Wait, wait wait...BYD wha??? Major competition!!!

[Erleichda]

So...BYD has the E6 in the USA NOW for fleets with 250 mi range at $48k, and built its companyinstead on fleet/bus vs. luxury cars like Tesla. (and their bus can go 750 miles...) And it's battery matches specs in 2016 of the panasonic/Tesla. And prices/range about to collide in 2017 with Model 3. And Warren Buffet...Buffet is their recent big investor. He of Elon battles in NV energy fame?? And now Samsung is aligning with BYD, and building a gigafactories worth of KW (34 by 2020)?? And their stock has been like 6 bucks??

This deserves front page news

 

[stopcrazypp]

So...BYD has the E6 in the USA NOW for fleets with 250 mi range at $48k, and built its companyinstead on fleet/bus vs. luxury cars like Tesla. (and their bus can go 750 miles...) And it's battery matches specs in 2016 of the panasonic/Tesla. And prices/range about to collide in 2017 with Model 3. And Warren Buffet...Buffet is their recent big investor. He of Elon battles in NV energy fame?? And now Samsung is aligning with BYD, and building a gigafactories worth of KW (34 by 2020)?? And their stock has been like 6 bucks??

This deserves front page news

The e6 is not news. Hard to search up here using forum search because of the two letter name, but it had been discussed before. Not really a serious competitor because the efficiency is so poor (resulting in only 127 miles of EPA range on a 60kwh battery) and the brand name is still unknown despite the car having been on sale for the same amount of time as the Model S (e6 started to sell in US on 2012).
(250 Mile Range @ $35K) BYD e6

The latest EPA results says 187 miles of EPA range for the 2016 version (which has a 82kWh battery from other tests).
2016 BYD e6
(250 Mile Range @ $35K) BYD e6

 

[Yggdrasill]

By all accounts the e6 is a pretty crappy car. But BYD is definitely one of the only car companies besides Tesla that I think can make a compelling EV at a good price in the near future. They just need some experience making cars and they'll be good to go.

 

[Erleichda]

It's only unknown in the USA. BYD is the leading EV world wide in sales, and China has excluded Tesla from its charging station build out.

It is squarely on target to be a serious competitor world wide with the Model 3, as they will also have a fully comparable battery by cost and density, and adding 6GW of battery manufacturing per year. Samsung/Buffet/BYD/China/Buses/Taxis/multiple civilian models vs. Panasonic/Elon/Tesla/USA/Luxo/multiple civilian models/soon bus/taxis. It's going to be Huuuuuge.

 

[Yggdrasill]

When it comes to batteries, BYD uses LFP. It's pretty crappy compared to NCA, with a really bad energy density, meaning you need a 600 kg battery pack for the 60 kWh version or 700 kg for 82 kWh. The Model S on the other hand has a ~550 kg battery pack for 90 kWh, soon 100 kWh. The Model 3 will likely have a 350 kg pack for 85 kWh.

It would be extremely sad if Tesla were the only company making compelling BEVs, so I wish BYD all the best. Maybe the cooperation with Samsung will result in better vehicle batteries.