5 ms·

BYD Seagull EV Priced from $11,400, Gets 10k Orders on First Day

28 points by xbmcuser 4y ago

xbmcuser 4y ago
It looks too small for the US market but I think can dominate in most other markets. When you take into account how price of solar and batteries is still falling every year it will be interesting to see how the world changes when ice cars are incompettive in all categories.
- DoesntMatter22 4y ago
  Reality is coming for combustion engines very quickly. What's interesting to me is essentially I would think a lot of traditional makers are going to go bankrupt. GM and Volks make a huge percentage of their money from China and all of a sudden they aren't selling many cars there. I think we are going to see a lot of car company bankruptcies. Interesting times.
- acdha 4y ago
  The U.S. market isn’t a monolith: if you sold these to the 80% of people living in urban areas, that’s a large market - some people are going to insist on driving Canyoneros but there are a lot of smarter people who appreciate easier parking along with much lower costs. What I’d worry more about are safety standards: some of the U.S. requirements add a lot of weight and cost because there aren’t easy ways to address impacts at highway speeds with 2-3 ton vehicles.
- jonpurdy 4y ago
  I loved my Spark EV with its measly 135km range, which was perfect for SF city driving and going around the Bay Area. BYD Seagull has 305km range (30kWh instead of 16kWh) and the dimensions are with cm of the Spark EV. I'd insta-buy this with cash if it was available in North America even if pricing was a bit higher due to safety certifications and importing. Bolt EV is nice, but starts at 25K USD and is significantly longer and taller than Spark EV; this makes a difference since I've parked in so many SF street spaces where I literally fit with cm. (And I need four seats for two adults, baby, and dog so Smart car is out).
  - frob 4y ago
    The Spark EV was one of the best vehicles I have every owned. Quiet, snappy, fun to drive, easy to park, and surprisingly roomy. I lost count of the number of times passengers were shocked by the rear doors. It did everything I needed it to do to exist in the bay area.
    - winrid 4y ago
      The Spark is also very good at rallycross :) Can get within an inch of cones easily!
zbrozek 4y ago
This looks great. Too bad I won't be allowed to buy one stateside, and am forced into too-big vehicles.
hunglee2 4y ago
BYB - 'Build Your Dreams' - went from being a battery maker for cell phones, before becoming the No1 EV manufacturer. May in time become the No1 auto manufacturer of any category on the planet. Great business story
- ChuckNorris89 4y ago
  Here in the EU we're asleep at the wheel. Can't have such start-up success stories because they'll disturb the oligopolies of the 100 year old car companies. Thank god Tesla made them wake up a bit. Fingers crossed BYD does the same. I remember Fiat was once a very innovative company, experimenting with EVs way before they were cool, even being the first to mass produce one[1], but now, I'm struggling to find a car in their portfolio I would want buy. Much like Philips, they seem to be dying a slow death. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E4OE4GPJITw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E4OE4GPJITw
  - hunglee2 4y ago
    Incumbent resistance to innovation, probably won't get a better case study than that of European (and Japanese) auto manufacturing. You could include US into this also, as Tesla was pretty much free radical which entered the market from left field, Ford / GM etc equally committed to ICE
  - Melkman 4y ago
    Philips isn't really dying a slow death. The company has been split into pieces. Some of which are very successful like ASML. Some are doing OK like NXP and Signify. Some are struggling like the leftover Philips that only does healthcare now. Other parts have been sold like the consumer goods and the Philips brand licensed as part of those deals. I'm not sure the outcome would have been better had they not split the company.
    - ChuckNorris89 4y ago
      Yeah but these companies aren't Philips anymore, they were 20 years ago. Present time Philips itself is dying, only chugging along on their healthcare business they bought themselves into.
FooBarBizBazz 4y ago
Nice. The low end of the market has been neglected in too many things for too long. I get why -- dollars are votes, and the dumbfuck who wants the $150k Escalade gets more -- but it's a serious problem. We need cars under $15k and houses under $300k. This is what mass-production is supposed to provide. Otherwise we're better off living in the trees.
- cudgy 4y ago
  Plenty of cars less than $15k in the US; they’re just not new. Plenty of houses less than $300k; they’re just not near any hot urban centers.
MagicMoonlight 4y ago
If they really sell that for £8000 with a 200 mile range then that could wipe out most of the UK car market. The biggest problem with electric cars is that anything affordable has like a 50 mile range which means you can't actually use it in the real world. I'm not spending 40k on a car just so it has the range of a £2000 petrol car.
e63f67dd-065b 4y ago
I've always wondered why US cars are so expensive compared to the rest of the world. My home country of Malaysia has cars starting at $8000, this new EV is $11k, but the cheapest new cars in the US start at $18k, basically double. Why is this the case? Why don't we have new $10k cars? Is it because of tariffs? Ford et al are politically powerful and managed to get vehicle tariffs? Union lobbying to make sure that you need to get American labour involved to make the cars, driving costs up? Regulatory capture to make sure that suppliers are US-based? Is there a good explanation? Edit: a quick search found that right across the border Mexico has new $8-10k cars, why can't we have that here in the US?

