China’s BYD considering NZ?

Reports from Australia and the United States suggest this.

The Song Plus, unveiled at the 2020 Shanghai Motor Show, is one of BYD’s latest models.

IS New Zealand an early stop on a roadmap for international expansion plotted by one of China's largest electric vehicle companies?

BYD – shorthand for ‘Build Your Dreams’ - has signed an agreement to sell cars in Australia, with the first cars due to arrive next year. According to a United States-based EV news website, InsideEVs.com, New Zealand is also part of that deal.

Meantime, Australia’s CarAdvice.com website has been first to reveal the plans for the brand’s official entry across the Tasman.

It explains that BYD, which has been experimenting in Australia with a handful of cars since 2015, will be represented by a distributor, Nexport, that plans to sell vehicles online only;. Pricing is expected to be revealed later this year.

The site says Nexport has dibs on being BYD’s right-hand drive market distributor within the Asia-Pacific region.

The arrangement marks the first third-party agreement of this kind that BYD has entered into globally and will be of benefit to buyers, as it will considerably reduce the products’ cost.

Presently, another China-based brand, MG, sells the cheapest new electric car in New Zealand. The MG ZS EV is a $48,990 proposition.

BYD also produces the HAN sedan.

Nexport chief executive Luke Todd told CarAdvice his business strategy "shakes up the Australian dealership model" and will "deliver high quality electric vehicles from the manufacturer direct to the customer".

"The dealership network model is broken when it comes to electric vehicles. Under our model, we will be reducing the price to consumers by as much as 30 percent," said Todd.

"A heavy reliance on aftersales and convoluted importation processes adds unnecessary cost. By revamping these processes, we're targeting a sale price that's at parity with internal combustion vehicles."

While Nexport has already imported current-generation BYD electric vehicles into Australia, they are not the final products Australians will be purchasing.

Nexport plans to launch a future range of BYD products that have yet to be revealed globally. They might include the Song Plus, a medium SUV that was revealed at last year’s Shanghai Auto Show.

"All next generation BYD products will feature the brand's proprietary 'Blade Battery' technology, and are unlike any other offerings currently in Australia," added Todd.

CarAdvice understands the first BYD cars destined for Australia – and presumably NZ - will be revealed at the Shanghai car show, on April 21.

We also expect that the Australian line-up will consist of only fully-electric offerings, and include a medium-sized SUV, and medium-sized sports sedan – similar to the BYD Han.

Nexport plans to pre-launch the BYD brand in Australia mid-way through this year, and begin accepting pre-orders at that time

BYD reportedly sold 461,399 vehicles globally last year, all in left-hand drive format, the majority within China. Of that figure, 130,970 were fully-electric vehicles, and 48,084 plug-in hybrids with internal combustion assistance.

The brand has hired former Audi head designer Wolfgang Egger as its chief designer, and has recently opened a multi-billion dollar electric vehicle R&D centre in Shenzhen, China.

Nexport is a subsidiary of Australian-owned renewable energy investment firm TrueGreen.

NZ quick to plug into rear-drive Taycan

New model will launch in March; $30k cheaper than current entry variant

ACCEPTING a Porsche Taycan in a rear-drive format has potential to bring a $30,000 saving on the previous entry edition.

The drivetrain layout, which debuted last June but was then restricted to cars sold in China, has been touted internationally as a pathway to presenting the car in a more cost-effective format.

That strategy expresses coherently here, where the drivetrain represents in a new entry configuration, simply called Taycan.

In kicking in at $173,900, this model presents a $30,000 saving over the least costly edition at the moment, the 4S that released last June.

Other versions of Taycan sold in NZ are the Turbo and Turbo S for $289,900 and $366,900. These remain purely with all-wheel-drive.

The new derivative is set to arrive in March, a timeframe that suggest NZ could stand as just the second right-hand-drive market after the United Kingdom.  

Delivery to Australia has yet to be confirmed, but media there are suggesting it might not occur until year-end, with Porsche there concentrating on settling in the all-wheel-drive variants that have just gone on sale there. 

The rear-drive configuration is as per the China market models. The car features a single electric motor on the rear axle, and offering a choice of two lithium-ion batteries: the 79.2kWh 'base' Performance Battery, and the 93.4kWh Performance Battery Plus. 

Power is rated at 240kW with the smaller battery, with an onboard overboost mode activated through Launch Control upping the output to 300kW – on par with the quoted Chinese figure.

With the larger 93.4kWh pack, outputs increase to 280kW without overboost and to 350kW with it.

Porsche claims range figures on Europe's WLTP test cycle of 431km and 484km for the 79.2kWh and 93.4kWh packs respectively – the latter figure the highest range offered by any Taycan model to date.

The 800-volt electrical architecture offered by higher grade models carries over to the new entry model, with maximum DC fast-charging rates pegged at 225kW and 270kW for the small and large batteries respectively. 

Regardless of battery choice, the rear-drive knocks off 0-100kmh in in 5.4 seconds, towards a top speed of 230kmh. The two-speed rear-axle transmission fitted to all-paw Taycans is standard on the new model.

Core elements of the Taycan cockpit design remain unaltered in the not-so-pauper entry car, including a large curved digital instrument cluster and a central 10.9-inch infotainment touchscreen. Eight-way power-adjustable front 'comfort' seats trimmed in part-leather are standard.

The rear-wheel-drive variant, in pre-production guise, was the model selected to break the record for the world's longest continuous electric vehicle drift, with 210 laps around a 200-metre skidpad – so, 42.1km clocked - recorded in late November, 2020. It was only stopped by an exhausted battery.