First customer BYD Seals come ashore in Australia

Examples of BYD’s new electric sedan are already in the company’s showrooms, and now the first vehicles being delivered to customers have been spied in Australia.

Photos shared on the BYD Seal Australia Facebook group show dozens of Seals parked at the Port of Brisbane, while another commenter shared images of Seals in a holding yard on the northside of Brisbane.

Another customer shared they had received an email from BYD saying their Seal, which they ordered on October 17, is ready and that they just need to wait for some documents to sign.

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That customer was one of the first to order a Seal, for which orders opened on October 17. Within two weeks, the order tally for the Seal cracked four digits.

“We have secured well over 1000 orders for Seal in record-breaking time and we hope to deliver at least half of those before end of [2023],” said Mark Harland, chief operating officer of BYD’s local distributor EVDirect, to CarExpert on October 31.

“[We’re] working to increase supply before end of year, but can’t promise.”

Deliveries of the Seal are set to begin in early December.

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While that’s not yet Tesla Model 3 territory – its fellow Chinese-built rival has logged 15,718 sales to the end of October – it’s enough to worry almost everything else this size, electric or not.

Hyundai has delivered 468 examples of its recently launched Ioniq 6 electric sedan to the end of October, while 1867 examples of the Polestar 2 have been delivered, but it’s been on sale locally since 2022.

Looking at combustion-powered mid-sizers, Mazda has delivered 1305 examples of its 6 sedan and wagon this year, while Skoda has delivered 1215 Octavias.

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Shortly after announcing pricing on October 17, BYD cut the price tag of its top-spec Seal Performance by $50 to $68,748 before on-road costs, to allow it to qualify for electric vehicle (EV) incentives in New South Wales and South Australia.

Pricing of the Dynamic and Premium was unchanged, at $49,888 and $58,798 before on-roads, respectively.

That means the Seal’s base price is around $12,000 less than the most affordable Model 3.

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To the end of October, BYD has sold 9718 vehicles in Australia – almost entirely of one model, the Atto 3, though 100 examples of the recently introduced Dolphin have been delivered. That makes BYD Australia’s second best-selling EV brand, behind only Tesla.

BYD’s rise in Australia is set to continue with no supply issues and sharp pricing. The brand’s introduction of a BYD ute and a larger SUV next year will form part of its plan to introduce two new models annually for the foreseeable future, although a seven-seater SUV is still some time away.

“We are just beginning, three models in 18 months, five models in just under two and half years and then more and more after that,” said EVDirect managing director Luke Todd earlier this month.

According to Mr Todd, BYD can re-engineer, re-tool its production line and convert one of its vehicles from left to right-hand drive in just 12 months.

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