FiestaST
Honorary Master
EVs & Beyond first drive of the BYD Racco
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Question of the Day: Main reasons you wouldn't get an EV?
The BYD (EV) Thread
- Thread starter FiestaST
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FiestaST
Honorary Master
FiestaST
Honorary Master
BYD has a cunning plan to outrun China’s domestic price war
There is an old rule on the racetrack: when the chicane gets dangerously busy and every car around you starts swapping paint, the smartest driver looks for clear asphalt out wide. It is simple and effective. Right now, China's domestic electric vehicle market is literally that kind of demolition derby. It is a merciless, margin-crushing slugfest where legacy giants and hungry upstarts slash price tags on a weekly basis just to keep the showroom lights on.
Watching Shenzhen's automotive titan navigate through the carnage, you quickly realize BYD is playing a completely different game. Rather than bleeding out in a local scrappage, they are packing their cars onto ocean transports and pointing the compass toward foreign shores at a pace that should seriously rattle boardrooms from Wolfsburg to Detroit.
The scale of this offensive came into sharp focus this week courtesy of a Deutsche Bank research note following a post-earnings call with management. The headline number demands a double-take over your morning coffee: BYD wants more than 2.5 million overseas vehicle sales in 2027. If you think that sounds outlandish, consider that they revised their 2026 export forecast upward to between 1.9 million and 2.0 million units. That is a massive leap from the 1.3 million target they mentioned around January, and well past the revised 1.5 million figure floated in March.
The catalyst behind this stampede is simple arithmetic. Back home, the domestic pond is a bit chilly. Over the first eight months of the year, BYD's domestic sales dropped 32.72% to 1,505,755 vehicles, dragging their total global sales down 6.84% to 2,668,015. But look outside China, and the dynamic flips completely.
Overseas volume exploded by 85.72% year-on-year, racking up 1,162,260 deliveries. In August alone, foreign registrations hit a record 189,466 cars - a jump of 134.45% compared to the same period last year, and 43.03% of everything BYD built that month. To clear their new 2026 guidance, they need to keep an average monthly clip of roughly 184,000 to 209,000 foreign sales through the final four months. That is a furious sprint, but the August numbers prove the taps are already wide open.
What makes this overseas migration even more attractive is cold, hard cash. In China, cutthroat competition means cars leave the dealership floor with margins shaved down to the thickness of a clearcoat. But abroad, buyers expect to pay proper money. BYD management confirmed that their overseas operations generated a healthy profit of roughly RMB 20,000 (about €2,520) per vehicle throughout the first half of this year.
www.arenaev.com
There is an old rule on the racetrack: when the chicane gets dangerously busy and every car around you starts swapping paint, the smartest driver looks for clear asphalt out wide. It is simple and effective. Right now, China's domestic electric vehicle market is literally that kind of demolition derby. It is a merciless, margin-crushing slugfest where legacy giants and hungry upstarts slash price tags on a weekly basis just to keep the showroom lights on.
Watching Shenzhen's automotive titan navigate through the carnage, you quickly realize BYD is playing a completely different game. Rather than bleeding out in a local scrappage, they are packing their cars onto ocean transports and pointing the compass toward foreign shores at a pace that should seriously rattle boardrooms from Wolfsburg to Detroit.
The scale of this offensive came into sharp focus this week courtesy of a Deutsche Bank research note following a post-earnings call with management. The headline number demands a double-take over your morning coffee: BYD wants more than 2.5 million overseas vehicle sales in 2027. If you think that sounds outlandish, consider that they revised their 2026 export forecast upward to between 1.9 million and 2.0 million units. That is a massive leap from the 1.3 million target they mentioned around January, and well past the revised 1.5 million figure floated in March.
The catalyst behind this stampede is simple arithmetic. Back home, the domestic pond is a bit chilly. Over the first eight months of the year, BYD's domestic sales dropped 32.72% to 1,505,755 vehicles, dragging their total global sales down 6.84% to 2,668,015. But look outside China, and the dynamic flips completely.
