As one of the newest electric car brands in Australia, BYD have been following a less than traditional path with their retail sales model, and now they are turning their attention to fleet buyers with well priced electric vehicles and ANCAP five start safety.
When they launched the first BYD Megastore in Sydney, Luke Todd, CEO at EV Direct, told Fleet News Group that they were now ready to talk Fleet Managers and saw a massive opportunity with novated lease buyers because of the FBT Exemption on EVs and PHEVs.
“For a period of time we needed to build the brand and focus more on consumers because it was a new brand for the country,” explained Todd. “But we’re now 12-18 months on. So the key message is, our arms are open. We want to talk to as many fleet organisations as possible. We’ve got products in the country. We can transition fleets straightaway whether it be one, two or 20,000 vehicles we can do it. We’ve got the capability.”
“The FBT exemption and the government rebate that’s there is actually the best rebate globally,”
Luke Todd, CEO at EV Direct
Todd and his business partner, football legend Tim Cahill, shared their experiences from other markets globally, and the changes that were happening with rapid EV adoption.
“The world since COVID has changed, and the evolution of EVs has been so rapid,” explained Todd. “And there’s been a lot of talk, with fleet and consumer EVs that Australia’s missing out. And so the passion and desire of myself, and Tim, and the whole team has been, what’s happening around the world, we can bring that to Australia.”
“Over a year ago we launched as a brand that was pretty much unknown. Now we’re the talk of the town, which is great, but it’s not just because we’ve done well in marketing. It’s because we’ve got the best product and we’ve got a company like BYD that has a completely vertically integrated manufacturing process.”
“Tim, myself and the group invested a lot of money 12-18 months ago in securing our own manufacturing supply chain by having right hand slots in the mega factories inside BYD in China. And that’s what allows us to bring these vehicles, that really should be 30-40% higher in price, to Australia at a price point that we have been able to do. And for our fleet audience, the ATTO 3 is fully ANCAP five star rated and the Dolphin is designed and engineered to be five star ANCAP.”
“So these are vehicles a fleet can drive away at a $51,100 for the ATTO 3, and the Dolphin at $39,991. These are prices that are not just competitive. They are beyond price parity with petrol vehicles. And there’s a lot of talk as I said about what Australia’s been missing out on. We want BYD, and the work we do to be the brand and be the team that changes that.”
Leasing providers are reporting a massive spike in enquires and deliveries of electric vehicles as novated leases. To date, only a few brands have benefited because they had the stock to deliver. BYD are expecting to get a slice of this market with increased supply, more products and a lower price point to attract more people into salary packaging.
“The FBT exemption and the government rebate that’s there is actually the best rebate globally,” says Todd.
“When you add up the calculations with the salary sacrifice, people don’t realise yet how good that is. So I think the message we want to convey to the fleet world is, our arms are now wide open to the fleet world.”
