BYD, one of the fastest-growing car companies in the world and with a focus on electrified vehicles, has announced the production of its 15 millionth “new energy vehicle” (NEV), which includes full battery electric and plug-in hybrid models.
The latest milestone comes just 13 months after the company produced its 10 millionth car.
On the company’s Weibo page, it shared: “With this, China’s automotive industry has entered a new stage of global leadership. Thank you for the trust of 15 million BYD new energy vehicle owners embark on a new journey together and move forward together!”.
The 15 millionth car was the brand’s more premium Denza sub-branded vehicle, the N8L SUV, which rolled off the company’s production line in Jinan, China.
The Denza brand also officially launched in the Australian market this month, marking a major milestone in the brand’s local journey, starting with two PHEV models, the B5 and B8 SUV.
The company has sold 4.18 million cars so fr in 2025, with the full year’s sales to be reported in early January. This is an increase of 11.3% over YTD sales in 2024.
Of these sales, international markets accounted for 917,000 sales, with Australia making up over 40,000 of those in YTD sales (January – November).
Australia was the number #1 export market for BYD in June, July and August this year. It was also ranking #2 in September for number of units sold.
For the full year, BYD is on track to deliver 50,000 NEVs in Australia, making it the best year for the brand.
BYD has grown quite quickly in our market with the original Atto 3 SUV being launched in 2022. At that time it was the most affordable ground-up electric SUV.
This was followed by the launch of one of Australia’s cheapest electric cars, the BYD Dolphin hatchback.
Later in 2023, it launched the Seal electric sedan that saw big interest from buyers due to the quality of the EV at price points that had not been seen previously.
In mid-2024, BYD unveiled its first PHEV, the Sealion 6, followed by the Shark 6 PHEV ute in the second half of the year. Both models racked up thousands of pre-orders and sales.
In 2025, BYD offered what was at that time Australia’s lowest-cost EV, starting at $29,990 with its BYD Dolphin hatchback.
Following that, in February this year, it also launched the Sealion 7 SUV, which has already climbed the sales charts into the top 2 best-selling EVs in the country this year, overtaking the Tesla Model 3.
In November, BYD dropped another bombshell, launching Australia’s cheapest EV, the Atto 1, as well as the country’s most affordable SUV, the Atto 2.
The 15 millionth car production milestone comes 31 years after the inception of a battery cell-making company, to reach this point.
We expect the 20 million NEV produced milestone to happen by Q3 2026 as BYD further expands its global footprint, in a bid to take on Toyota in the years to come.
Riz is the founder of carloop based in Melbourne, specialising in Australian EV data, insight reports and trends. He is a mechanical engineer who spent the first 7 years of his career building transport infrastructure before starting carloop. He has a passion for cars, particularly EVs and wants to help reduce transport emissions in Australia. He currently drives a red Tesla Model 3.