BYD shares first official images of its $14k-$20k Yuan Up SUV | Hacker News Reader

BYD shares first official images of its $14k-$20k Yuan Up SUV

electrek.co

23 pointsmfiguiere16 comments

Ok now what's the price after meeting US/European safety standards and taxes?

24-30k USD minimum likely more

Chinese cars released today, especially EVs, by BYD, nio, xpeng, huawei collaborations, Zeekr are some of the strongest built vehicles on the market.

I will never get over the branding of BYD's first exported model,[0] the "Han."[1]

What would be the equivalent? The Chevy Caucasian model for the China market?

Maybe I am missing something, but this just seems like an odd choice.

[0] https://ev-database.org/car/1784/BYD-HAN

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Han_Chinese

edit: To be clear, I don't discount that manufacturing and battery powerhouse China could rule the EV world. I'm old enough to recall the jokes about Japanese quality. That would be a dumb mistake for "The West" to make again.

their naming scheme is after dynasties (e.g. Han, Song, Tang, etc) rather than ethnicities (Han, Hui, Manchu, etc) so I guess an equivalent would be like the Seat Habsburg or something.

Ah, OK. Thank you. That makes a bit more sense.

I appreciate the reply.

> [BYD snagged] the EV sales crown from longtime leader Tesla in 2023...

Does anyone know offhand how many watts of batteries each sold?

Tesla's models are larger and IIRC is also battery supply constrained. Whereas BYD's sells proportionally more smaller vehicals, so can sell more vehicals with the battery supply they have.

Also, which has better margins? Is this competition like iPhone vs Android, where Apple scooped up most of the profit? (Acknowledging that Musk Inc feasts at the trough of govt subsidies. And IIRC the CCP does the same for BYD .)

Tesla also use BYD batteries for some variants: https://thedriven.io/2023/05/22/teslas-switch-to-byd-batteri...

Tesla said 2 years ago they are no longer battery constrained and said during thr latest earnings call they were stock piling battery supply

Looks reasonable. With either more range, or access to Teslas supercharger network this could be a good option.

not surprised it looks like a honda

It's a smart strategy. I feel like there is a large segment of people who are just looking for an affordable, normal looking EV car.

I know Tesla and other US EV makers have tried to make their designs radical in order to stand out from ICE cars in the past. But that's not needed anymore in a more mature market. More radical designs add to the cost without the benefit - see X falcon wings and Cybertruck.

> Expected to arrive priced in a range between $14,000-$20,000

Would you want to drive in a $14k day from a safety/quality perspective? How many "corners cut" does that represent?

I will wait to see the ADAC crash test report.

Once I can see it here, I will decide accordingly.

https://www.adac.de/rund-ums-fahrzeug/autokatalog/crashtest/

Cheap, unfair snark: if I wanted an unsafe, corners-cut EV, I'd get a Tesla!

Edit; interestingly I've read enough reports of Tesla cutting corners, like unglued glass, broken suspension arms and support people gaslighting the buyers.. meanwhile this BYD suffers under a presumption of, but unproven unsafety (although as sibling commenter said, I'd wait for the ADAC report before considering it)

I drive a recent model year Chevy Bolt where I paid a total price within that 14-20k range.

I don't find myself worried about cut corners. The safety profile is fine. The quality is fine. It's an EV that does everything I want: reach a range large enough to make it usable beyond just a city car, be reasonably cheap, and have a serviceable lifespan beyond the gimmick period of a Tesla.

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