BYD has stated that local buyers will decide if the brand can unseat Toyota from its long-held position as sales leader, after surging to second place overall for the second month running in May 2026.

Toyota Australia still recorded 76,017 new vehicle deliveries in the opening five months of 2026, well clear of BYD's 33,454 units.

Even so, BYD has more than doubled its volume from 15,199 units at the same stage last year, while Toyota slipped from 100,753, steadily closing the distance between the two.

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BYD arrived in Australia during 2022 through importer EVDirect, where founder and executive director Luke Todd offered ambitious forecasts on how fast the Chinese marque could challenge Toyota for overall leadership.

"I'm on record as saying our target is 2027," Mr Todd told CarExpert in early 2025 when questioned about BYD's timeline to reach number-one status.

BYD assumed direct control of Australian distribution from EVDirect in mid-2025, though the firm continues as a dealer partner.

Toyota has topped Australian sales charts every year since 2003, when it first passed Holden. It also owns the record for the strongest yearly performance with 241,296 units in 2024, and its Corolla, HiLux and RAV4 have each led yearly charts in the past decade.

Toyota's market share stood near 19.3 per cent for 2025. Its January-to-May 2026 performance keeps it in front, yet share has eased from 20.3 per cent to 15.5 per cent compared with the prior year.

BYD's share has climbed from 3.1 per cent in May 2025 to 8.2 per cent in May 2026, led by the Sealion 7 SUV ahead of the Shark 6 ute. Year-to-date share sits at 6.8 per cent.

Addressing media, including CarExpert, at an event celebrating the arrival of nearly 5000 BYD vehicles in Melbourne yesterday, vice president Liu Xueliang offered a cautious view on when the brand might pass Toyota.

"Toyota is still an excellent company," said Mr Liu.

"We continue learning while working hard ourselves. Whether we can surpass Toyota in Australia ultimately depends on Australian consumers."

Toyota Australia released a statement yesterday that sought to provide perspective on the docking of the BYD Zhengzhou, one of its vessel carriers, which brought almost 5000 of the 30,000 vehicles BYD intends to import by the close of June.

The statement noted Toyota had arranged an extra 10,000 vehicles for Australia and remained on course for 220,000 deliveries in 2026.

BYD announced in April plans to deliver 30,000 vehicles to Australia amid rising demand, especially for its electric models.

April results backed the move, with BYD achieving a record 7702 sales to finish second overall for the first time.

The brand repeated the result in May with 8211 sales to hold second behind Toyota, which sold 16,342 vehicles.

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