BYD is shipping 30,000 vehicles to Australia in May and June to respond to record fuel prices, which led to a surge in sales that saw the company take third place in total sales last month.
The bulk order is about three times the brand’s typical shipping volume after posting its second-best monthly sales result and increases the offering of new models such as the Shark 6 ute seven-seat SUV and the Sealion 8.
BYD Asia Pacific managing director Liu Xueliang spoke to the media through an interpreter at the 2026 Melbourne Motor Show Daily Sparkzthat the automaker was preparing to deliver a record number of vehicles due to unprecedented customer demand.
BYD delivered an all-time record local delivery of 7,217 vehicles last month – behind only Toyota and Kia and up 50 percent year-on-year – following 5,001 and 5,323 deliveries in January and February respectively.
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“We hope that by continuing the delivery of our vehicles, we can ensure that consumers are not severely affected by the fuel shortage,” Mr Xueliang said.
“In the coming months we will accelerate the adoption of electric vehicles (EVs) in the Australian market… as you know, BYD has its own ships, so we will use our ships to deliver these vehicles to the Australian market.”
While BYD made headlines in 2025 by stocking vehicles on a large scale – including in the parking lot of a theme park south of Sydney – the recent increase in sales meant that orders were largely fulfilled.
BYD also said the increased volume will ensure faster customer deliveries, including for its luxury brand Denza.
“As you may know, other countries are increasing demand – this is a change due to the fuel crisis,” Mr Xueliang said.
“We always start our strategy based on market needs. If the market requires more electric vehicles, we will launch more pure electric vehicles. This is mainly to meet market demand.”
BYD Australia chief operating officer Stephen Collins said: “If you look at January, February and March, we sold 5000, 5000, 7000, so that’s the going rate.”
“So yes, it’s significantly more (than usual), which obviously reflects the order intake we’ve seen over the last month or so.”
BYD’s year-to-date sales totaled 17,541 through the end of March, compared to 8,767 at the same time last year – an increase of 100.1 percent.
The company delivered 52,415 vehicles in 2025 and is on track to deliver its 100,000th vehicle in Australia later this year after the first vehicle was sold locally in 2022.
“We have quite a large backlog of orders and of course the months of April, May and June will be strong – seasonally it is always strong – so we expect the vast majority of these vehicles to be sold,” Mr Collins said.
Mr Collins said the company expected weekly deliveries to facilitate distribution of the vehicles to dealers and customers.
The Sealion 7 electric SUV was its best seller, ahead of the Shark 6 plug-in hybrid SUV (PHEV) and the Sealion 6 PHEV SUV.
BYD’s sales helped vehicles made in China outsell all others for the first time in February 2026.
This followed Chinese brands overtaking Japanese brands to become number one in new vehicles worldwide for the first time in 2025.
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