BYD’s local distributor has informed Australian Atto 3 customers that the expected July deliveries of their new EVs have been delayed by 6 to 8 weeks.
This came as a bit of a surprise to some customers who have been eagerly waiting for its launch since the orders officially opened back in March this year.
Many loyal customers have kept their orders for Australia’s most affordable ground-up EV. For those customers, there seems to be some silver lining in the production ramp-up with recent company data revealing the highest EV production BYD’s ever had in a single month.
BYD Atto 3 local arrival delayed
On Friday afternoon, many BYD Atto 3 customers received an email from local importer EV Direct advising them of the delays in their BYD Atto 3 deliveries. Global EV constraints were mentioned as the reasons behind the local right-hand drive production delays:
“It is well publicised that the global automotive industry as a whole is under pressure from a range of supply chain issues and logistics disruptions. While BYD’s model provides robust protection from many of these challenges, regrettably we have been impacted by the current holistic industry conditions. Despite our best efforts to minimise the impact on our customers, test drives and initial deliveries will be pushed back by approximately 6 to 8 weeks.”
The news has had mixed reactions from current order holders of the BYD Atto 3. Social media comments from existing order holders revealed a degree of disappointment as many were expecting the first batch of BYD EVs to arrive in Australia before the end of this month.
The email also states the deliveries now commencing in August with additional supply: “…production of Australian BYD ATTO 3’s has commenced and we have secured increased dedicated production capacity to enable a steady supply of vehicles into the Australian market commencing from August 2022.”
Many customers are hopeful that this new delivery timeframe will be met as many will have waited over 5 months to get their first ground-up EV.
It’s also worth noting that all orders of the BYD Atto 3 have been placed without any test drives offered. There could be many more customers that would want to test drive these EVs before ordering them.
Despite this delay in Australia, BYD is ramping EV production and has just announced its best month of production.
BYD increases year on year production by 224% in June 2022
Recently released company data from BYD shows that BYD produced and sold over 134,000 new vehicles. Most of which were EVs. This is an increase of 224% when compared to the same time last year.
The data also reveals that BYD produced 20,000 more vehicles in June than in May of this year. That is a 16.6% increase over May 2022. The increase in production can be some relief for local customers waiting to get behind their right-hand drive BYD EV.
Overall, customers and prospective buyers of the new BYD may see the deliveries of their new SUVs over the coming months. This will bring their deliveries in line with the other affordable EV SUV, the new MG ZS EV which is expected to be launched in the coming months too.
Second half of 2022 to bring EV adoptions to new high
The launch of BYD Atto 3 is a crucial step to bringing more affordable EVs into the Australian market. The delays in deliveries are not welcomed by order holders but with production ramping up of BYD’s EVs there is some positive news on the way.
Many are also hoping that the recent announcement of BYD’s Australian delivery partners, the Eager group, means that their new EVs are not far from delivery. Many customers will be eagerly waiting for the next update from the local importer.
With the launch of BYD’s Atto 3 and the new MG ZS EV imminent, the second half of the year will mean greater adoption of more affordable EVs in Australia. Many of which will be eligible for state subsidies too.
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.