When we’ve spoken previously, consumer BYD sales have mainly been for the Seal U DM-i, with fleet sales mostly Seal and Sealion 7. I ask Beattie if that has changed now that more new BYD product has been launched?

Beattie said: “Seal and Sealion 7 are still a really strong part of fleet. In fact, with one of the big leasing companies, we were number one in salary sacrifice last year, so those products continue to do a really good job in fleet.

“We’re starting to see more uptake of Atto 2 and Dolphin Surf now, which is good for our smaller cars. Seal 6 DM-i is doing okay - 4th in fleet - but that C/D SUV segment in fleet is super competitive with high discount levels. It is probably the most aggressively discounted market I’ve seen in that SUV segment. We don’t play too hard on discount for that.”

DM-i models have always done well on the consumer side, but I ask if he’s noticed any changes to fleet take-up for plug-in hybrid models, too?

Beattie said: “We’ve definitely seen an increase in DM-i. There are still lots of organisations out there where it’s not simple for their drivers to run an EV - as charging at home can be a challenge for everybody. Plus, the charging infrastructure isn’t as perfect as it should be, and the cost of charging is super expensive. So fleets are looking at DM-i.

“We’ve done some really strong fleet deals to some big end users, household names, that are using them for sales and engineering teams. We’ll see what Seal 6 estate can do, because there’s a lot of opportunity for that in the fleet world. It bridges the gap, as it’s not as expensive as a petrol car from a company car tax perspective.

“What we do know is DM-i works really well with rental cars. There’s a lot of opportunity for us there - it’s both supporting and driving our sales.”

Is that through daily rental, I ask - is BYD doing much?

Beattie said: “Yeah, daily rental is an important channel for us. As a new brand, we’ve sold 35,000 cars this year, and we’ve also done about 4,500 rental. All of those are on buyback - they all come back to us after six months, and then we sell them through retailers as used cars.

“Daily rental gets lots of different customers in our product who wouldn’t necessarily have considered us. We find once they’ve tested our product, they generally put it on their shopping list when buying.”

I move on to ask if he sees the mix between hybrid and EV changing for fleet, or is it still very much an EV market?

Beattie said: “Interesting question. I know if I was a fleet driver, and there’s DM-i and EV Atto 2 models on my company car list - we’re roughly talking £100 a month difference in tax. The choice for fleet drivers depends on their lifestyle and whether they want to pay extra for DM-i versus EV.

“What we are seeing in the wider market, even in the last two months, EV sales have been on fire. From a sales perspective that’s being driven by people looking for fuel cost savings because fuel is expensive. We’re seeing people want those as company cars, which is boosting the new and used EV market. For me that’s great, because that’s what the fleet team is doing - putting more and more of these EVs out there.”

So, I ask if his focus is to push DM-i more in fleet channels, rather than BYD being known as an EV brand.

Beattie said: “Yes, but there are things that we need to do. First is to continue what we do now. Seal and Sealion 7 are doing an incredible job for us.

“We need to make sure our smaller electric models are positioned right for fleet - there’s a piece of work to be done there.

“Finally, we need to make sure DM-i is seen as the equivalent option in the fleet world.”