BYD's Denza coming to market later this year is expected to resonate with Australian customers, according to the brand.
It took Toyota and Hyundai decades before launching their own premium sub-brands in the form of Lexus and Genesis respectively, but BYD believes it is established enough already to make Denza work in Australia.
Speaking to Drive, a former BYD spokesperson addressed concerns that local buyers would not be receptive towards the Denza brand coming later this year.
“There is a strong appetite in the market for luxury vehicles, that’s been evidenced time and time again in the Australian market,” they said.
“To the surprise of probably a few people in the industry, Australians acceptability and enthusiasm for Chinese-built automobiles has been really impressive to see.
“I don’t think thing it’s too soon, and I think when the Australian consumer gets to experience the luxury and the technology [of Denza], I think they’ll embrace it.”
Since then, interest in the Chinese electrified vehicle specialist has exploded, and BYD has brought to market the Dolphin, Seal, Sealion 6, Sealion 7, and Shark 6.
To the end of May this year, BYD is currently ranked 12th in terms of outright sales, making it bigger than Volkswagen and Honda.
The Denza sub-brand is expected to launch in the coming months, with the Chinese brand to confirm which models it will bring to market before customer deliveries towards the end of 2025.
In terms of global market, BYD Auto was founded in 2003, but the company has its roots in battery manufacturing as far back as 1995.
Denza meanwhile, was founded in 2010 as a joint venture between BYD and Mercedes-Benz, but the German brand reduced its share in the company in 2021 to 10 per cent, and then exited in 2024.
However, a true premium marque from China has not emerged in Australia with any major impact.
Zeekr positions itself as a premium player, and reported 339 deliveries in Australia over the first five months of 2025 across 292 X SUVs and 47 examples of the 009 people mover, but with a target of 2000 to 3000 sales annually in the coming years.
When asked if there was a dissonance with customer perception of a Chinese brand and a premium brand, BYD Australia Head of Product Sajid Hasan said local buyers have an open mind.
“Australia is such a multicultural country, brands are becoming more and more global, I don’t think that [a brand’s country of origin] is such a strong consideration anymore,” he said.
“A brand’s heritage, a brand’s values, and how they portray themselves – I think those are the things that stand out as qualities that people focus on.
“For Denza, we’ve got a huge task at hand to develop it and make it aligned to what Australia luxury customers want and expect, but it’s an exciting opportunity because we’re starting from scratch and we’ve got a lot of learnings from the past.
“The best thing of all is that we’ve actually got a great line-up of products to work with, and for Denza, it’s allowed BYD’s engineers an outlet for them to express higher levels of creativity and enthusiasm and freedom for design – a larger chequebook when it comes to developing the products.
“And there’s some really awesome stuff coming.”
Tung Nguyen has been in the automotive journalism industry for over a decade, cutting his teeth at various publications before finding himself at Drive in 2024. With experience in news, feature, review, and advice writing, as well as video presentation skills, Tung is a do-it-all content creator. Tung’s love of cars first started as a child watching Transformers on Saturday mornings, as well as countless hours on PlayStation’s Gran Turismo, meaning his dream car is a Nissan GT-R, with a Liberty Walk widebody kit, of course.
