After a yr on sale in Australia, the BYD Seal electrical sedan overtook the favored Toyota Camry in month-to-month gross sales for the primary time in December.
BYD reported 412 Seal deliveries in December 2024’s VFACTS trade gross sales report in comparison with the Camry’s 387 – the bottom month-to-month determine recorded for the Camry in 2024.
It isn’t the primary time an electrical automobile (EV) has outsold the Camry, with the Tesla Mannequin 3 notching 1732 gross sales in December, but it surely’s the primary time the BYD Seal has pushed previous the Japanese stalwart.
Regardless of the progressive decline in Camry gross sales within the fourth quarter of the yr – 661, 400, and 387 gross sales for October, November, and December respectively – it nonetheless ended up nicely forward of the Seal in total gross sales for the calendar yr.
Toyota delivered 15,401 Camrys in 2024, with month-to-month highs of 2468 in Could and 2013 in June.
In the meantime BYD delivered 6393 Seals by way of the yr, with month-to-month totals remaining above 300 in all however September, whereas it set a month-to-month report of 1002 deliveries in Could.
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The Seal hit Australian showrooms in December 2023 and BYD recorded 471 deliveries in its first month available on the market.
In that month, Toyota recorded 1312 Camry deliveries, which implies its December 2024 determine was 70.5 per cent down yr over yr.
In October 2023, Toyota stopped orders of the Camry in Australia in response to “extraordinary demand”, at which level it confirmed 90 per cent of potential patrons have been choosing the hybrid model of the sedan over the petrol different.
In December, it was reported a good portion of these ready to take supply of a brand new Camry have been switching their order to the new-generation mannequin that had been revealed the month prior.
That new hybrid-only mannequin arrived in September 2024 after the Camry had been unavailable to order for practically a yr yr. Nevertheless, throughout this time month-to-month gross sales for the Camry remained robust as VFACTS outcomes are based mostly on deliveries, and Toyota had a major order backlog.
As such, the case with the Seal shouldn’t be essentially that its gross sales elevated massively, however moderately that Toyota is within the midst of a gross sales hunch with its Camry.
The Seal stays considered one of Australia’s best-selling EVs although, even when its December gross sales have been down on the MG 4 and each Tesla’s Mannequin 3 and Mannequin Y.
For context, Tesla bought 17,094 Mannequin 3s in 2024.
In VFACTS’ mid-sized passenger automobile underneath $60,000 section, the Camry and Seal are far forward of the third-place Mazda 6, which notched 1354 gross sales in 2024.
In any case, Toyota nonetheless loved a robust 2024 as an entire to report a 12.1 per cent year-on-year enhance in deliveries, ending with a complete of 241,296 deliveries. It’s nonetheless Australia’s best-selling model by far.
BYD, in the meantime, ranked seventeenth total, however the Seal and new Sealion 6 SUV contributed to a 64.5 per cent year-on-year gross sales enhance because it completed with a complete of 20,458 deliveries for 2024.
The 2 automobiles are comparable in measurement – even when there’s a 120mm distinction in size in favour of the Camry – however characteristic considerably totally different powertrains.
The Seal is accessible with single-motor rear-wheel drive and dual-motor all-wheel drive electrical powertrains. Claimed driving vary varies between 460km and 570km relying on the variant.
Alternatively, the front-wheel drive Camry is accessible with a single naturally aspirated 2.5-litre four-cylinder hybrid powertrain, that includes a constantly variable transmission (CVT).
The Seal is mostly dearer than the Camry, as its costs vary from $49,888 to $68,748 earlier than on-roads in comparison with between $39,990 and $53,990 earlier than on-roads.
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