Ryco Expands Chinese Vehicle Filter Range as BYD, GWM, MG and Chery Sales Surge in Australia
Chinese vehicles have gone from being the new kids in the Australian car park to taking up a sizeable chunk of it. With brands including BYD, GWM, MG, Chery and Geely piling on sales, Ryco has expanded its oil, air, cabin and fuel filter coverage to 88 Chinese vehicle models, giving independent workshops a fighting chance of keeping up with one of the fastest-changing sections of the Australian vehicle market.
Chinese-built SUVs and 4WDs are rapidly increasing their presence on Australian roads, creating a growing servicing opportunity for independent workshops.
There was a time, not terribly long ago, when spotting a Chinese car on an Australian road was unusual enough to make you look twice at the badge.
Not anymore.
Walk through a shopping centre car park today and you can play a considerably more difficult version of automotive bingo. BYD, GWM, Haval, MG, Chery, Omoda, Jaecoo, Geely, LDV, Tank and assorted other badges are now mixed in among the Toyotas, Fords, Mazdas and Hyundais we have been staring at for decades.
And they aren’t just making up the numbers.
According to the latest full-month sales figures available, Chinese-built vehicles accounted for more than one in every three new vehicles sold in Australia during August 2026. In 2025, Chinese-built vehicles represented about 20 per cent of Australian new-vehicle sales, up from around 14 per cent in 2024. That is an extraordinary change in a very short period of time.
Just five Chinese brands, BYD, GWM, MG, Geely and Chery, recorded a combined 26,610 Australian sales during August. Against an overall market of 108,760 vehicles, those five brands alone accounted for roughly a quarter of everything delivered during the month, before you start adding the smaller Chinese manufacturers. BYD was Australia’s second-highest selling brand for August, while GWM, MG and Geely also finished inside the top ten.
So, whatever anyone’s opinion may be about Chinese cars, the argument over whether they are coming to Australia has become somewhat academic.
They’re here.
And eventually they all need servicing.
Ryco has expanded its air, oil, cabin and fuel filter coverage as Chinese vehicle sales continue to grow across Australia.
Chinese vehicles move into the workshop
That last point is particularly important to the independent automotive aftermarket.
Selling a new vehicle is one thing. Keeping it serviced for the next five, ten or fifteen years is quite another, and as the first large waves of Chinese vehicles accumulate kilometres and eventually move beyond their new-car warranty periods, independent workshops are going to see considerably more of them.
Ryco has clearly noticed which way the traffic is heading.
The company’s filtration coverage for Chinese marques now extends across 88 models, covering passenger cars, SUVs, 4x4s and light commercial vehicles.
The applications include vehicles from MG, Haval, GWM, Chery, BYD, JAC, Omoda, Tank, Geely, LDV, Leapmotor, IM and Aion, with the range continuing to expand as new models arrive.
And there are plenty arriving.
This is one of those rare moments in the automotive industry where the catalogue department probably requires running shoes.
Chinese vehicles are becoming an increasingly common sight in Australian workshops as their share of the new-car market continues to grow.
Ryco General Manager of Product Tony Sheedy says the rapidly growing Chinese vehicle population has become an increasingly important part of the Australian aftermarket, which means filtration suppliers cannot afford to spend several years leisurely contemplating whether to develop a filter for a new model.
Ryco’s objective, he says, is to have filtration coverage available quickly, ideally from around the time the vehicle enters the market, so workshops aren’t left scratching around trying to find the right filter when one finally appears on the hoist.
That matters because Ryco estimates the ten highest-volume applications covered by its Chinese vehicle range already represent more than 537,000 vehicles in Australia.
That’s not a niche market.
That’s half a million vehicles requiring oil changes, air filters, cabin filters, fuel filters and, increasingly, some filtration products that would have sounded rather exotic to the average mechanic not so many years ago.
Ryco’s Chinese vehicle range includes traditional service items such as oil filters alongside products for newer hybrid and electric drivetrains.
It’s not just another oil filter
The other complication is that the Chinese vehicle boom isn’t simply replacing Japanese and Korean petrol cars with Chinese petrol cars.
The drivetrains are changing as well.
Ryco’s range covers conventional petrol and diesel vehicles, hybrids, plug-in hybrids and battery-electric vehicles. According to Sheedy, the company’s development program is also moving beyond traditional oil, air, cabin and fuel filtration into newer applications including e-Axle and fuel vapour filters used in electrified vehicles.
Which may come as a surprise to anyone who assumed an electric car meant the filter business could simply pack up its cardboard boxes and go home.
Apparently not.
Modern vehicles have an extraordinary ability to remove one service item and then quietly invent three others.
For an independent workshop, however, the important part isn’t whether the filter contains oil, fuel, air or something associated with an electric drivetrain. The important part is being able to identify it, order the correct one and have the vehicle leave the workshop again without somebody spending forty minutes staring at a computer screen wondering why the part number doesn’t exist.
Ryco believes having the expanding Chinese vehicle range sitting within one established filtration catalogue should make that process considerably simpler.
The difference between a fresh air filter and one that has done its job is fairly difficult to miss.
Tested in Melbourne, not just selected from a catalogue
There is another element to Ryco’s approach that is worth mentioning.
The company says filters developed for its Chinese vehicle applications have been extensively tested at Ryco’s NATA-accredited filtration laboratory in Melbourne, where products are assessed for reliability and fit-for-task performance under conditions relevant to the Australian market.
And Australia can be a fairly unpleasant place for filtration equipment.
We have dust that seemingly possesses the ability to penetrate sealed containers, enormous temperature variations, long highway running, stop-start city driving and, depending on where you live, corrugated roads capable of dismantling objects previously regarded as permanent.
A filter is not the most glamorous component fitted to a vehicle. Nobody has ever leaned through the window at a car show and said, “That’s lovely, but have you seen the cabin filter?”
Nevertheless, engines tend to become rather expensive when filtration stops doing what it is supposed to do.
For workshops servicing unfamiliar makes and models, having an established aftermarket alternative that has undergone local testing provides another option beyond simply returning to the vehicle manufacturer’s parts counter.
Dust, insects and road debris caught in a used air filter show why regular filtration servicing still matters, regardless of the badge on the bonnet.
The aftermarket is following the vehicles
Perhaps the bigger story here isn’t simply that Ryco has added some more part numbers to the catalogue.
It is what those part numbers tell us about the Australian vehicle fleet.
Five or six years ago, Chinese vehicles were still generally discussed as emerging competitors. Today, several Chinese manufacturers are challenging brands that have been entrenched in Australia for generations, and the country-of-origin sales figures show just how quickly the balance has shifted.
In June 2026, for example, BYD sold 18,881 vehicles in Australia, finishing only 243 units behind Toyota for the month. By the end of June, BYD had delivered 52,335 vehicles for the year, more than double its result from the corresponding period in 2025.
That’s the sort of number that gets the attention of parts manufacturers.
Because today’s new-car sales charts become tomorrow’s workshop bookings.
For Ryco and the independent aftermarket, the Chinese vehicle boom has therefore moved beyond being an interesting sales trend. It is becoming part of the everyday service and repair business.
The badges on the bonnet might be changing remarkably quickly.
The basic principle, however, remains reassuringly familiar.
Eventually, somebody still has to change the bloody filter.
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