{"id":640926,"date":"2026-05-04T16:10:59","date_gmt":"2026-05-04T14:10:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/?p=640926"},"modified":"2026-05-04T16:15:03","modified_gmt":"2026-05-04T14:15:03","slug":"chinese-company-changing-how-south-africans-think-about-electric-cars","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/motoring\/640926-chinese-company-changing-how-south-africans-think-about-electric-cars.html","title":{"rendered":"Chinese company changing how South Africans think about electric cars"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
Chinese electric vehicle (EV) giant BYD has made significant inroads into the South African market, despite long-standing consumer scepticism about the local feasibility of these cars.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
An unreliable grid, concerns about long-term EV battery life, range anxiety, and high prices have hampered the adoption of fully electric cars in South Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Nissan Leaf and BMW i3 were the first mass-produced EVs to launch in South Africa over a decade ago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
While model options have expanded substantially in recent years, EVs only accounted for about 0.2% of new cars sold in South Africa in 2025. BYD is quickly helping to change that. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
BYD’s first official sales numbers, shared with the National Association of Automobile Manufacturers of South Africa (Naamsa) in March 2026, ranked the Chinese giant 21st among the best-selling brands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Achieving a total of 589 sales, it outsold much more established brands, including Honda, Mazda, Mitsubishi, and Jaguar Land Rover. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Its most affordable fully-electric car made the biggest contribution. Launched in September 2025 at a starting price of R339,900, the BYD Dolphin Surf has been a local hit for the carmaker.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Surf accounted for 239 sales, roughly 41% of the 589 BYD models sold during the month. Other fully-electric cars \u2014 the Atto 3, Dolphin, Seal, and Sealion 7 \u2014 contributed another 54 sales.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The five fully electric models made up just about half of BYD’s total sales in March 2026, with the other 50% coming from its plug-in hybrid models.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For reference, the total number of EVs sold in South Africa’s record year for EV sales was 1,257 in 2024. The top-selling brands in the segment \u2014 BMW and Volvo Cars \u2014 sold 545 and 539 EVs, respectively.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Considering the Surf was launched in September 2025, BYD may already have been South Africa’s top-selling EV brand last year. The company has not yet shared sales figures pre-March 2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
BYD wary of competition<\/h2>\n\n\n\nBYD Dolphin Surf (front left) and GWM Ora 03 (top right) charging in a shopping mall parking in Pretoria.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
A reputable local industry source believes that BYD deliberately withheld sales information for as long as possible to avoid encouraging rival EV heavyweights to enter the market.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Showing there is increased interest in EVs prematurely could have reduced BYD’s early-mover advantage in lower-priced models in South Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
MyBroadband asked the company for feedback regarding these allegations, but it did not provide a comment by the time of publication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It remains to be seen whether BYD can maintain its momentum in South Africa and grow sales, especially as EV competition in the sub-R500,000 price segment intensifies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Until recently, BYD’s affordable NEV offering has largely been uncontested in this price range, with only one other brand \u2014 Dongfeng \u2014 offering electrified products below half a million rand. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
That changed with the local launch of a major global rival to the Surf \u2014 Geely’s E2 hatchback \u2014 on 14 April 2026. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Priced from R339,900 for the Aspire model, the E2 offers many advantages over the Surf, which currently costs R2,000 more. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Geely E2 has a more powerful electric motor with faster acceleration, roughly 100km more range than BYD’s entry-level option, a significantly more spacious cabin, and a larger boot. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
It also offers a wide range of advanced safety and convenience features that are only available on the higher-spec Surf.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The car’s combination of competitive pricing, extensive features, and practicality helped make it China’s best-selling car in 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Geely is a fierce competitor of BYD on the global stage. In the first two months of the year, its global sales exceeded BYD’s by 70,000. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
While Geely’s previous attempt to break into the South African market failed, the company has come a long way from the cheap, bare-bones petrol cars it offered locally more than a decade ago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Geely Group of today has acquired many formidable and recognisable brands, including Volvo, Polestar, and Lotus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One way in which BYD could set its brand apart is with its cutting-edge public charging technology. The brand plans to roll out 200 to 300 public chargers in South Africa in 2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Offering free or discounted public charging for BYD vehicles could steer car buyers away from competitors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Extensive public charging facilities with excellent pricing are some of the major factors that helped push Tesla to the world’s top-selling EV brand for many years. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
BYD has a significant advantage over Geely with its Flash Megawatt Charging facilities, supported by its in-house battery energy storage systems.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Despite unreliable grid power and consumer skepticism over battery life and range, BYD is convincing many motorists that electric cars are feasible in South Africa.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":341042,"featured_media":638088,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29366],"tags":[85881,101463,104178,104541,104540,52237,87583,31960,67290,80829,104314,104313,82633],"class_list":["post-640926","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-motoring","tag-byd","tag-byd-dolphin-surf","tag-byd-flash-charging","tag-chinese-car-brands","tag-chinese-car-manufacturers","tag-electric-car-charging","tag-electric-car-sales","tag-electric-cars","tag-electric-vehicles-evs","tag-ev-sales","tag-geely-e2","tag-geely-ex2","tag-national-association-of-automobile-manufacturers-of-south-africa-naamsa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/640926"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/341042"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=640926"}],"version-history":[{"count":24,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/640926\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":641295,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/640926\/revisions\/641295"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/638088"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=640926"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=640926"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=640926"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/BYD-Dolphin-Surf-and-GWM-Ora-charging-EVs-1200x675.jpeg\")
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Geely-EX2_E2_headline-1200x675.jpg\")