I spoke last week of criticism from some Chinese car industry executives of the massive discounting of electric cars in their home country and whether it’s sustainable – the criticism mostly levelled at the heavy discounting by BYD. Locally, BYD is enjoying a substantial lift in sales generated by its popular BYD Shark 6 ute, and Sealon 6 and 7 SUVs – sales in June this year tallied 8156, a 367 percent lift over the same month last year. However, in the Chinese domestic market BYD has suffered a downturn, slowing by 8 per cent in June, as new Chinese players enter the market and chase market share. According to Automotive News BYD domestically is one of the big losers in market share this year despite heavy discounting while Geely has become the biggest winner. Competition – there are now 97 domestic brands in the Chinese market.

IMAGE CREDIT / BYD Australia

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