Although several automakers have been held up by vehicle quarantine getting their vehicles to Australian shores, Chinese automaker BYD says that it isn’t facing these issues.
Luke Todd, chief executive officer of BYD’s distributor to Australia, EV Direct, told Chasing Cars that both of their models will be in good supply and won’t be affected by quarantine.
“We can supply and manufacture up to 5000 vehicles of either the Atto 3 or the Dolphin – that’s 10,000 per month – for the Australian market.
The BYD Dolphin will go on sale in Australia by the end of 2023
EV Direct says it has had “several thousand” expressions of interest for the new Dolphin, which the company hopes will sell in big numbers.
“Given the quality of the car [the Dolphin], the price of the car, we will probably exceed or reach 10,000 sales within a seven month period,” Luke Todd said.
But how are BYD’s sales in Australia so far?
BYD has sold 4664 units of its Atto 3 so far in 2023
“We had our first day where we sold more than 100 cars in one day … the more that people see the cars on the road, they’re getting more attention”.
In the month of May 2023, BYD shifted 1448 units of its Atto 3, and has so far sold 4664 units of the car year-to-date.
How does BYD get around the issue of vehicle quarantine?
The BYD Dolphin Sport could be coming to Australia, too!
“We‘ve pivoted to importing vehicles in shipping containers, as well as roll on and roll off,” Todd said.
By roll on and roll off, Todd refers to large vehicle transport ships which are essentially a floating multi-story carpark, filled to the brim with the newest vehicles for Australia.
By using this technique, BYD is able to drive its vehicles straight off the factory floor and directly into awaiting shipping containers where the vehicles are not sitting in open car parks for extensive periods of time.
BYD is skipping quarantine by shipping its cars in containers
If vehicles are left out in the open in large holding yards, they are much more susceptible to the open air and various bugs and dust.
It’s unusual for a car company to use shipping containers to transport new cars, however this is clearly a technique working for BYD.
Another big win for BYD is the fact that the Chinese brand builds its own chips and batteries, meaning it does not have to wait for other suppliers to produce stock of crucial car parts.
