Zinger Key Points
- BYD is launching new models in Australia, a market that has seen strong electric vehicle growth.
- BYD has grown sales in the country, while Tesla's sales fell in 2024.
Electric vehicle company BYD Co BYDDF BYDDY is launching the first electric vehicle to come with a starting price under $30,000 in Australia, a move that could boost the country's electric vehicle market.
What Happened: Along with investing in blue-chip U.S. companies, Berkshire Hathaway Inc BRK BRK CEO Warren Buffett has recognized the investment opportunity in emerging markets.
One of Buffett's investments is owning a stake in Chinese company BYD, a global leader in electric vehicle. While Buffett has sold a portion of the company's stake in BYD, Berkshire still owns around 4.9% of the company, representing around $1.8 billion in the Berkshire portfolio.
BYD could see a boost to its growth in 2025 thanks to the launch of a new version of its popular Dolphin EV in Australia.
A new stripped-down version of the Dolphin comes with a starting price of $29,900 in Australia, as reported by Electrek, citing The Sydney Morning Herald.
BYD has launched models like the Dolphin, Atto 3 and Seagull in Australia over the years and it now has the cheapest EV in the country, replacing the previous record of $30,990 by the MG4, which later raised its price to $38,000.
The lower-cost model does not include some normal Dolphin features like a sunroof, heated seats and a wireless phone charger. The new Dolphin model comes with the same battery range of 350 km (217 miles) as the other Dolphin models.
Deliveries of the new Dolphin model are set to begin in March.
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Why It's Important: BYD is one of the largest electric vehicle companies in the world, selling 4.27 million new energy vehicles globally, which includes electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids, in 2024. This total was up 41% year-over-year.
In Australia, BYD ranked second for 2024 EV sales and had a 14.6% year-over-year gain in units sold. Tesla Inc TSLA ranked first in 2024 with a market share of 42% of EVs in Australia, but saw its year-over-year sales decline 16.8%, as reported by Drive.
Other EV companies like BYD saw their sales gain 28.8% year-over-year while Tesla fell, helping to set a record in Australia for a sixth straight year. The country had 91,292 EVs sold across cars, SUVs and light commercial vehicles, up 4.7% year-over-year and representing 7.4% of all new vehicles sold in the year.
EV sales faced pressure in Australia in the second half of 2024 with an overall drop of 6.9% year-over-year, with Tesla sales falling 25.8% year-over-year and other EV models gaining 9.6% year-over-year.
Tesla had the top two selling vehicles in Australia in 2024 with the Model Y and model 3 ranking first and second respectively.
BYD had three of the top 10 selling EVs in the country with the Seal, Atto 3 and Dolphin ranking fourth, fifth and eighth respectively.
A new lower-priced Dolphin could continue to cut into Tesla's market share. The EV company has watched its market share in Australia fall from 59% in 2022 to 53% in 2023 to 42% in 2024.
The Shark, which is BYD's first pickup truck, has over 5,500 preorders placed according to the report and deliveries begin soon. BYD will also launch the new Sealion 07, which is called a Model Y competitor. The Sealion 07 starts at under $60,000, falling in similar range of the Model Y, which starts at $55,900.
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BYD photo
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