Overseas volume exploded by 85.72% year-on-year, racking up 1,162,260 deliveries. In August alone, foreign registrations hit a record 189,466 cars - a jump of 134.45% compared to the same period last year, and 43.03% of everything BYD built that month. To clear their new 2026 guidance, they need to keep an average monthly clip of roughly 184,000 to 209,000 foreign sales through the final four months. That is a furious sprint, but the August numbers prove the taps are already wide open.
What makes this overseas migration even more attractive is cold, hard cash. In China, cutthroat competition means cars leave the dealership floor with margins shaved down to the thickness of a clearcoat. But abroad, buyers expect to pay proper money. BYD management confirmed that their overseas operations generated a healthy profit of roughly RMB 20,000 (about €2,520) per vehicle throughout the first half of this year.
BYD has a cunning plan to outrun China’s domestic price war
Faced with a punishing price war at home, BYD is accelerating its global expansion by raising export targets, building local factories, and rolling out an international fast-charging network to secure long-term profitability.
www.arenaev.com
FiestaST
Honorary Master
Car TorqueX review of the Dolphin Surf Dynamic
FiestaST
Honorary Master
Renault Twingo vs BYD Dolphin Surf - Electrifying
FiestaST
Honorary Master
New BYD Ti 7 ‘coming soon’ to SA
Several dealerships around South Africa have confirmed the new BYD Ti 7 is “coming soon”. Here’s what we know about the Chinese brand’s boxy 7-seater PHEV…
- Local dealers say Ti 7 is “coming soon”
- Powertrain details not yet confirmed
- SA exec says it would be a “great fit”
The new BYD Ti 7 will seemingly launch in South Africa in the near future, with several dealerships around the country suggesting the Shenzhen-based new-energy vehicle (NEV) automaker’s boxy 7-seater model is “coming soon” to local roads.
As a reminder, Cars.co.za reported in May 2026 that the Chinese brand had filed to trademark the “Ti 7” badge in Mzansi. Then, in August 2026, BYD Auto SA confirmed to us the Ti 7 was officially “under evaluation“, with the brand’s local commercial director suggesting it “would be a great fit for our market”.
Now a number of official BYD dealers around the country have posted on their respective websites and social-media pages that the new Ti 7 is “coming soon”, with some adding that pre-orders have also opened. That said, local pricing details have yet to be released.
For the record, the export version detailed for fellow right-hand-drive market the United Kingdom measures 5 146 mm from front to back, making it some 128 mm longer than Land Rover’s Defender 110. The vehicle features 3 rows of seating, along with what the Chinese brand describes as a “generous load space”.
Several dealerships around South Africa have confirmed the new BYD Ti 7 is “coming soon”. Here’s what we know about the Chinese brand’s boxy 7-seater PHEV…
- Local dealers say Ti 7 is “coming soon”
- Powertrain details not yet confirmed
- SA exec says it would be a “great fit”
The new BYD Ti 7 will seemingly launch in South Africa in the near future, with several dealerships around the country suggesting the Shenzhen-based new-energy vehicle (NEV) automaker’s boxy 7-seater model is “coming soon” to local roads.
As a reminder, Cars.co.za reported in May 2026 that the Chinese brand had filed to trademark the “Ti 7” badge in Mzansi. Then, in August 2026, BYD Auto SA confirmed to us the Ti 7 was officially “under evaluation“, with the brand’s local commercial director suggesting it “would be a great fit for our market”.
Now a number of official BYD dealers around the country have posted on their respective websites and social-media pages that the new Ti 7 is “coming soon”, with some adding that pre-orders have also opened. That said, local pricing details have yet to be released.
For the record, the export version detailed for fellow right-hand-drive market the United Kingdom measures 5 146 mm from front to back, making it some 128 mm longer than Land Rover’s Defender 110. The vehicle features 3 rows of seating, along with what the Chinese brand describes as a “generous load space”.
Gtx Gaming
Gtx Gaming
Probably sell like hotcakes if has a decent 300kw+ power train.
