Relevant to my interests: a Chinese EV.

[SilentbutnotreallyDeadly]

Righto! There's a bit of a game afoot in Australia. Unlike most everywhere else, we don't have many BEV or PHEV options available to us down here. Especially cheap ones. Our government/s aren't offering subsidies for EVs and since many that are marketed here are premium offerings they often get slapped with a Luxury Car Tax. And our Federal government has stalled our fuel emissions legislation at Euro5 because our remaining petrol production capacity is only able to produce a fuel that is higher in sulphur content than a Euro6 or Euro7 compliant engine can manage...

And we won't even mention the prevailing carbon emission abatement policy because no-one knows what it is...

Anyway....despite all this a few punters are having a go. Notably those associated with Chinese manufacturers. MG Motors have back in our market for a while and are doing very well with their colourful if anonymous range of small SUV things. One of them is (or was) Australia's cheapest EV.

Not anymore!

Here's another anonymous looking Chinese blob. This BYD e6 is now Australia's cheapest EV. It's a five seat minivan thingy that's roughly the size of a RAV4 and would set me back a smidge over AU$42,000 drive away.

The other key feature is the battery capacity....71 kWh. Which is good for a claimed range of 520 km (a week's worth of commuting for us!) according to WLTP standards (what the European union are using these days). And it manages this feat by doing the exact opposite of every other EV offering out there. Instead of accelerating like a scalded cat, the e6 takes a more leisurely approach to get up and go - it may take 18 seconds to get from 0 to 100 km/h. This is not fast by any standard and the top speed is somewhere around 140 km/h.

However, trade offs must be made to get something with this range for this price...and it's not a bad one to make to be honest.

Obviously, there are other quirks like an Android infotainment system that does not manage Carplay and the like. An the fact that the back seats don't fold down at all...

In the end though....it's here for people to buy with a great range and a great price for a market that manifestly doesn't have any sort of regulatory support and is therefore entirely reliant on the enthusiasm and interest of the average punter to develop. So good luck to any auto distributor or manufacturers that are keen to take a shot...
https://evdirect.com.au/e6-specifications/
https://www.torque.com.sg/reviews/byd-e6-review-mpv-surprisingly-swell/
https://www.goauto.com.au/new-models/byd/e6/byd-steals-mg-motor-rsquo-s-cheap-ev-crown/2021-10-18/86135.html

[Exage03040]

@silentbutnotreallydeadly said in Relevant to my interests: a Chinese EV.:

18 seconds to get from 0 to 100 km/h. This is not fast by any standard and the top speed is somewhere around 140 km/h.

That's 18 seconds for 0-62mph and 87mph for our American Readers.

Fun Fact!
The infamous Yugo was able to hit 100kph/62mph in 14.8s and had a similar top speed.

[pip bip]

@silentbutnotreallydeadly big colour selection, blue or white

[Italia]

@silentbutnotreallydeadly man that's still 31,000 USD i would want a little more acceleration for that money. 18sec 0-100kmh is not safe for highway merging.

[Rider]

@silentbutnotreallydeadly Why is it SO SLOW? It's not like EVs get much more inefficient by having a more powerful motor and it's Chinese so it probably wouldn't cost that much to add a bigger motor either, especially for a AUS market car that's already not that cheap.

[SilentbutnotreallyDeadly]

@rider said in Relevant to my interests: a Chinese EV.:

@silentbutnotreallydeadly Why is it SO SLOW? It's not like EVs get much more inefficient by having a more powerful motor and it's Chinese so it probably wouldn't cost that much to add a bigger motor either, especially for a AUS market car that's already not that cheap.

It's slow because it prioritises range over speed. It could go faster that's true but that expensive battery would be drained faster as well. And a big selling point (great range at a low price - bear in mind that the slightly more expensive MG EV has less than half the range) would be lost.

