BYD sent shockwaves through the automotive industry when it announced that an electric vehicle (EV) would become Australia’s cheapest new car for the first time ever, but brand executives say that’ll likely change in the new year.
The Chinese brand introduced a drive-away deal for the Atto 1 light electric hatch that brought its entry price down to $19,990 drive-away in September 2026, undercutting the smaller, petrol-powered Kia Picanto micro-hatch to become Australia’s cheapest new car – a first for an EV.
The retail incentive was introduced with an end date of December 15, 2026, and two local executives have now indicated the Atto 1’s typical price of $23,990 before on-road costs will likely be reinstated once that date passes.
Why is that important? As with established brands, some Chinese brands have repeatedly extended discount deals beyond their originally advertised end dates, making vehicles available for considerably less than their normal list prices for long periods of time.
A notable example is the Chery Tiggo 7 Super Hybrid mid-size SUV. Its drive-away price of $34,990 was announced as an end-of-financial-year (EOFY) offer earlier this year, but it stayed unchanged after its published end date of June 30. The brand now says that the price is in effect until September 30.
Perhaps co-incidentally, GWM and MG have also quietly extended the same June 30 deadline to September 30 for drive-away prices of their plug-in hybrid H6 PHEV and HS Super Hybrid mid-size SUVs respectively, which continue to be offered for a respective $39,990 and $42,990 drive-away.
Of course, BYD has also extended previous discounts beyond their original end dates, but it often changes its incentives and deal structures when extending an offer, rather than leaving them unchanged.
“We do that to stimulate interest and to remain competitive,” BYD Australia chief product officer Sajid Hasan told CarExpert.
“There’s a lot of sales and finance campaigns going on in the market right now, so this is just another one of them. It’s a way for us to, I guess, test the price elasticity in the segment.
“It’s only short-term, so come the first of January, the [Atto 1’s original] price point will come back. We’ll evaluate the situation and see what other offers, retail offers, we can do and how that evolves.”
BYD Australia chief operating officer, Stephen Collins, echoed Mr Hasan’s sentiment.
“Consistency and transparency are really important to us. In a market of 1.2 million vehicles with 70-odd players, I think Australia is arguably the most competitive market in the world,” he told CarExpert.
“So for us in terms of offers, yes, we turn offers on, we turn offers off. Sometimes it’s finance, sometimes it’s not. You need to stay competitive and you need to have a compelling reason for consumers to look online and come into your showrooms.
“So, yeah, look, we want to be competitive in that space, but it’s not our primary focus.”
Asked to confirm whether the base Atto 1 Essential’s original starting price of $23,990 plus on-roads would be reinstated later this year, Mr Collins replied “yeah, I think so”.
Of course, new-car price cuts impact the resale values of used cars, but Mr Hasan said BYD doesn’t expect there to be much of an impact on residual values for early adopters of the Atto 1.
“I think people that are buying these vehicles will recognise that there’s going to be campaigns on the vehicles from time to time,” he said.
“I don’t think the residual impact of a vehicle that’s in the low-$20,000s has too much of an impact over the longer term. I’m sure if they decided to sell the vehicle now, they’ll probably see an impact.
“This is just for the Essential customers. The majority of our customers actually did step up to the Premium.”
The Atto 1 remains available in two variants, though the current drive-away deal only applies to the entry-level Essential grade. The top-spec Premium has an unchanged retail price of $27,990 before on-road costs.
BYD’s push into affordable electrified vehicles was recently bolstered by the introduction of the Atto 2 DM-i, a new plug-in hybrid (PHEV) version of the small electric SUV. It’s been priced from $24,990 before on-road costs, making it Australia’s cheapest PHEV, and so far there are no incentives or drive-away discounts for the new model.
Last week BYD denied it was engaging in a price war in Australia, following calls by the Chinese government for Chinese automakers to refrain from “creating disorder” in overseas auto markets.
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