At this point the Model Y is the “ordinary/boring” option and also IMO quite ugly. ID.4 looks very ordinary at first glance, but the understated design is going to age very well and I find it quite handsome.
Also I’m a sucker for light treatments and the ID.4 (also the Ioniq 5) has really nice DRL and marker light designs that really pop in the night, versus Tesla’s least unimaginative light designs ever.
I like how they included a list of EV sportscars which are either concept or won’t be available for years down the road, and didn’t even bother to include the MG Cyberster, literally a 2 seat all electric convertible which is already in production and will be starting customer delivery within a few months from now…
Nice try BYD shell company! We are onto you!!!
Article is mix and matching different stats from different trims of the RD6. The base mode has a single 200 kW rear motor, and only 410 km of CLTC (not even WLTP) range from its relatively small 63 kWh LFP pack. That’s probably the one that weighs 1660 kg. It is ridiculously cheap though, at least in China, for the equivalent of just 21k USD.
Higher trim models with dual motors and the largest 100 kWh battery pack will obviously be much heavier and more expensive, although even maxed out it is still at 40k USD in the Chinese market, which isn’t bad. If it was available in the US, I’d instantly buy a mid trim big battery RWD model.
Model 3 starting price in China: 35.8k USD
Direct BYD competitors to the Model 3 in China: Seal 27.5k USD, Han BEV 30.4k USD
Model Y price in China: 36.5k to 49.9k USD
Direct BYD competitors to the Model Y in China: Sea Lion 07 27.8k USD, Song L 30.7k USD, Denza N7 40k USD
Indirect BYD competitors to the Model Y in China: Frigate PHEV 29k USD, Tang BEV 34.3k USD, FCB Bao 5 EREV SUV 39.8k USD, Denza N8 PHEV 44.6k USD
Model S and X sales in China are miniscule so it is pointless to make comparisons for those models, but BYD already has started to sell the U8 luxury SUV, which is more expensive than any Tesla on the market, and also sells the Denza D9 luxury MPV, which starts at 57.5k USD for the BEV version. Presumably sometimes in the next 12 months FCB and Denza will also be releasing new models that will compete with the Model Y and Model S, respectively.
And these are just the direct Model 3/Y competitors from BYD. You can make a similar (if smaller) list for a dozen other Chinese automakers who also offer direct competitors to the 3 and Y in the Chinese market, which is why Tesla’s EV market share in China hovers around 10%.
Luckily for Tesla, it’s home US market will be largely insulated against Chinese competition, and it also has a head start exporting cars to many western/developing markets, but BYD et al are starting to export too in earnest starting from last year, so there will be competition to the 3 and Y coming to many parts of the world shortly.
Yet the cheapo BYD Dolphin they are selling in Australia received better adult, child, AND pedestrian crash ratings than the brand new BMW X1 which costs more than 50% more…
I guess BMW must also be putting in low quality steel and taking out the crumple zones for their cars destined for down under.
So Tesla separately designs and builds a less safe Model 3 and Y for the Chinese market? And VW separately designs and builds a less safe ID3/4/6/7 for the Chinese market? And Kia separately designs and builds a less safe EV5 for the Chinese market? And Toyota separately designs and builds a less safe bZ4X for the Chinese market… and so on and so forth? Because ALL of those models cost significantly less in the Chinese market compared to western markets.
The same BYD factory pumps out a bunch of Seals which start at the equivalent of $27k USD for the ones sold in China, $32k USD for the ones sold in Australia, $36k USD for the ones sold in Thailand, and $48k USD for the ones sold in Germany, which means the Chinese Seals are the least safe, Australian Seals are slightly more safe, but not as safe as the Thailand Seals, and only the German bound Seals get all the safety features?
The newest ID4 will go 10% to 80% in 30 minutes, so slower than the Hyundai, but not that much slower, and more than acceptable unless you are just road tripping all the time.
You should care because the US market is only a small slice of the global car market. Even on ICE sales, GM and Ford global sales have been trending downwards for a good decade or more now. And with the scale and head start BYD is building in the EV field, it can render GM and Ford into second tier regional automakers without selling a single car in the US.
BYD’s new Brazil factory used to be a Ford factory, for instance, and BYD if starting to expand production elsewhere in the world such as Thailand and Hungary while GM and Ford keeps shutting plants left and right. Australia used to be dominated by Ford and GM but then first the Japanese, then the Koreans, and now GWM and BYD are coming in and taking over that market.
This is happening all over the world and at this rate pretty soon GM and Ford may be relegated to just selling their cars in US and Canada.
Depends on the market. BYDs are significantly cheaper than Teslas in SE Asian, Australian, and Latin American markets, places with no domestic champion automakers to protect and therefore logical targets for BYD to sell at cheap prices to gain marketshare rapidly.
BYD is more than just focusing R&D on “affordability”, although they are certainly the clear number 1 on affordability.
After all, BYD literally just launched a 150k USD massive luxury hardcore SUV with a bespoke ladder frame chassis, 4 motor drivetrain with 1000 plus total horsepower, fully independent electromechanicohydraulic suspension at all 4 corners, and so meticulously waterproofed that it can float in water for 30 minutes without any water ingress into the passenger cabin. There is nothing affordable about the U8, yet BYD just launched it within months of launching their gamechanging 10k USD Seagull.
I’m not sure I’d call barely beating Xpeng and Leapmotor in EV sales while being outsold 2 to 1 by the likes of GAC Aion and Li Auto to be sales “recovering nicely”, and that’s only because VW has been putting some huge discounts on their ID cars.
Meanwhile literally every month the domestic Chinese EV makers are introducing brand new EVs right in the same segment as the ID3/4/6, while VW has no replacement for those vehicles in sight, at least not in the next 18 to 24 months.
The Li Auto L9 is only 10 cm shorter than the Mega, and isn’t much cheaper, coming in at 430k-460k RMB, yet Li Auto sold nearly 13,000 units JUST IN OCTOBER.
There is ZERO question as to whether 10,000 Megas will be sold. The only question is how many months will it take to sell 10,000 Megas. I’m guessing it would take Li Auto no more than 2 months to move 10,000 units.
Why is it so expensive in Germany? In the US the ID.4 tops out around 55k USD for fully loaded AWD Pro S Plus, and I’d say the refresh will only add 1000-2000 to the list price at most. The version to get in my opinion is a well equipped RWD which would be just under 50k USD here in the states. With some light haggling with the dealer and taking the 7500 lease EV credit which VWoA passes along to the customer, you could get it for a net price of just under 40k which is fairly competitive.