BYD starts price war to make its EVs and hybrids cheaper than gas-only vehicles

After promising that it will stop the production of ICE-only vehicles way back in 2022, and fulfilling that promise, BYD now wants to make cars that rely just on fuel obsolete by unveiling a price crusade against them.

The world's biggest EV maker barely waited for the Chinese New Year festivities to pass and initiated a price war aimed squarely at the most popular gas-powered cars.

It outed a refresh of one of its bestselling sedans in both its hybrid and EV versions that competes with the likes of Toyota Corolla. The new models are priced down to the equivalent of $11,000, with BYD even announcing that a "79,800 yuan BYD makes fuel vehicles panic." That's not far from the truth, since its Qin Plus hybrid and EV models now cost $2,780 less than before their facelift and have become cheaper than the average ICE-only car in their class.

The automaker also teased a facelift of what could easily become its direct Tesla Model 2 competitor, the BYD Dolphin. The refresh will be announced on February 23 and will include not only new design and features, but will reportedly go down in price, too. The Dolphin's price currently starts from about the equivalent of $16,000 over at BYD's home turf, while its export pricing in Europe starts from about €30,000, or twice the price in China.

That's how it usually goes, yet the BYD Dolphin that recently managed to beat the Model 3 Highland in a winter range test is still one of the cheapest electric cars for its class and features in its present markets. If BYD manages to slash its price further with the new facelift edition, it will get awfully close to the proverbial $25,000 electric car even at export prices and give not only fuel vehicles, but also other EVs a run for their money.

After all, the promised Tesla Model 2 or VW ID. 2all that will be hitting that price point are still a year or two away, while BYD's latest price war may give it a head start in the mass electric vehicle market. Considering the export push that the Chinese government just mandated in order to deal with all the EV overcapacity that local automakers have now amassed, BYD's cheap EV dominance may happen as soon as this year, too.

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