GWM has acknowledged the strong start by fellow Chinese auto brand BYD in the Australian car market, but also accused it being “too aggressive” by slashing prices and “buying” market share.
Australia’s top-selling Chinese auto brand so far this year, GWM has sold 39,343 vehicles to September in 2025. BYD is next best, with 37,923 sales – but it outsold GWM in the last two months and is closing in rapidly with three months of the year to go.
Driving 23.7 per cent sales growth this year, GWM has launched seven new or updated models in Australia so far in 2025, with the Haval H6 plug-in hybrid (PHEV) and Tank 500 PHEV being the latest two to be released, this month.
Meantime, BYD has posted a 149.8 per cent sales increase so far in 2025, and will add several more models to its lineup before the end of the year.
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BYD recently announced four new models for local release next month – including two large off-road SUVs from its new Denza sister brand, as well as the pint-size BYD Atto 1 electric hatch, which it claims will be Australia’s cheapest EV “by some margin”.
And while BYD’s previous independent importer made no secret of its intention to topple Toyota as Australia’s biggest selling auto brand, GWM is slightly more circumspect with a goal to achieve a top-five ranking by 2027 with the help of at least seven more new models in 2026.
“Full respect to my competitors,” said GWM International President Parker Shi to media last week in response to CarExpert’s query about the threat from BYD to GWM’s position as the most popular Chinese auto brand in Australia.
“We see the progress, we see the performance from BYD in Australia,” Mr Shi said.
“This is a very quick pick up, you know – the numbers of the dealership and the number of sales, the ranking, positions. We see the promotion, we see the marketing.
“My understanding is that it’s probability not right because I’m watching, I’m observing everywhere the BYD performance… they are being very aggressive – they’re too much aggressive, if I can use this word.
“Somehow, if I come outside the strategy, is it wrong, [or] right? For GWM business we are not doing such things – buying market share… We gained the market share by healthy means.
“I don’t want to say other people are not healthy, because everybody has their own priority, their own calculations for the business case, right?
“But we’re not waiting to engage in – I want to say price war but is there really a price war – [buying] market shares a faster way with price [cuts].”
Mr Shi also criticised slashing prices – like some rivals have – as having no benefit to customers, given their impact on resale values for existing owners.
“In a mature market like Australia, such things… we kiss the step progressively,” he said.
“We don’t want to have to do too much promotion, too much discontinuing, because they really have to meet them on resale.
“What’s the customer’s benefit? Then you talk to the customers… you hurt one time, nobody is allowed to harm them twice, so that’s why we care about the resale, we care about the service, the customer satisfaction.”
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