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News - BYDBYD outlines full build-date debacle responseMore compensation, new lives for returned vehicles in BYD’s build-date error response28 Jul 2026 BYD has upped customer compensation from an initial $1100 to $3500 in response to its recent build-date administration error, which affected 1265 Australian customers, and has outlined the process it went through to arrive at this figure in a bid to “do the right thing”.
The Chinese car-maker has also revealed what it intends to do with a potential flood of low-kilometre vehicles from customers who opted BYD’s later offer of a full refund or to exchange their 2025-built vehicle for one matching the 2026 build date on their paperwork.
BYD Australia director of public relations Paul Ellis said the new $3500 compensation figure is based on research from “reputable industry sources”.
“Our initial reaction was to reach out to customers and let them know – which is very important from a transparency perspective – and then also to offer a form of apology by way of a payment of $1100, which was an arbitrary figure we came up with, which was basically equivalent to the dealer delivery fee,” he told GoAuto at the Australian launch of the BYD Seal 6.
“So it’s our way of saying to the customers, we’re sorry. There is no difference to your car in terms of its compliance or its specification or its performance. It’s just an administrative error with the date of manufacture,” added Mr Ellis.
“As it evolved, we looked further into it and thought, well, let’s do some analysis and see what would actually be a more likely difference in perceived resale value from say 2025 to 2026.
"We did our research through third-party analysis with industry reputable sources like Redbook, and we determined that we should increase that from $1100 to a higher fee, and then we put an extra little safety buffer on that to make sure that we were giving the customers everything they’re entitled and maybe a little bit more just to be on the safe side.
“So we’ve got that to $3500. 72 per cent of customers we contacted with the $1100 offer accepted it. We are now contacting all those customers again and saying the $1100 is now going to be $3500.
“At the moment customers are very happy keeping their cars and have willingly accepted and graciously accepted the $3500.”
Mr Ellis claimed that BYD’s response to the situation has been motivated by the need to do the “right thing” by its customer base.
“We hope the most important impact it has on the business is that we’re seen as being transparent and honest, and being proactive in making sure that we do the right thing by our customers.
“There’s no hand behind us pushing us to do this. We’re doing it because we know it’s the right thing to do. That’s really important that we make that statement.
“How are we going to build our brand trust if we don’t seem to be doing the right thing? We’re a new brand, relatively speaking. We’re disrupting the market. There’s a lot of attention on us.”
The vehicles delivered back to BYD by affected owners will be given a new lease of life as dealer demonstrators or through company car fleets, according to Mr Ellis.
“In terms of vehicles that come back into the system, we need to manage those vehicles so we don’t have all of them going straight away onto the market. So a lot of those vehicles will be absorbed through company car fleets, through us, and also as dealer demonstrators.
“We’ve got over a hundred dealers now in Australia. Those vehicles will be absorbed, as many as possible within our existing business, so we can manage that volume coming back.”
BYD’s build-date debacle is not the first controversy the Chinese plug-in hybrid and battery electric vehicle brand has faced in Australia since landing on local shores in 2022.
In its first year in the market while under the stewardship of its then distributor EVDirect, BYD faced scrutiny for changing the warranty package for the Atto 3 in the lead-up to its launch from seven years and unlimited kilometres to a six-year/150,000km warranty.
The brand has also previously faced scrutiny over its aftersales support, an issue that in 2023 EVDirect chief executive Luke Todd said it was making moves to “quickly rectify.”
Early Atto 3 models were also recalled due to child seat anchorages not meeting Australian Design Rules.
Despite these controversies, BYD has still established itself among the best-selling automotive brands in Australia.
Last year, BYD landed eighth in the sales charts among Australia’s top 10 best-selling car makers with 52,415 vehicles sold, more than two and a half times the sales of the previous year.
Its best-selling model was the Shark 6 ute – with 18,073 examples sold – which topped plug-in hybrid sales.
As of the end of June 2026, BYD has delivered almost as many vehicles as it had during the entirety of 2025.  Read more |
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