Dancing cars, petrolheads, and the quiet art of winning over EV buyers

Last week, BYD hosted its Tech Day, aimed at giving consumers an opportunity to get a close-up of all available models in Australia, along with the chance to drive them.

Without knowing too much what to expect, The Driven attended on the morning of the third and final day of the 3-day event, located at Sydney Motorsport Park in Sydney’s western suburbs.

The motorsport park is more associated with the scent of high-octane fuel and tyre smoke, but was perhaps a fitting venue for a company trying to convince the Australian public that silence, not noise, is the future of mobility.

BYD’s presence in Australia has already reached the point where you could label it as reasonably established. The Chinese brand has come from a place of complete unknown to ubiquity on Australian streets, particularly in the cities.

It now has one of the larger range of models available in Australia too, including the Dolphin, Seal, Sealion, and Atto, all of which were available to drive around a strictly supervised route of the racetrack. And, of course, it has the plug in hybrid Shark 6 ute.

In perhaps the clearest sign that BYD intends to nudge upward in the Australian market, a guest appearance from BYD’s luxury brand Denza (which is a joint-venture between BYD and Mercedes-Benz) caught The Driven’s attention. One of the models, the Z9 GT, has unconfirmed plans to enter the Australian market in late 2025 with an expected starting price of around $80,000.

The other model on display from BYD’s luxury brand Yangwang, was the U9 supercar, which was catching the attention of many by performing a choreographed dance show to the tune of music blasting out of its external speakers.

An entertaining and somewhat surreal contrast given the backdrop of the Sydney Motorsport Park concrete paddock. BYD confirmed there are no plans to bring the U9 to Australia anytime soon, but if you were harbouring any delusions of parking this dancing, carbon fibre EV supercar in your driveway, allow me to gently crush them with the projected price tag of $300,000+.

I got into a conversation with a friendly BYD rep about the tech day. When I asked him about what car he drives or would like to drive, he responded with “I’m more of a petrol head myself” – an unintentionally perfect metaphor for where much of Australia’s EV journey currently sits: intrigued, onboard, but not fully converted.

The tech day didn’t exactly scream attention. The sparse layout, which included a DJ and two very lonely looking food trucks didn’t exactly offer Glastonbury vibes, but maybe it didn’t need to.

With EV sales now consistently in the top two alongside Tesla, and more models on the way, the Chinese car giant is playing a long game in Australia. Events like this are more about familiarity and getting Australian bums in EV seats, perhaps a lesson other EV brands could heed when considering their play into what is still a largely untapped Australian market.