FiestaST
Honorary Master
FiestaST
Honorary Master
FiestaST
Honorary Master
New Denza N8L comes with 130 kWh battery and 960-km range
The electric car economics are simple if a little bit depressing: the bigger the battery, the deeper the dent in your pocket. Stash enough lithium under the floor to cross a country or two, and manufacturers will happily charge you the price of a half-decent yacht. At least, until now.
BYD's luxury offshoot, Denza, is literally tearing up that playbook with the all-electric Denza N8L. It lands in China with a monumental 130.15 kWh battery pack - and arrives in showrooms priced lower than the plug-in hybrid version.
The entry-level N8L BEV Flash Charging Prestige has an introductory price of RMB 299,800 (around €37,600), and the Flash Charging Flagship (seriously - these are the trim names) tops out at RMB 329,800 (roughly €41,500). The equivalent N8L plug-in hybrid - which Denza refreshed earlier this summer, adding a 75.26 kWh battery to its turbo petrol engine - kicks off at RMB 319,800 (€40,200).
With the EV version, you are getting an extra 55 kWh worth of second-gen Blade Battery cells and saving RMB 20,000 (nearly €2,600) in the process. How can Denza pull this off?
The brand was born back in 2010 as an ambitious fifty-fifty joint venture between Mercedes and BYD, but it spent its first decade trapped in an awkward automotive purgatory, making bizarrely styled, badge-engineered hatchbacks that buyers ignored.
The breakthrough only arrived when BYD took full control, eventually buying out Mercedes-Benz completely. Freed from indecision, Denza reinvented itself as a tech-first luxury brand. The D9 people-mover was an unexpected hit and cleared the way for an SUV offensive, with battery chemistry and vertically integrated manufacturing giving BYD (and Denza, of course) unfair cost advantage over legacy rivals.
www.arenaev.com
The electric car economics are simple if a little bit depressing: the bigger the battery, the deeper the dent in your pocket. Stash enough lithium under the floor to cross a country or two, and manufacturers will happily charge you the price of a half-decent yacht. At least, until now.
BYD's luxury offshoot, Denza, is literally tearing up that playbook with the all-electric Denza N8L. It lands in China with a monumental 130.15 kWh battery pack - and arrives in showrooms priced lower than the plug-in hybrid version.
The entry-level N8L BEV Flash Charging Prestige has an introductory price of RMB 299,800 (around €37,600), and the Flash Charging Flagship (seriously - these are the trim names) tops out at RMB 329,800 (roughly €41,500). The equivalent N8L plug-in hybrid - which Denza refreshed earlier this summer, adding a 75.26 kWh battery to its turbo petrol engine - kicks off at RMB 319,800 (€40,200).
With the EV version, you are getting an extra 55 kWh worth of second-gen Blade Battery cells and saving RMB 20,000 (nearly €2,600) in the process. How can Denza pull this off?
The brand was born back in 2010 as an ambitious fifty-fifty joint venture between Mercedes and BYD, but it spent its first decade trapped in an awkward automotive purgatory, making bizarrely styled, badge-engineered hatchbacks that buyers ignored.
The breakthrough only arrived when BYD took full control, eventually buying out Mercedes-Benz completely. Freed from indecision, Denza reinvented itself as a tech-first luxury brand. The D9 people-mover was an unexpected hit and cleared the way for an SUV offensive, with battery chemistry and vertically integrated manufacturing giving BYD (and Denza, of course) unfair cost advantage over legacy rivals.
New Denza N8L comes with 130 kWh battery and 960-km range
Denza N8L undercuts its own plug-in hybrid sibling, and packs a huge 130 kWh battery that charges in nine minutes and lasts for nearly {{1,000 km}}.
www.arenaev.com
FiestaST
Honorary Master
FiestaST
Honorary Master
I was in Thailand last week and our hotel picked us up in a Denza D9.
