New Chinese electric car brand BYD has begun publishing its sales figures in Australia’s monthly VFACTS report, and has so far found 845 homes for its Atto 3 EV since launching in August.
While this might not seem all that impressive compared to the likes of the market-leading Toyota HiLux and Ford Ranger, the Atto 3 has already made a splash in the EV space by outpacing already-established competitors like the Nissan Leaf (324), Audi e-tron (123), BMW i4 (207), Mercedes-Benz EQA (608), Porsche Taycan (422), Hyundai Ioniq 5 (678) and Kia EV6 (533).
It must be said however, some of these are models are severely limited in supply in Australia, and therefore their sales data does not truly reflect demand.
Regardless, BYD’s Atto 3 has shot right up the sales charts and is clearly one of the most popular EVs in Australia, but still trails the hot-selling Tesla pair of Model 3 and Model Y with 9071 and 8257 sales respectively.
It is also likely the Atto 3 is tracking behind the price-leading EV in Australia, the MG ZS EV, which found 361 new homes in November alone.
CarsGuide has contacted MG Australia to determine the number of MG ZS EV sales so far in 2022.
After 11 months of trading in 2022, EV sales have hit 28,326 units, or 2.9 per cent of the overall 993,509 new-vehicle sales tally.
This means BYD’s Atto 3 makes up around three per cent of the total EV sales so far this year, while Tesla commands 61.2 per cent of share.
EV sales in Australia have shot up 516.2 per cent year on year thanks in large part to Tesla now reporting its sales data, as well as many new model releases like the Atto 3.
BYD’s Atto 3 is available priced from $44,381 before on-road costs for the Standard Range and $47,381 for the Extended Range.
BYD Australia is also expecting to expand its line-up soon with the Dolphin hatchback (recently spied testing in Sydney), Atto 4/Seal small sedan that will take the fight directly to the Tesla Model 3, as well as an upcoming all-electric ute.
Keyword: Up and Atto! 2023 BYD Atto 3 electric car already more popular than Nissan Leaf, BMW i4 and Hyundai Ioniq 5