BYD recently announced that it will deliver as many as 30,000 new energy vehicles to Australia before the end of June – three times the usual number – as it works to meet a surge in demand for plug-in hybrid (PHEV) and battery electric (BEV) models.

Perhaps obviously, that unprecedented arrival of some 600 vehicles a day has created something of a logistical challenge for a growing brand.

With 100 dealerships nation-wide, the volume of vehicles requiring transportation, pre-delivery inspection, and delivery to customers per day is pushing the capacity of BYD’s network to a level it is yet to experience, prompting a rethink in the way it delivers its cars.Speaking with GoAuto Premium at the launch of the Shark 6 cab-chassis and Shark 6 Performance in Melbourne this week, BYD Australia and New Zealand chief operating officer Stephen Collins said the implementation of off-site Delivery Centres will ease the strain on the dealership forecourt.

“We are starting to implement some innovative ways to get cars to our customers quicker,” he said.

“That really starts with production. As you would have seen this week, we have the BYD Zhengzhou coming to Australia with 5000 vehicles, which raises the next question of how we get those cars through our system and out to the dealers, and then out to our customers, as quickly as possible.

“So, we have been working with our retail partners, particularly in major capital cities, to open dedicated delivery centres. These are locations where we can handle larger delivery volumes while still making sure it (the handover process) is a great experience for our customers.”

While Mr Collins was determined BYD customers would receive their vehicles as quickly as possible, he understood that dealership business could not be put on hold. Sales and service would need to continue as normal while as many as 600 vehicles per day were delivered to customers.

BYD Australia and New Zealand chief operating officer Stephen Collins

“These dedicated pre-delivery and customer delivery centres require space, infrastructure, people, and processes … it’s a solution that is helping us get cars to our customers more quickly,” he added.

“This is literally brand new for us, and we are still getting some of the Delivery Centres up and running … it is certainly helping us with the capacity throughput increase that we have seen over the last little while.”

While the Delivery Centres are helping BYD from a logistical standpoint, Mr Collins said he was determined that the customer experience was not diluted.

He said it was important that customers received that same level of service they would at the dealership, requiring the company to quickly train new staff for the role.

“We must make sure it’s a good experience for the customer. That’s delivered through good process and through having the right people deliver the car,” he stressed.

“Our cars are high-tech, and there is a lot of information to pass along at handover. We can’t just throw a customer the keys and say, ‘here’s your car’. We are determined to make it a really good experience that is equal to what they would receive at the dealership.“This is about capacity. The volume of cars we are delivering requires space, and our dealer partners are meeting that challenge by leasing more property, employing more people, and so on. That’s how we’re scaling up.”

While Mr Collins has spoken previously to the importance of ensuring the BYD dealership and service network covers both metropolitan and regional locations, he said the current majority share of deliveries was centred on buyers in capital cities.

“We are looking at one (Delivery Centre) in each capital city at this point in time, and that adds incrementally to everything we’re already got,” he told GoAuto Premium.

“Every single dealership is at capacity at the moment, and we’ll continue to monitor that and add more (Delivery Centres) in other areas if required.

“There has been such intense growth over a short period of time, so getting the logistics to match that growth has been a bit of a challenge.

“But the commitment is there. We have these cars in production; we have vessels coming full of cars; and we have a commitment to deliver to our customers as quickly as we can.”