It is a VERY luxurious experience, like sitting in business class on a plane.
https://www.denza.com/my/product-detail/d9
It is a VERY luxurious experience, like sitting in business class on a plane.
https://www.denza.com/my/product-detail/d9
FiestaST
Honorary Master
BYD Ti 7: Land Rover Defender rival confirmed for South Africa in 2027
We can confirm the BYD Ti 7, replete with 360 kW plug-in hybrid powertrain, is en route to South Africa. Here’s when it’s coming…
In May 2026, we pondered the question on whether the BYD Fangchengbao Tai 7 could make its way to South Africa. Earlier this month, a BYD dealership posted on its Instagram page that pre-orders for the Ti 7, as it will be known in our market, are open. We reached out to the dealership to find out more. We can confirm when the Ti 7 will launch in South Africa, along with which powertrain it will employ.
Locally, the Ti 7 will be offered with BYD’s DM-p (Dual Mode-performance) powertrain, a plug-in hybrid (PHEV) setup comprising a 1.5-litre, four-cylinder turbocharged petrol engine and two electric motors. From what we were told, the DM-p arrangement produces combined power and torque outputs of 360 kW and 620 N.m of torque – good for a claimed 0-100 km/h sprint time of 5.3 seconds. Power is delivered to the road via an all-wheel-drive system. The dealership also revealed that the Ti 7 will offer a claimed electric-only operating range of 130 km, which suggests it will feature the 35.6 kWh lithium-iron phosphate (LFP) battery pack.
BYD Ti 7 launch date in South Africa
While pre-orders are already open, the dealership has confirmed the Ti 7 will launch in South Africa in either January or February 2027. However, it did say that it might be here sooner.
www.carmag.co.za
We can confirm the BYD Ti 7, replete with 360 kW plug-in hybrid powertrain, is en route to South Africa. Here’s when it’s coming…
In May 2026, we pondered the question on whether the BYD Fangchengbao Tai 7 could make its way to South Africa. Earlier this month, a BYD dealership posted on its Instagram page that pre-orders for the Ti 7, as it will be known in our market, are open. We reached out to the dealership to find out more. We can confirm when the Ti 7 will launch in South Africa, along with which powertrain it will employ.
Locally, the Ti 7 will be offered with BYD’s DM-p (Dual Mode-performance) powertrain, a plug-in hybrid (PHEV) setup comprising a 1.5-litre, four-cylinder turbocharged petrol engine and two electric motors. From what we were told, the DM-p arrangement produces combined power and torque outputs of 360 kW and 620 N.m of torque – good for a claimed 0-100 km/h sprint time of 5.3 seconds. Power is delivered to the road via an all-wheel-drive system. The dealership also revealed that the Ti 7 will offer a claimed electric-only operating range of 130 km, which suggests it will feature the 35.6 kWh lithium-iron phosphate (LFP) battery pack.
BYD Ti 7 launch date in South Africa
While pre-orders are already open, the dealership has confirmed the Ti 7 will launch in South Africa in either January or February 2027. However, it did say that it might be here sooner.
BYD Ti 7: Land Rover Defender rival confirmed for South Africa in 2027
We can confirm the BYD Ti 7, replete with 360 kW plug-in hybrid powertrain, is en route to South Africa. Here's when it's coming...
www.carmag.co.za
FiestaST
Honorary Master
FiestaST
Honorary Master
FiestaST
Honorary Master
Petrol Ped first drive of the BYD Dolphin G DM-i
FiestaST
Honorary Master
FiestaST
Honorary Master
New BYD Yuan Up (Atto 2) rewrites the rulebook on affordable EVs
If you live in the West, then you've been told that building a genuinely compelling, long-range electric vehicle on a budget is about as realistic as finding a unicorn in a supermarket. Legacy automakers blame battery costs, supply chain bottlenecks, and the impossibility of putting modern tech into an affordable footprint. But if you are in Shenzhen (China), BYD will tell you that this narrative is a bad joke. The company revealed pricing and specs for the updated compact crossover known internationally as the Atto 2, and we need to talk about those numbers.
In its domestic market, where it wears the Yuan Up badge, the updated Feichi Edition kicks off with a sticker price of RMB 74,800 - that translates to a mind-bending €9,520. Include the temporary trade-in incentives, and that price drops even further to RMB 69,800 (€8,890). If you are sitting in Europe or North America looking at a €35,000 compact hatchback that still asks you to pay extra for alloy wheels and floor mats, this kind of pricing feels almost mythological.
