China’s BYD, the world’s biggest electric carmaker, has launched a new premium brand called Sea Lion along with the Sea Lion 07 sport-utility vehicle that competes directly with Tesla vehicles such as the Model Y.
BYD surpassed Tesla as the biggest EV maker last year, but most of its cars are low-cost models aimed at lower- and middle-income buyers in mainland China.
The company has also begun competing in Europe with vehicles including the entry-level Dolphin, launched in the UK this year with a price tag of £25,490.
In China BYD offers EVs such as the small Seagull hatchback, which uses a cheaper-to-produce sodium-ion battery and began selling domestically this year with a starting price of 73,800 yuan (£8,200).
Sea Lion 07 SUV
Most of BYD’s EVs are priced in a similar range, from 100,000 yuan to 150,000 yuan.
The Sea Lion brand, by contrast, targets the same higher-end market segment as Tesla.
The Sea Lion 07, a full-electric SUV introduced at the Guangzhou Auto Show that began on Friday, is to be priced between 200,000 yuan (£22,400) and 260,000 yuan, comparable to Tesla’s Model Y, which starts at 266,400 yuan.
Tesla manufactures the Model Y at its factory in Shanghai, which began operations in late 2020 and is the firm’s single biggest plant worldwide.
Industry analysts noted that while BYD and Tesla have not competed head-on until now, BYD has a significant production cost advantage over Tesla.
Cost advantage
A report from investment bank UBS found the cost of building a BYD Seal EV is 15 percent lower than the comparable Tesla Model 3.
BYD in April introduced a luxury vehicle called the U8 that is priced at 1.1 million yuan and invited comparisons to a Range Rover.
At the Guangzhou show Li Auto, another potential Tesla rival, introduced its first pure-electric model, the seven-seat MEGA MPV, which secured 10,000 pre-orders within two hours of its release.
Geely launched the Zeekr 007 electric sedan from its premium Zeekr brand, while Xpeng introduced its first pure electric multi-purpose vehicle, the X9 MPV.
Xpeng recently signed a partnership to develop two VW-branded EVs for the German automaker.
