Foreign media evaluation of BYD Seagull: high sales are not just because they are cheap

Fast Technology reported on February 29 that according to foreign media reports, a few days ago, automakers in Europe, Japan, the United States and other places have been committed to changing the price of electric vehicles without sacrificing profits.

But China's EV brands not only did not lose profits, but also achieved the same price as gasoline vehicles.

To find out how Chinese automakers did it, Detroit-based auto testing company Caresoft imported an $11,500 BYD Seagull for analysis.

Veteran automotive journalist John McElroy and Caresoft president Terry Wojkhovsky put it to the test.

Wojchowski said that the BYD Seagull is made to reduce costs as much as possible when manufacturing, such as the single wiper design of the front windshield, which means that BYD only needs to manufacture a wiper arm, a wiper motor and a wiper blade, which is a good cost reduction.

In addition, in order to further reduce costs, some body panels, light clusters, motors, batteries, power electronics, etc. are manufactured by BYD itself.

To the surprise of McElroy and Wojchowski, the Seagull is modest at less than $12,000, but the car offers a lot of utility and equipment.

Such as a leather-wrapped steering wheel, cruise control, a power driver's seat, and a surprisingly large number of soft-touch surfaces.

This once again shows how far China and BYD have come in the global car race.

After the test drive, Wojkhovski said, "I understand why so many consumers buy things like BYD." Chinese cars have reached the point where they are bought by value, not necessarily because they are cheap.

And this also means that electric vehicles from China are already a threat to manufacturers in other countries.