Has BYD lost its mojo? January sales crash for Chinese powerhouse with local numbers way down across the board. But could the BYD Shark 6 save the day?

Having ended a hugely successful 2024 on a massive sales high, Chinese challenger brand BYD has sent shockwaves across the Aussie new car market with sales plummeting in January this year.

Although demand for the Atto 3 small EV SUV softened in 2024, in its first full year on sale, the diminutive BYD Dolphin EV hatch sold in excess of 2000 units, with the sleek Seal EV sedan ticking over in excess of 6000 registrations and the mid-size Sealion 6 PHEV SUV (which debuted here in May last year) clocking up a similar number.

All up, BYD sales grew by no less than 64.5 per cent, the relatively new brand cracking the 20,000 figure for the full year.

But things came to a shuddering halt last month, when year-on-year numbers for the month of January showed Atto 3 sales had dropped 77 per cent, the Dolphin down 67 per cent and the Seal a whopping 91 per cent behind its January 2024 performance.

Surely demand for these now well-established and popular models couldn’t have just fallen off a cliff?

And sure enough, when contacted for comment a BYD spokesperson told CarsGuide, “Port delays affected all models in January, resulting in limited stock for delivery. Additionally, January is traditionally a softer month due to the holiday period”.

Another surprise was the non-appearance of the just-released Shark 6 turbo-petrol/electric hybrid ute in the national sales charts.

But BYD says, “Despite having no Shark 6s available for test drives, our order write exceeded expectations, making it one of our strongest months ever — particularly for Shark 6 and our EV models — driven by the introduction of MY25 pricing and the Essentials range.

“An administrative error meant we didn’t meet reporting requirements, but we’re pleased to have 450 Sharks on the road, which will be counted in February,” they said.

So, stand by for what could be a bumper BYD sales result for February with outstanding orders potentially back-filled and a double-month Sharknado number.