OPINION: BYD ‘invasion’: fact or PR flood?

NEVER underestimate the power of a saturation marketing and PR campaign.

Any media-alert reader could hardly have missed the efforts by Chinese car manufacturer BYD (‘Build Your Dreams’) to publicise the first arrival in Australia of one of its company-owned PCTC, BYD Zhengzhou.

BYD Zhengzhou is the seventh of eight carriers the company has had built for its own exports, and the last (so far) of a class of four 7,000 CEU ships. It is of regular post-Panamax dimensions, i.e. 199.99 x 38 metres, and was delivered in July last year. It is LNG/dual-fuelled and registered in Hong Kong.

It is named after the Henan Province location of BYD’s largest and newest manufacturing plant, said to be capable of turning out a finished car every 30 seconds. BYD, which started as a battery manufacturer, opened the first of eight phases of Zhengzhou in 2023 and half-way through the planned expansion, already employs 60,000 people. It occupies an area greater than that of the city of San Francisco and will eventually produce more than 1 million EVs per year.

There are now more than 20 Chinese vehicle brands on sale in Australia and more expected this year. China is now Australia’s largest source market, with the myriad brands and sub-brands accounting for 24% of sales according to latest industry figures.

This time last year BYD had sold 11,974 cars. This year, in April alone, BYD sold 7702 cars in Australia, overtaking Mazda, Kia, Hyundai and usual No. 2 Ford. Toyota remains on top – but for how long?

BYD is now Australia's second-best-selling brand on a monthly basis, with year-on-year volume up 110.8% to 25,243 units (at end April).

According to DCN sources, BYD cars have been arriving on the ships of a number of carriers, and also in containers on scheduled services.

BYD Zhengzhou left Shanghai in mid-May and spent some time enroute in Singapore, presumably bunkering, before arriving in Melbourne on Sunday [31 May]. On this ‘show-the-flag’ voyage it is delivering 4810 EVs and hybrids, spread across the company’s many BYD and Denza brands, and unloaded at AAT facilities in Melbourne, Port Kembla and Brisbane.

It is unclear whether a regular BYD PCTC service is in prospect: DCN sought answers from BYD Australia’s media unit but received no reply.

Presumably those folk are too busy with the current awareness campaign, which is actually running worldwide judging by stories appearing in dozens of publications internationally, and began even before the ship had left Shanghai.

This was followed by what amounted to a countdown – not for the arrival of a new cruise ship, or a ‘slightly’ delayed ferry or two, but a humble car carrier!

And as I write this on Wednesday there are still double-page spreads in major newspapers and breathless coverage on TV news bulletins across the nation. This is advertising money can’t buy. I suppose we should be grateful media has not automatically labelled BYD Zhengzhou a tanker or a container ship, or obsessed about how much fuel or dangerous chemicals it has onboard.

But exaggerations and untested claims abound, not least that this is the largest PCTC ever to come to Australia. These are most prolific on social media – along with some frankly bonkers commentary about BYD Zhengzhou portending the imminent communist invasion. Of course.

But mainstreamers are also well adrift: viz today’s Nine reports that BYD is the only car manufacturer to own and operate its own ships … hello Hyundai Glovis, with 50+ ships! And Ford Australia – understandable just a little irritated by all the hullabaloo – has pointed out it has two chartered PCTCs, the 5,200 CEU Grand Quest and 4,900 CEU CSAV Rio Nevado, running back-to-back voyages from Thailand, for more than two years (the service is managed by Polaris Autoliners of the UK). OK, that’s not directly manufacturer-owned – not least because there is no longer any Australian car-building.

Let’s put some perspective into the ‘largest’ claims.

BYD Zhengzhou is barely more than mid-size in today’s PCTC world. At 199.99 x 38 metres it is a standard post-Panamax design, and at 7,000 CEU common-as-muck. It was completed in July last year, the fourth of a class which has been joined by four 9,200 CEU vessels.

As long ago as 2015 K Line introduced its Hawaiian Highway class, of 7,500 CEU, at 199.99 x 38 metres – that is, more than 10 years ago. Höegh’s Target class, introduced from the same year, are 8,500 CEU, 200 x 37 and their Aurora class, delivery of the first tranche of which has just completed, is 9,100 CEU and 220 x 38 metres.

Currently the world’s largest PCTC is Glovis Leader, at 10,800 CEU, 230 x 40 metres. It is only a matter of time before that benchmark falls: the second generation of Wallenius Wilhelmsen’s Shaper class, due 2028, is listed at 11,700 CEU.

I realise that such ‘distinctions’ are probably of little interest to the general public and claims of ‘the biggest’ may be routinely treated with scepticism. But it all plays into BYD’s image-building.

The company has proudly claimed that this massive shipment of EVs is responding to an explosion in demand and enables faster delivery to customers than other brands. This hunger for EVs has been prompted by the effect of the Middle East conflict on petrol and diesel prices, BYD says. There has been no mention that Chinese EV manufacturers have been excluded from the massive North American market by the Trump Administration’s anti-China stance, meaning there are literally hundreds of thousand Chinese EVs looking for other homes, including Australia.

BYD says it intends to ship another 30,000 vehicles to Australia before the end of the financial year – which, 27 days away, seems a tad improbable.

But that’s not the point. BYD’s marketing and communication people have set out to “own the space” and have absolutely nailed the brief, stage-managing the arrival of a “giant of the seas” in a carefully choreographed publicity blitz that can only be rated a triumph.

Real world result: a neighbour of mine has just taken delivery of three BYDs for his home and business. They replace a Hyundai and two Volvos (!), both EVs.