28 points by xbmcuser 4y ago

It looks too small for the US market but I think can dominate in most other markets. When you take into account how price of solar and batteries is still falling every year it will be interesting to see how the world changes when ice cars are incompettive in all categories.

DoesntMatter22 4y ago
Reality is coming for combustion engines very quickly. What's interesting to me is essentially I would think a lot of traditional makers are going to go bankrupt. GM and Volks make a huge percentage of their money from China and all of a sudden they aren't selling many cars there. I think we are going to see a lot of car company bankruptcies. Interesting times.
acdha 4y ago
The U.S. market isn’t a monolith: if you sold these to the 80% of people living in urban areas, that’s a large market - some people are going to insist on driving Canyoneros but there are a lot of smarter people who appreciate easier parking along with much lower costs. What I’d worry more about are safety standards: some of the U.S. requirements add a lot of weight and cost because there aren’t easy ways to address impacts at highway speeds with 2-3 ton vehicles.
jonpurdy 4y ago
I loved my Spark EV with its measly 135km range, which was perfect for SF city driving and going around the Bay Area. BYD Seagull has 305km range (30kWh instead of 16kWh) and the dimensions are with cm of the Spark EV. I'd insta-buy this with cash if it was available in North America even if pricing was a bit higher due to safety certifications and importing. Bolt EV is nice, but starts at 25K USD and is significantly longer and taller than Spark EV; this makes a difference since I've parked in so many SF street spaces where I literally fit with cm. (And I need four seats for two adults, baby, and dog so Smart car is out).
- frob 4y ago
  The Spark EV was one of the best vehicles I have every owned. Quiet, snappy, fun to drive, easy to park, and surprisingly roomy. I lost count of the number of times passengers were shocked by the rear doors. It did everything I needed it to do to exist in the bay area.
  - winrid 4y ago
    The Spark is also very good at rallycross :) Can get within an inch of cones easily!

zbrozek 4y ago

This looks great. Too bad I won't be allowed to buy one stateside, and am forced into too-big vehicles.

hunglee2 4y ago

BYB - 'Build Your Dreams' - went from being a battery maker for cell phones, before becoming the No1 EV manufacturer. May in time become the No1 auto manufacturer of any category on the planet. Great business story

ChuckNorris89 4y ago
Here in the EU we're asleep at the wheel. Can't have such start-up success stories because they'll disturb the oligopolies of the 100 year old car companies. Thank god Tesla made them wake up a bit. Fingers crossed BYD does the same. I remember Fiat was once a very innovative company, experimenting with EVs way before they were cool, even being the first to mass produce one[1], but now, I'm struggling to find a car in their portfolio I would want buy. Much like Philips, they seem to be dying a slow death. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E4OE4GPJITw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E4OE4GPJITw
- hunglee2 4y ago
  Incumbent resistance to innovation, probably won't get a better case study than that of European (and Japanese) auto manufacturing. You could include US into this also, as Tesla was pretty much free radical which entered the market from left field, Ford / GM etc equally committed to ICE
- Melkman 4y ago
  Philips isn't really dying a slow death. The company has been split into pieces. Some of which are very successful like ASML. Some are doing OK like NXP and Signify. Some are struggling like the leftover Philips that only does healthcare now. Other parts have been sold like the consumer goods and the Philips brand licensed as part of those deals. I'm not sure the outcome would have been better had they not split the company.
  - ChuckNorris89 4y ago
    Yeah but these companies aren't Philips anymore, they were 20 years ago. Present time Philips itself is dying, only chugging along on their healthcare business they bought themselves into.

FooBarBizBazz 4y ago

Nice. The low end of the market has been neglected in too many things for too long. I get why -- dollars are votes, and the dumbfuck who wants the $150k Escalade gets more -- but it's a serious problem. We need cars under $15k and houses under $300k. This is what mass-production is supposed to provide. Otherwise we're better off living in the trees.

cudgy 4y ago
Plenty of cars less than $15k in the US; they’re just not new. Plenty of houses less than $300k; they’re just not near any hot urban centers.

MagicMoonlight 4y ago

If they really sell that for £8000 with a 200 mile range then that could wipe out most of the UK car market. The biggest problem with electric cars is that anything affordable has like a 50 mile range which means you can't actually use it in the real world. I'm not spending 40k on a car just so it has the range of a £2000 petrol car.

e63f67dd-065b 4y ago

I've always wondered why US cars are so expensive compared to the rest of the world. My home country of Malaysia has cars starting at $8000, this new EV is $11k, but the cheapest new cars in the US start at $18k, basically double. Why is this the case? Why don't we have new $10k cars? Is it because of tariffs? Ford et al are politically powerful and managed to get vehicle tariffs? Union lobbying to make sure that you need to get American labour involved to make the cars, driving costs up? Regulatory capture to make sure that suppliers are US-based? Is there a good explanation? Edit: a quick search found that right across the border Mexico has new $8-10k cars, why can't we have that here in the US?