Reports have been coming in on social media of hundreds of right-hand drive BYD EVs landing across the ditch in New Zealand.
The sightings of the first of around 300 Atto 3s come as Australian BYD customers were told that there would be a six to eight week wait for orders that were originally due to arrive in July.
The vehicles pictured at New Zealand’s Auckland port are a combination of dealer demos, staff and media cars, but not yet for customer deliveries. What does this mean for Australian order holders?
Hundreds of BYD Atto 3s land in NZ
One member of the BYD Atto 3 Owners group on Facebook said, “I also was told 300 in the first shipment by the new car manager of Johnston Ebbett in Wellington NZ.” These reportedly include dealer demos and customer cars.
The Driven was later informed that the first 20 demonstrators have indeed arrived, and a further shipment of 300 in the next couple of weeks or “late this month.”
This is a significant milestone for the world’s second-largest EV maker as they get ready to deliver cars to many right-hand drive markets, including here in Australia.
With many white and blue models landing in New Zealand, it’s only a matter of time before other colours like the Grey and the special red Atto 3’s are delivered.
Australian deliveries looking promising
With the first shipment of many landing in New Zealand with right-hand drive BYD Atto 3, it is starting to look quite positive for Australian order holders too. Many of the early orders were taken in March this year with expected deliveries in July.
These deliveries have now been pushed into August for our local market after production updates were sent to these customers.
This first shipment shows how serious BYD is about delivering thousands of ground-up EVs to Australia and New Zealand over the coming 12 months.
They seem to be confident in their product after producing tens of thousands so far in the left-hand drive variant for the Chinese market.
This can only be a good thing for thousands of EV order holders and buyers in Australia, looking to get behind the wheel of their first EV.
(This story has been updated to reflect that only the first shipment of 320 BYD vehicles has actually arrived in New Zealand, the rest arriving in coming weeks).
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.