BYD's plan to fix its biggest flaw: Chinese behemoth plans to boost after sales care for its vehicles such as the 2026 BYD Shark 6 and Sealion 7 after damning recent reports

Business is booming at BYD, but it is starting to experience some major growing pains.

Sales of the Chinese brand’s electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles are exploding in Australia, but cracks are starting to show in the company’s maintenance and customer service departments, angering customers.

Recent reports in the Australian Financial Review call out some of the customer service issues and maintenance problems owners are facing, including enormous wait times for spare parts and inadequately trained servicing staff.

New BYD Australia Chief Operating Officer Stephen Collins said improving those parts of the business is a major focus and the company had experienced some growing pains after its meteoric rise Down Under.

“We’re a brand which is expanding at a rapid rate. And what we need to do is make sure our after sales care, as well as our selling network, can facilitate a good experience,” said Collins.

He said the company was doubling its customer service team and opening a dealership almost every week somewhere around the country to better serve its customers.

Collins agreed that if BYD was to be a top-five contender and compete with Toyota, Mazda and the other big players it needed to improve its after sales experience.

“We've got work to do in that area. But it's really, really high on our priority list. And we've got to be good at everything,” said Collins.

“I think this market shows, if you're not good at everything, then you're not going to succeed.

“I think this year we're going to land well inside the top 10, but to keep improving we need to have all of the facets of a business — particularly from a customer care and a customer experience perspective — really top notch,” he said.

BYD won’t hit pause on its rapid growth to help its after sales departments catch up, though. 

The brand’s sales are up by more than 40 per cent this year, and Collins said he plans to keep this trajectory going.

“We're not taking our foot off the gas. We're still going to push pretty hard and by the end or by the start of next year we'll have a number of new products come into the market, and sort of filling some gaps in our line-up,” he said.