BYD Just Sells Cheap EVs? Check Out This $216,000 Yangwang

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People often think of Chinese cars being cheap. There is a full blown EV revolution underway in China, and many of the electric car models are priced lower than similar options elsewhere, and there are also small, cheap options that aren’t in many markets, but China is also selling and buying a ton of high-class, super-luxury vehicles. BYD, the world leader in EV sales, sells dozens of models. This article is going to highlight the breadth of the offerings by focusing in on three models.

First of all, under BYD’s Yangwang brand for ultra-luxury models, the company has just launched a four-seat version of the Yangwang U8L Dingcang Edition. The price? A modest 1,458,000 yuan, or $216,000. This executive version of the vehicle, despite having only four seats, is above the 1.3 million yuan six-seat version in the pecking order. Unfortunately, this is not a pure-electric vehicle. However, the model has 230 kilometers (143 miles) of pure-electric range, and it can “flash charge” from 10% to 70% in about 5 minutes or 97% in about 9 minutes. The model comes with God’s Eye A, which utilizes three lidar sensors, among other things, and uses the God’s Eye 5.0 end-to-end reinforcement-learning model. Clearly, the interior is also quite special.

On the flip side, we’ve got the BYD Racco, a tiny but utilitarian little all-electric kei car designed for Japan. The car costs just 2.145 million yen ($13,585) before subsidies, which are available in Japan. Within about a week, it has gotten 700 orders in the country. The company is aiming for 10,000 order by the end of 2026.

In the middle of these two, we’ve got things like the Denza Z9S, a brilliant new sedan. “RWD models come with 370 kW motors, or roughly 496 hp, while the top spec offers a combined 890 kW (1194 hp), good for a 0-100 km/h time of 2.68s. That makes the sedan quicker than many supercars,” Larry Evans writes. “In addition, all trim levels include the latest version of BYD’s LiDAR-equipped God’s Eye intelligent driving system, with BYD taking full responsibility for parking and city operation. It also includes a new, AI-enabled voice control and a ‘smart partner,’ which promises to operate almost like KITT from Night Rider, but presents itself as a friendly cartoon character. The vehicle also claims to offer the only global integration with every major smartphone, from Huawei and Xiaomi to Samsung and Apple.” The vehicle provides 1100 km (684 mi) of range on a full charge and can charge from 10–70% in 5 minutes and 10–97% in 9 minutes. The starting price of this car is 319,800 yuan ($47,378).

You’ve also got the BYD Fang Cheng Bao, a rugged, boxy SUV. It may look a bit like a Mercedes G-Class, but the model’s average transaction price is 223,000 yuan ($32,850). The company just reached 500,000 sales of the model.

There are dozens of other models, too. In short, don’t stereotype BYD’s models, because it’s got basically everything under the sun. If you can imagine it, BYD probably sells it.