Is BYD Pulling Ahead on EV Range, Price, and Charging?

[DonTom]

I hear nothing but good things about BYD's EV, Looks like they are getting way ahead of us here in the USA.

See here for an example.

It has a 150 KWH battery, so using the DonTom range method of 3.5 miles per KWH expect a true non-BS range all year average of 525 miles of plain normal driving. Half the time you will get better and half the time worse--all year.

And charge a bit too fast to do much of anything, when the 1.5 MW chargers become common here. And it will happen, the only question is when. For now, expect much slower charging speeds and we do not have many Level 4 chargers (above a million watts) in the USA-Yet. You may get enough time for a quick lunch in the USA- for now.

-Don- Auburn, CA

 

[cupe873]

I am currently down in Mazatlán, I was surprised to see that some of the uber drivers use them. I have been in one 3 times, small but comfortable. It was a nice ride lots of power and good range. It was the BYD Dolphin mini. a little over 20,000 usd.
The one driver that spoke good English had nothing but praise for it. He had it for about a year. Have seen a few of their trucks that look very nice,

 

[cupe873]

Your range would all depend on the weather, I have a plugin hybrid that will store up to 60 kms of use before it switches over to the gas engine. In the winter when it was below freezing it was only 30 kms of energy before it needed to switch to gas. I'm in lower B.C. Canada. We have the mildest winters in Canada. But still can get below freezing for periods. When I need to replace the Ford escort I would buy a BYD. Canada is allowing 49,500 this coming year.

 

[DonTom]

I am currently down in Mazatlán,

I was in Mazatlán around 20 years ago. What I remember most about the place were the diesel buses and after they drove by, it was hard to breathe for a while.

I hope they got rid of those and are going to EV buses.

The one driver that spoke good English had nothing but praise for it.

I have never even seen one, but that is also the type of stuff I keep on hearing about BYD, including from a couple of Tesla owners who liked the BYD better for various reasons.

-Don- Auburn, CA

 

[Brad Buchanan]

I would imagine that the bvd's are pretty cheap as the labor is cheap, even more with slave labor.

I doubt that these vehicles will be sold new in this country for very long.

On the other hand there have been beaters from questionable origins that had some success here ie: the famous Yugo.

 

[DonTom]

Your range would all depend on the weather, I have a plugin hybrid that will store up to 60 kms of use before it switches over to the gas engine. In the winter when it was below freezing it was only 30 kms of energy before it needed to switch to gas. I'm in lower B.C. Canada. We have the mildest winters in Canada. But still can get below freezing for periods. When I need to replace the Ford escort I would buy a BYD. Canada is allowing 49,500 this coming year.

You will probably discover that BEVs have better battery temp controls. You will still lose range, but nothing near 50%. They also have some advantages in cold weather, such as almost instant heating.

-Don- Auburn, CA

 

[Mark_K5LXP]

I can think of half a dozen reasons to not buy a car from a foreign communist country. Or does a neato EV somehow overrule logic, common sense and economics?

Mark B.
Albuquerque, NM

 

[DonTom]

I can think of half a dozen reasons to not buy a car from a foreign communist country. Or does a neato EV somehow overrule logic, common sense and economics?

The computer you're now using--where was it made?

-Don- Auburn, CA

 

[RayIN]

I would imagine that the bvd's are pretty cheap as the labor is cheap, even more with slave labor.

I doubt that these vehicles will be sold new in this country for very long.

On the other hand there have been beaters from questionable origins that had some success here ie: the famous Yugo.

NBC had a rep in China reporting on the presidents meeting. While there he drove a BYD EV with the company CEO riding shotgun.
The CEO said the U.S.A. banned our EV's because the base model costs $12,000 American and the luxury model you're driving costs $20,000 American. This would quickly drive the American EV companies out of business, even with imports fees of $10,000 added to the price.

 

[tlmgcamp1]

The computer you're now using--where was it made?

-Don- Auburn, CA

Well, we have self-driving technology which would seem easy to change to remote-driving (drones). Then we have lithium car batteries that, when set ablaze, can be quite destructive and very hard to extinguish, realeasing all kinds of toxins. Then add AI. Then add the knowledge of what Israel pulled off with the terrorists' pagers and the possibilities get a little scary. A bunch of "custom" EV's set ablaze on the lower level of the George Washington bridge or the Oakland Bay Bridge would likely destroy them

 

[Mark_K5LXP]

The computer you're now using--where was it made?

Google sez Vietnam.

Practically speaking these are throwaway cars. You might bet they're so well made they'll never have a problem but not all issues with cars are failures. The cheap acquistion will be overcome when the thing needs fixed, or my prediction, BER when it needs an unobtanium part or expensive repair. The artificially low price subsidized by their government serves only to make their country stronger and our country weaker. If all the crap on amazon isn't evidence of where this is going I don't know what is.

Mark B.
Albuquerque, NM