best-selling van overall last year – saw a whopping 86.1 per cent of its sales go to private buyers.
In contrast, only 24.4 percent of Toyota HiLux sales went to private buyers, as did 20.4 percent of Ford Ranger sales.
That was enough to make the Shark 6 Australia’s fourth best-selling vehicle among private buyers, although it came 18th overall when fleet sales were taken into account. Only the Toyota RAV4, the Tesla Model Y and the Mazda CX-5 performed better among private buyers.
The introduction of a cab/chassis version could help the Shark 6 gain greater traction among fleet buyers.
Likewise, BYD has just launched the Sealion 5 as its cheapest plug-in hybrid (PHEV) to date – and one of the cheapest in the Australian market.
As more affordable electric options, the Atto 1 and Atto 2 could also prove tempting to fleet buyers due to their low list prices.
However, fleet buyers are not only concerned about a low purchase price, but also about parts availability, repair costs and residual values.
“We’re working really hard to reduce wait times for service. We’re working really hard on parts so we have a 95 per cent fill rate on our parts,” Mr Collins said.
“That means 95 per cent of the time a dealer needs a part they’ll be in our shed in Melbourne or Brisbane, which is pretty standard for the industry. We’ve just invested in a warehouse in Melbourne, 20,000 square meters, and we’ll be investing in warehouses in other states in the coming months.”
Mr. Collins told Daily Sparkz Last October, we announced that a series of new product launches in key vehicle segments by 2026 would propel the brand onto the annual sales podium within 12 to 18 months, ahead of household names such as Mazda, Kia and Hyundai.
“We don’t really give a (volume) number,” Mr. Collins said. “(But) I think if you were to take our position (in 2024) we would be number 16… if you look at today, I think we’re number eight.”
BYD actually ended up in eighth place in 2025.
“For (2026), the volume is quite variable, but I think our target would definitely be near the top three,” Mr Collins added.
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