As Ford Authority reported last week, Ford CEO Jim Farley recently stated that he views not only Chinese EVs in general as a threat, but specifically pointed to one, in general – the BYD Seagull. These comments don’t come as a huge surprise, per say, given the fact that the Chinese automaker recently lowered the price of this entry-level EV to a mere 69,800 yuan ($9,700), which is far, far cheaper than any all-electric vehicle currently sold in the U.S. Recently, Autoline Network took a closer look at the BYD Seagull, and came away with some important notes on what makes it tick.
This particular BYD Seagull has a sticker price of $11,500 and comes equipped with the larger 38.8 kWh battery pack. Looking around, one can find a few areas where cost-cutting measures are evident, but overall, it’s a pretty nice-looking vehicle that doesn’t appear to be some kind of bargain-basement build. There are things like a single windshield wiper instead of two, and there’s no rear wiper, but nothing terribly major.
Additionally, many components present on the BYD Seagull don’t come from suppliers – instead, the headlights, batteries, electric motors, trim, body panels, and many other parts are made by the company in-house, which helps reduce costs, and our hosts point out that vertical integration is one of the major keys to BYD’s success in general. Interestingly, the build quality appears to be pretty solid, too, though there’s no unnecessary trim or other pieces present, either.
Even the interior presents quite nicely and is not what one would expect in such a cheap car, and the Seagull even has contrast stitching and features like cruise control and wireless charging, coupled with four-wheel disc brakes. It reportedly rides comfortably and drives well, though it obviously won’t blow anyone away in terms of performance. Throw in the fact that it has 252 miles of range, and it’s pretty clear why people like Jim Farley are worried about the BYD Seagull making it to the U.S. market.
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Comments
You get what you pay for. Let’s see how it does with IIHS crash tests. Any bets?
Small enough to be buried in….
When you use forced labor and have o environmental controls, you can build stuff way cheaper, especially when the CCP doesn’t car eif you make money as long as you put foreign companies out of business.
But yes, it’s certainly going to be a death trap.
Spot on