BYD in the Netherlands: Calm before the storm?
At the moment there are less than 200 cars of the Chinese brand BYD registered in the Netherlands, but in the home country it is now the leader after a stormy growth. What can we expect from ‘Build Your Dreams’ here?
Worldwide successful
You can call it a miracle in itself that BYD is the largest in China with 1,804,624 cars sold. The brand is quite young and has surpassed the entire larger order in a short time. It secured a growth of 150% in 2022 compared to the previous year. Worldwide it is now the most successful seller of ‘plug cars’. Only Tesla to put up with it when it comes to fully electric models. BYD got stuck at 911,140 EVs, Tesla registered 1.31 million.
Competitively priced
A quarter of the EVs sold by BYD were an Atto3, and now it’s getting interesting for us Dutch. This Atto3 has recently also entered the market in our country (watch the video here for the first test), via the Louwman group that takes care of import and retail. The slip-on has one from price from €42,998. A slightly different version costs 2,000 euros more. All in all, the Atto3 is competitively rated against notable comparisons such as the VW ID.3 (from € 45,990) and Kia Niro EV (from € 44,795).
BYD and Toyota
Later we pit the Atto3 against the Kia Niro EV in the autovision double test, and we know that BYD’s ascending order is to be believed as the Chinese figures suggest. Toyota has already opted for cooperation instead of competition if the next generation of EVs from the Japanese manufacturer will use BYD technology.
Fast pace
Where Tesla has been living on the same limited model range for a while, BYD is rapidly expanding. The Tang (a hefty SUV) and the Han (an electric business sedan) are already in the wings, but it won’t stop there. In China, the Seal recently appeared on the market, which you can see as BYD’s Tesla Model 3 competitor. In the first five months since its market launch in August, the brand has already sold more than 50,000 units. The Seal will probably come on the market here as the Atto4 in due course.
The ‘Dolphin’ and ‘Seagull’ are even more interesting, because these compact (and cheap) models serve a market segment that has so far been reserved for the Dacia Spring in Europe. Whether and if so at what price these models will come our way is still shrouded in mystery. On the other end of the spectrum, BYD added the ‘Yangwang’ luxury brand to its lineup last week.
State of the art electrical engineering
The models of this brand are on a new platform with state-of-the-art electrical engineering. The U8 and U9 are a huge SUV and a sports car, both of which can be combined with four electric motors for optimal traction and power control. Count on these models (under a different name) also being sold in Europe someday.
Technical race
Perhaps BYD’s greatest strength is that the brand is essentially a battery manufacturer, which only started building cars later. Meanwhile, it can pick up margins despite competitive pricing, and is often at the forefront of the technical race for the best battery cell technology. For example, the Atto3 can be considered the ‘Blade’ grades. They are so large that they do not need to be stored in separate modules, saving additional space, weight and money.
Also, these LFP cells are less dependent to overheat and have a long lifespan. But how the Atto3 performs with it in terms of (fast) loading and range at low temperatures, we can tell in Autovisie number 3. Knowing that the rapid growth BYD is currently showing in China is likely to happen in Europe as well. With all the consequences for European manufacturers…
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