The rise of EVs built in China and rapid advances in battery capability have started to eat into Tesla’s once formidable market-leading position on electric vehicles, but the Australian boss of BYD thinks his company’s success runs deeper than that alone.

And, he’s not surprised by how quickly BYD has risen up the sales charts in Australia.

“It wasn’t a surprise, and I mean it wasn’t a surprise to us,” Collins told Wheels. “You know, I don’t sit in my officer and we don’t sit in meeting rooms, obsessing about Tesla. We’re doing our own thing, and how they drespond, whether they reposed, is 100 per cent up to them.”

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Rather than early adopters, BYD is keen to reiterate its strength in the numbers of buyers and owners who might otherwise be called mainstream. “What we’ve found is a mainstream buyer across a number of segments and models that is really accepting the technology that we’re delivering,” Collins said. “I think the short answer is, we don’t sit there, obsessed by Tesla. For us, it’s all about what we’re doing and what we can do better, and what they do is up to them.”

Is there a clear line, then, between whether price is the driver, or range is the driver in the mind of the buyer?

“I think very strongly, it’s value,” Collins said. “Value more than price specifically, so prices are part of it, but for us, it’s the value component – the combination of the technology, the connectivity, the range, and the standard specification.”

For BYD, then, the brand will continue to focus on not just batteries, or range, but on what it knows it can bring to market at a competitive price.

“It’s multifaceted, and I guess what we’re trying to do is concentrate on all of those facts, not just what the lead price is,” Collins said. “And, when we talk about price, our strategy has to be to launch as aggressively as we can, and to maintain price integrity, because we know in the future residuals are important and we know what supports good residuals and what can kill good residuals.”