BYD Seal outsells rivals to take second place, coming up fast on top-dog Toyota Camry

Offering fully-electric power, the BYD Seal sedan is cannibalising sales in the medium passenger car segment under $60,000 – already accounting for a quarter of sales. Should Toyota be nervous?

The new kid on the block BYD Seal outgunned mainstays in the new passenger vehicle sales race in July, playing second fiddle only to the Toyota Camry.

According to this month’s VFACTS data released by the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries (FCAI), the Seal sedan, which only arrived in local showrooms in December last year, found 570 homes in July. This represents 25 per cent of the medium passenger cars under $60,000.

Though the long-running Camry bested it by a long way, posting 1498 sales and taking a 65 per cent share, the Seal well and truly outplayed other household names such as the Honda Accord (which is due to be reclassified because of its $64,900 new price), Mazda 6, and Skoda Octavia.

While the Mazda 6 sedan/wagon put up the best fight with 101 cars delivered, the Honda Accord – of which a new model only recently launched – notched up just 13 sales, with the Octavia nestled in between with 66.

That leaves the Accord with a less than one per cent market share (0.6 per cent), only just a smidge more than the discontinued Volkswagen Passat (0.4 per cent).

Year-to-date sales told a similar story, with the Camry and BYD again dominating, with a 65 and 25 per cent share respectively (4662 v 12,286 sales). 

This time last year, without the Seal, 30 examples of the Honda Accord were sold, 97 of the Octavia, and 88 of the Mazda 6 – showing buyers are moving elsewhere, including to the Chinese car maker.

The local distributor of Chinese hybrid and electric-car giant BYD, EV Direct, previously declared a bold goal to become the best-selling new-car brand in Australia by the end of the decade.

Executives for the company have stated an ambition to top five brand in Australia by 2025 – which would need to see it sell about 70,000 cars annually, outselling the likes of Tesla, Subaru, Isuzu, MG, Volkswagen and Mitsubishi.

In July it blasted past its 25,000 vehicle milestone locally, with 25,885 sold.

“As our range expands, we’ve always believed BYD would quickly grow in popularity among Australian drivers,” EVDirect CEO David Smitherman said in a statement on Monday, following the release of new car sales data by the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries (FCAI) and Electric Vehicle Council.

“We’re not afraid to set ambitious goals because we know Australians are looking for quality new energy vehicles at competitive price points, which BYD offers.”

Although the passenger car segment of the market overall is losing out to SUVs and light commercial vehicles, posting 17,291 sales in July and 130,577 for the year so far, it could be an area where BYD could make in-roads towards that top five goal.

The BYD Seal sat only behind the Tesla Model 3 and Model Y in terms of most popular electric vehicles (EVs) for the first half of the year, with a sharp $50,500 drive-away asking price helping it to bridge that gap between EVs and internal combustion.

In comparison, the new single-spec Honda Accord e:HEV RS costs $64,900 – with even the VTi-LX Petrol run-out model still asking $57,900 drive-away.

While the Mazda 6 and Octavia do start a fair bit lower ($37,990 for the Mazda 6 Sport sedan, $42,490 for the Octavia sedan – both drive-away) neither comes with any form of electrification.

Hybrid versions of the Camry (priced from $37,917) remain unavailable to order due to a backlog of orders, but the new model is expected to launch later this month.

The post BYD Seal outsells rivals to take second place, coming up fast on top-dog Toyota Camry appeared first on Drive.

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