The pint-sized BYD Seagull EV sold 46,830 cars in August in China, making it the country’s best-selling vehicle regardless of power source. Its most affordable version costs the equivalent of just under $10,000, and for that, you get a Chevrolet Bolt EV-sized vehicle with four doors and a 30-kilowatt-hour battery that’s rated for 190 miles (305 kilometers) of range on the Chinese test cycle.
For around $12,000, buyers can upgrade to a 38 kWh battery that pushes the claimed range to 252 miles (405 km). The CLTC test cycle used in China is pretty optimistic, so you’re unlikely to come close to matching the claimed range in the real world, but the big-battery variant should still manage to hit 186 miles (300 km) on one charge.
The Seagull’s sales performance is only part of the story. Seven of the first ten best-selling cars in China last month were made by BYD. The BYD Qin Plus was in second place with 42,765 sales, followed by the Song Plus in third spot with 39,799 sales. All seven top-selling BYDs were either plug-in hybrids or full EVs.
Takes too long to charge. The Seagull EV’s “fast” charge from 20% to 80% takes ~40 minutes and gives ~100 miles of range. The Model 3’s ~20 minute fast charge for ~150 miles was already pushing the outer limit of reasonable.
Still, the price is right to make it a household’s second car.
It has the potential to be a primary vehicle for most people.