While some premium brands try to play down their mainstream genetics, Chinese premium brand Denza will lean into its parent BYD when it launches in Australia before the end of 2025.
As reported earlier this week, Denza will arrive in Australia charged with the task of quickly becoming a major sales player in Australia.
To do that, also as reported, it will be able to draw on its fellow BYD sub-brands Yangwang and Fangchengbao for its model line.
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But it will also highlight its relationship with BYD, which has become an almost instant success story in Australia with its line-up of affordable plug-in hybrid and EV models led by the popular Shark 6 dual cab ute.
The Denza Australia line-up is expected to include the Fangchengbao Bao 5 and Bao 8 off-roaders, which have strong mechanical links with the Shark 6. Other potential models include the Denza Z9 GT, D9 people-mover, N9 and N7 crossovers and Z9 sedan. The Yangwang U8 SUV is also a serious contender.
First Denza deliveries to Australian customers will start in early 2026 from 10 standalone dealers located in metro areas.
“We’re not going to shy away from saying that we’re part of BYD,” declared Denza Australia & New Zealand chief operating officer Mark Harland.
“I think we’ve built BYD in a way here that it feels like an accessible mainstream brand.
“It’s a mainstream brand but it does have the quality, the safety and all those attributes you would expect in a higher-end brand.
“So we don’t want to shy away from that. That’s part of our DNA, but it’s separate drivetrains in many cases, separate interiors, different customer experience.”
Not all premium and luxury brands adopt the same policy. For instance, Genesis doesn’t promote its links with Hyundai nor Lexus its ownership by Toyota.
Harland knows the BYD brand intimately because he played a key role in its local establishment as COO of EVDirect, the independent distributor that has only just handed the local rights to the brand back to the factory.
Before that he spent years as an executive of General Motors, including a period as chief marketing officer at Holden in its waning years as an importer.
Harland is counting on the support of the BYD factory in ways he could have only dreamed of at Holden, where right-hand drive production sources essentially dried up and helped close it down.
BYD’s vertical integration of production – estimated at more than 80 per cent – which aids quick turnaround times means order to delivery times for customers could be slashed compared to the norm.
“I can make a phone call today to say ‘I’ve just secured a thousand orders’ and they’ll be on a ship tomorrow to get here,” promised Harland.
“Some brands have done a nice job to establish the brand and then customers get to wait six to nine months for the product to actually get here. I can get that product here in six weeks.
“I can also – if that product is not hitting – either change that product really quickly or move to another one.
“So that’s the flexibility of the supply chain at BYD Denza. It just gives me all kinds of options to really fine-tune to what the customers are looking for.”
But he cautioned not all left-hand drive Denza, Yangwang and FCB models would automatically be available to Australia.
“We have access to cars that are currently being sold and cars that will be in the future,” Harland confirmed. “But a business case needs to be made.
“They’ll do the work for the right-hand drive markets and if, let’s say, it’s a niche car and they think we’re only going to sell a thousand cars a year in all the right-hand drive markets, then it’s not a really good business decision to convert it to a right-hand drive.”
Harland has only recently come back from his first visit to BYD in China as Denza Australia COO where he was quizzed on product improvements.
“’What’s working, what’s not working ,what can we correct like immediately with a software update or running production change? If not, we’ll put it in the mid cycle’.” Harland recounted.
“They listen to our input, they want to get better and they act and then they act with urgency.”
