Chinese EV maker BYD has started sales of the facelifted Qin Plus DM-i sedan by announcing that it will cost 20,000 Yuan less than the old version. The bold discount makes the hybrid car even cheaper than China’s most popular petrol cars on sale – the Toyota Corolla and the Volkswagen Lavida.
The new Qin Plus DM-i is 4.7 meters (15.4 ft.) long and has 2.7 meters (8.86 ft.) between the axles. Its 1.5-liter engine feeds power into the main electric motor, which outputs either 180 or 197 PS (178 or 194 hp; 132 or 145 kW) depending on your chosen spec. The car can cover 55 km (34 miles) in all-electric mode, or 120 km (74 miles) if you opt for a plus-size battery.
Pricing-wise, you can obtain the sedan starting from 79,800 Yuan, which corresponds to U.S. $11,000. CarNewsChina points out that the VW Lavida entered the Chinese market priced from a hefty 120,900 Yuan and proved a hard sell – so much so that Volkswagen had to drop the price to 87,900 Yuan not long ago. The situation is much the same with the Toyota Corolla, which started off at 113,800 Yuan and is now being discounted nationwide.
The publication believes that the aggressive pricing policy of BYD aims at eliminating petrol sedans from the market of China entirely. The company considers them “outdated” and is willing to sacrifice today’s profits in favor of long-term market gains. It remains to be seen whether its competitors from Europe and Japan are ready to take the battle to it or not.
