BYD hands over 150,000th Australian vehicle as regional dealer push continues

150,000th delivery at a regional dealership

BYD Australia has delivered its 150,000th vehicle, the company announced on 22 October 2026. As reported by Zecar, the milestone car was a Seal 6 Touring plug-in hybrid wagon handed over at BYD Warrnambool on Victoria's south-west coast. ¹

The customer, Tiffany, lives in Portland, Victoria, and took delivery a few weeks after her partner collected a Seal Performance Sedan, making it the family's second BYD purchase in quick succession. She said the buying experience at Warrnambool was pleasant and that practicality and low running costs made the choice easy for a family with young children, according to Zecar. ¹

BYD entered the Australian market in late 2022, meaning the 150,000-vehicle milestone has been reached in roughly four years of local operations. Chief operating officer Stephen Collins said he was pleased the milestone vehicle came from one of the brand's recently appointed regional and rural dealers. ¹

Second place in the sales charts

BYD is the second-largest brand in Australia by new-car sales so far in 2026, behind only Toyota. Year-to-date VFACTS figures to the end of September put BYD on 76,614 sales, up 102 per cent on the same period of 2025, while Toyota leads on 152,944, down 15.9 per cent. Ford is third on 61,104, down 13.2 per cent, ahead of Kia on 60,800 and Mazda on 58,865. ¹

In September alone, BYD sold 8,191 vehicles, up 61.1 per cent, finishing second for the month according to VFACTS data reported by Drive. Zecar notes its best month so far was June, when it delivered 18,881 vehicles, just 243 fewer than Toyota. ¹

The Sealion 7 is BYD's biggest-selling electric vehicle, finishing fifth among all models in September with 2,687 sales and ranking as the second-best-selling EV in the country that month behind the Tesla Model Y, according to Zecar's EV sales data. October figures are due in early November. ¹

BYD's local director of public relations Paul Ellis told GoAuto in July that surpassing Toyota was not a priority, saying the brand's stated aim was to cement a top-three position in Australian sales by the end of 2026. He attributed June's record deliveries to orders that spiked amid fuel price rises and cost-of-living pressures, backed by extra factory production, and cautioned that such a month was not expected to become normal, noting June is seasonally the biggest month as the end of the financial year. ⁵

Regional dealer expansion

BYD plans to have more than 150 sales and service dealerships in operation by the end of 2026. GoAuto reported that BYD finished 2025 with nearly 100 authorised dealers, so the target implies a network more than 50 per cent larger. Collins said the vast majority of recently opened dealerships are outside metropolitan areas and that this emphasis will continue for the rest of 2026 and well into 2027, according to Zecar. ¹⁴

Locations named in the expansion include Noosaville, Mareeba and Marooka in Queensland; Mudgee in New South Wales; Seymour in Victoria; the Barossa in South Australia; and Rockingham in Western Australia, per Zecar. These are announced plans, not confirmed openings. ¹

The trajectory goes further into 2027. BYD Australia chief operating officer Stephen Collins told NRMA's Open Road that the brand currently has around 120 sales and service sites, with another 30 planned by the end of 2026 and about 50 more in early 2027, taking the network to approximately 200 locations, a size comparable to the dealership networks of Ford and Mitsubishi. Toyota remains the largest dealer network with more than 275 locations. ⁶

Collins told Open Road that regional and provincial expansion has been the rollout focus, adding that many non-metro buyers will start to see BYD dealerships in local towns. He also said some regional service facilities will be shared with DENZA, BYD's premium brand. ⁶

Parts and after-sales build-out

Supporting the growing customer base, BYD Australia has detailed a four-site parts warehouse network holding more than 580,000 BYD and DENZA parts, reported by CarSauce. The largest facility, in Melbourne's west, is operated with logistics partner SF Express and occupies 15,000 square metres, part of a national footprint of more than 24,000 square metres staffed across nodes in Perth, Sydney and Brisbane. ²

CarSauce reports that BYD says around 95 per cent of all BYD and DENZA vehicle parts across their line-ups are stocked in Australia, allowing delivery to local dealers within 24 hours, most interstate dealers in two to three days, and cross-country or outer rural dealers in around one week, with more than $25 million of parts stock on hand at any one time. ²

Collins told Open Road that average service booking waits are now around seven days across the network, and that the company is targeting a four to five-day national average. He acknowledged that six to nine months earlier, after-sales was an area needing vast improvement, covering parts distribution, warehousing, service capacity and wait times. ⁶

The 95 per cent local parts fill rate Collins cited to Open Road differs slightly from the 97 per cent figure cited during a broader product presentation, which Open Road noted reflects that parts availability can vary depending on how the measure is calculated and when it is taken. Where a part is not already in the country and a vehicle is off the road, BYD can use air freight, Collins said. ⁶

Growth context and buyer relevance

The expansion follows rapid growth that has at times strained retail operations. CarExpert reported in July that BYD's local range had grown from one model to 12 since its 2022 launch, and noted that the brand had earlier resorted to stockpiling unsold cars at a New South Wales fun park and had compensated affected buyers up to $3500 after a build-date issue. ³

BYD Asia Pacific general manager Liu Xueliang told GoAuto in April that the importer was speeding up its Australian network growth, with around 105 fully operational dealer sites and a further 30 in a pre-operational phase at that time, and estimated roughly 70 per cent of new locations would be in rural or regional areas. He said customers had been reported driving two hours in regional areas for servicing, which the network shift is intended to address. ⁴

For buyers, the milestone and expansion plans matter mainly for access: the announced regional sites would reduce travel for sales and servicing outside the capitals, while the local parts stock underpins faster repairs, subject to the stated wait-time targets being met. BYD is also offering a $4,000 cashback on the Seal 6 and Seal 6 Touring for orders placed between 1 October and 21 December 2026 with delivery by 31 December 2026, according to the offer terms Zecar reported earlier. ¹