The refreshed Atto 2 is 4,310 mm long, 1,830 mm wide, and 1,675 mm tall, resting on a 2,620 mm wheelbase. Against something like the Geely Xingyuan - which has been dominating the domestic sales charts with over 260,000 units shifted through August - the BYD matches it in stance while offering a slightly chunkier, traditional SUV aesthetic. It easily dwarfs traditional city hatchbacks and yet is compact enough to dart through narrow alleyways with ease.
BYD has made an intriguing engineering decision by standardizing the powertrain across the board. Every single trim level in this new Feichi Edition - from the base car right up to the newly introduced long-range variant - uses a single front-mounted permanent-magnet motor pushing out 70 kW and 180 Nm of torque. Gone are the punchier 130 kW options from older high-end editions - BYD says that 94 hp should deliver more than enough punch for an urban commuter pod.
The real headline grabber is the energy storage department. BYD has bolted in a fresh 51.13 kWh lithium iron phosphate Blade Battery pack supplied by their in-house FinDreams division, unlocking a CLTC range of up to 501 km. That is a twenty-five percent leap over the previous ceiling of 401 km, and it suggests a real-world equivalent of roughly 370 km on a WLTC cycle. For buyers who thought entry-level EVs are too limiting for weekend getaways, this extra range changes the math. Add to it DC fast charging that can pump the battery from 30% to 80% in half an hour, and range anxiety disappears into the past.
www.arenaev.com
If you live in the West, then you've been told that building a genuinely compelling, long-range electric vehicle on a budget is about as realistic as finding a unicorn in a supermarket. Legacy automakers blame battery costs, supply chain bottlenecks, and the impossibility of putting modern tech into an affordable footprint. But if you are in Shenzhen (China), BYD will tell you that this narrative is a bad joke. The company revealed pricing and specs for the updated compact crossover known internationally as the Atto 2, and we need to talk about those numbers.
In its domestic market, where it wears the Yuan Up badge, the updated Feichi Edition kicks off with a sticker price of RMB 74,800 - that translates to a mind-bending €9,520. Include the temporary trade-in incentives, and that price drops even further to RMB 69,800 (€8,890). If you are sitting in Europe or North America looking at a €35,000 compact hatchback that still asks you to pay extra for alloy wheels and floor mats, this kind of pricing feels almost mythological.
The refreshed Atto 2 is 4,310 mm long, 1,830 mm wide, and 1,675 mm tall, resting on a 2,620 mm wheelbase. Against something like the Geely Xingyuan - which has been dominating the domestic sales charts with over 260,000 units shifted through August - the BYD matches it in stance while offering a slightly chunkier, traditional SUV aesthetic. It easily dwarfs traditional city hatchbacks and yet is compact enough to dart through narrow alleyways with ease.
BYD has made an intriguing engineering decision by standardizing the powertrain across the board. Every single trim level in this new Feichi Edition - from the base car right up to the newly introduced long-range variant - uses a single front-mounted permanent-magnet motor pushing out 70 kW and 180 Nm of torque. Gone are the punchier 130 kW options from older high-end editions - BYD says that 94 hp should deliver more than enough punch for an urban commuter pod.
The real headline grabber is the energy storage department. BYD has bolted in a fresh 51.13 kWh lithium iron phosphate Blade Battery pack supplied by their in-house FinDreams division, unlocking a CLTC range of up to 501 km. That is a twenty-five percent leap over the previous ceiling of 401 km, and it suggests a real-world equivalent of roughly 370 km on a WLTC cycle. For buyers who thought entry-level EVs are too limiting for weekend getaways, this extra range changes the math. Add to it DC fast charging that can pump the battery from 30% to 80% in half an hour, and range anxiety disappears into the past.
New BYD Yuan Up (Atto 2) rewrites the rulebook on affordable EVs
BYD's updated Atto 2 reshapes the affordable EV landscape in China with a {{501 km}} range option and a starting price of {{$11,150}}.
www.arenaev.com