BYD in the Netherlands: calm before the storm?

Less than 200 Chinese brand BYD cars are currently registered in the Netherlands, but after rapid growth it is now the number one in the home country. What can we expect from Build Your Dreams here?

Successful worldwide

It is a miracle that BYD is the largest in China with 1,804,624 cars sold. The brand is relatively young and in a short time has surpassed the entire established order. In 2022, it achieved a growth of 150% compared to the previous year. Today it is the most successful supplier of plug cars worldwide. Only Tesla has to put up with that when it comes to fully electric models. BYD got stuck at 911,140 electric vehicles, Tesla managed 1.31 million.

Competitive price

A quarter of the EVs sold by BYD were Atto3, and now it’s getting interesting for us Dutch people. This Atto3 has also recently been launched in our country (for the first test watch the video here), via the Louwman group, in charge of import and retail. The entry-level model has a starting price of €42,998. A slightly more luxurious version costs 2,000 euros more. Overall, the price of the Atto3 is competitive with well-known competitors such as the VW ID.3 (from €45,990) and the Kia Niro EV (from €44,795).

BYD and Toyota

We’ll soon be pitting the Atto3 against the Kia Niro EV in the autovisie double test, and we’ll know if the established order has as much to fear from BYD as the Chinese numbers suggest. Toyota has already opted for cooperation instead of competition, because the next generation of electric cars from the Japanese manufacturer will rely on BYD technology.

Fast pace

While Tesla has been living off the same limited model range for some time, BYD is expanding rapidly. The Tang (a large SUV) and the Han (an electric executive sedan) are already in the starting blocks, but that’s not all. In China, the Seal recently came onto the market, which can be seen as BYD’s Tesla Model 3 competitor. In the first five months since the market launch in August, the brand has already sold over 50,000 units. The Seal will probably come onto the market here as the Atto4 in due course.

Perhaps even more interesting are the ‘Dolphin’ and ‘Seagull’, as these compact (and affordable) models cater to a market segment previously reserved for the Dacia Spring in Europe. Whether and if so at what price these models will come our way is still a mystery. At the other end of the spectrum, BYD added luxury brand Yangwang to its offering last week.

State-of-the-art electrical engineering

The models of this brand are based on a new platform with the latest electrical engineering. The U8 and U9 are a huge SUV and sports car, both featuring four electric motors for optimal traction and power control. Expect these models (under a different name) to be sold in Europe one day.

technical race

Perhaps BYD’s greatest strength is that the brand is essentially a battery maker that later started building cars. As a result, it can achieve good margins despite competitive prices and is often at the forefront of the technical race for the best battery cell technology. For example the Atto3 has the ‘Blade’ cells. They are so large that they don’t need to be housed in separate modules, saving space, weight and money.

In addition, these LFP cells are less prone to overheating and have a long service life. But how the Atto3 performs in terms of (fast) charging and range at low temperatures, we will tell you in Autovisie number 3. Then we will know whether the rapid growth that BYD is currently showing in China will also be unavoidable in Europe . With all the consequences for European manufacturers…