China's BYD cuts entry price for smart EVs to below $10,000

Yahoo

10-02-2025

Reuters
Mon, Feb 10, 2025, 4:14 AM 3 min read
BEIJING/SHANGHAI (Reuters) -China's BYD on Monday started offering advanced autonomous driving features on most of its models including ones priced as low as $9,555, far undercutting competitors such as Tesla in a move analysts say is set to start a new price war.
The electric vehicle giant has equipped all of its BYD-branded models priced above 100,000 yuan ($13,688) with the company's proprietary "God's Eye" advanced driver-assistance system, BYD founder Wang Chuanfu told an event livestreamed from Shenzhen.
It has also installed the system in three models priced below 100,000 yuan, the cheapest being the Seagull priced from 69,800 yuan. It began sales of those models, 21 in total, immediately after the event. Wang said these would be the "first batch".
BYD had previously only offered such features, which enable cars to navigate highway traffic autonomously under human drivers' supervision, in models priced from $30,000. Tesla has these features available in China in its EVs priced from $32,000.
While some Chinese EV brands such as Xpeng's MONA and Stellantis' partner Leapmotor have also rolled out affordable EVs with smart driving features, the cheapest then was SAIC-General Motors-Wuling's $15,000 Baojun Yunhai.
"The biggest revelation from BYD is that they want to equalize the right to technology. Technology does not need to be high-end and they can fight a price war here," said Yale Zhang, managing director at Automotive Foresight.
"It's a little like DeepSeek," he said, referring to the Chinese artificial intelligence startup which shook global markets last month by revealing that it had built its AI models at a fraction of the cost of Western tech giants.
John Zeng, head of market forecast for China at London-based consultancy GlobalData, said the move towards smart driving was probably a recognition by BYD that its sales, which hit 4 million units last year, had plateaued and that it needed a breakthrough.
He said smart driving "is set to bring its sales to a new level".
"Other automakers including Xpeng will be under tremendous pressure from BYD's ADAS-powered affordable EVs, but it would be difficult for them to follow suit with similarly affordable ones," he added.
AI DRIVER
Anticipation over how BYD's smart driving plans could shake up the already highly competitive automotive market has built up since last week, sending the firm's shares up by 16% since Thursday when Chinese media reported on plans for the event.
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