{"id":883885,"date":"2026-11-12T07:56:10","date_gmt":"2026-11-12T05:56:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=883885"},"modified":"2026-11-12T07:56:13","modified_gmt":"2026-11-12T05:56:13","slug":"byd-teaches-audi-a-lesson-in-south-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/motoring\/883885\/byd-teaches-audi-a-lesson-in-south-africa\/","title":{"rendered":"BYD teaches Audi a lesson in South Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

BYD is dominating Audi in South Africa in one very important area – how the brand is reported on in the media.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was the finding of Press Pulse\u2019s latest online media sentiment ranking, which compared the performance of top German luxury car brands and their Chinese competitors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The media sentiment ranking produced by Press Pulse uses an artificial intelligence (AI) sentiment-measuring system for online media reports in the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With a focus on South African reporting from top-tier online media publications, it measures a company’s success in achieving positive exposure and share of voice in the market.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The ranking showed that Audi has the worst media sentiment score among the automotive brands measured – beaten by BMW, Mercedes, GWM, Chery, and BYD.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The graphic below shows the latest Press Pulse online media sentiment rankings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

BYD achieved the top sentiment score, which was 38.58. Audi achieved the lowest sentiment score, which was -3.36.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Worrying sign<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The substantial loss to BYD in media sentiment score is particularly relevant to Audi.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While many Chinese car brands have positioned themselves as a great choice for entry-level and mid-level car buyers, BYD offers a range of high-end luxury vehicles that compete directly against Audi.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The BYD Sealion 7 SUV<\/a><\/strong>, for example, starts at over R1.1 million – and goes up to R1.32 million for the top-end version. This puts it in the same price bracket as the Audi Q5 SUV.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another good example is the BYD Seal and the Audi A5. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The BYD Seal is a five-door sedan that starts at R1 million, and is positioned as a vehicle an executive would drive. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Audi A5 is a five-door sedan that starts at R1.1 million<\/a><\/strong>, and is positioned as a vehicle an executive would drive. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

With both brands offering high-end technology and luxury, and also being similarly priced, the decision on which vehicle a South African buys will therefore come down to perception.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Positive media sentiment is extremely important in this regard, as it allows them to build trust with potential customers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If an automotive brand has a large, positive share of voice in the media space, it makes it a lot easier to attract new clients.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Car buyers will see the brand in a positive light and trust them with their purchase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is why automotive companies spend a lot of time and money developing powerful media strategies, using a combination of paid-media, advertorials, press releases, thought leadership content, and executive interviews to deliver their message.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By doing so, they ensure they position themselves as a market leader in South Africa.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BYD is dominating Audi in South Africa in one very important area.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":883888,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"failed","_sma_x_autopost_error":"Instagram publishing failed: Instagram returned HTTP 400: Media ID is not available","_sma_x_post_id":"2120759004175495546","_sma_facebook_post_id":"191437357620492_2270254093794989","_sma_instagram_post_id":"","_sma_x_attempts":1,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11119],"tags":[7883,5365,18091,10479,16686,12987,22562],"class_list":["post-883885","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-motoring","tag-audi","tag-bmw","tag-byd","tag-chery","tag-gwm","tag-mercedes","tag-press-pulse"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/883885","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=883885"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/883885\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":883915,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/883885\/revisions\/883915"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/883888"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=883885"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=883885"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=883885"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}