The other point is this is a Chinese and Asian market car that also happens to have found its way into our market and Europe. And our driving conditions are not the same as theirs and yours are even less familiar. High speeds and fast acceleration is not required in a highly urbanised and concentrated human habitats.

[SilentbutnotreallyDeadly]

@pip-bip said in Relevant to my interests: a Chinese EV.:

@silentbutnotreallydeadly big colour selection, blue or white

But only two choices of the same colour rather than three shades of white and two shades of blue like Hyundai....

[SilentbutnotreallyDeadly]

@exage03040 said in Relevant to my interests: a Chinese EV.:

@silentbutnotreallydeadly said in Relevant to my interests: a Chinese EV.:

18 seconds to get from 0 to 100 km/h. This is not fast by any standard and the top speed is somewhere around 140 km/h.

That's 18 seconds for 0-62mph and 87mph for our American Readers.

Fun Fact!
The infamous Yugo was able to hit 100kph/62mph in 14.8s and had a similar top speed.

Yep. Both this and the Yugo are cars made for (and perfectly suitable for) markets other than North America.

[StreetsofPerth]

@silentbutnotreallydeadly 18 seconds!? Hell, my Defender was faster than that and it couldn't get out of its own way until it had built up some momentum. The top speed is no big deal though; 30km/h over the speed limit is plenty.

[Exage03040]

@silentbutnotreallydeadly said in Relevant to my interests: a Chinese EV.:

Yep. Both this and the Yugo are cars made for (and perfectly suitable for) markets other than North America.

Then by all means, Build Your Dreams!

[KITT222]

@silentbutnotreallydeadly said in Relevant to my interests: a Chinese EV.:

Which is good for a claimed range of 520 km (a week's worth of commuting for us!) according to WLTP standards (what the European union are using these days).

FWIW, WLTP is EXTREMELY optimistic and not really reflective of what you'll get in the real world. EPA is more accurate, and according to the linked articles, a range of 464km is going to be more accurate. This was found with the 2nd articles 1.12 comparison factor, backed up by the first article's data.

https://insideevs.com/news/414786/comparison-epa-wltp-range-ratings/
https://insideevs.com/features/343231/heres-how-to-calculate-conflicting-ev-range-test-cycles-epa-wltp-nedc/

[RacinBob]

@rider I think you would find that the motor and the motor power inverter are the second and third most expensive parts of the car. Also combined cost more than the battery. And also combined more expensive than the battery.

The thing is, the motor and the motor inverter's cost are proportional to the maximum power they are designed to deliver. So there is a strong incentive to size both for the minimum needed to do the job. Since this car is designed to be inexpensive, they need to pay attention to costs and hence power.

[Jb boin]

In Europe, the Dacia Spring cost almost half (16k€ including 20% VAT), does 0 to 100kph in 19s and can do around 250km WLTP.

[ranwhenparked]

@exage03040 I don't think that's too bad, at least not unusably slow. I know from experience that 60mph in around 13-14 seconds doesn't stand out as noticeably slow in actual traffic

[Taylor Martin]

@exage03040 You clearly need the Hong Guang Micro EV

Fully specced, it's about $5,000 USD. And it's backed by GM, so it'd maybe make sense to ship to Aussie eventually...

Maybe...

Granted, range is 106 miles at its best.

[HFV_Junkyardin]

@rider I’d guess the software is capping off how much amperage can leave at once. So it could potentially go faster but that would hurt the Range.

[Rider]

@silentbutnotreallydeadly Making the car faster wouldn't decrease the advertised range by much. Other EVs have great range/kwh numbers and aren't dangerously slow. EVs are not like ICE cars, you can have your range and burn it too.

[RallyDarkstrike]

@silentbutnotreallydeadly said in Relevant to my interests: a Chinese EV.:

it may take 18 seconds to get from 0 to 100 km/h. This is not fast by any standard and the top speed is somewhere around 140 km/h.

I am fine with this. If I could just get a company to produce an EV with 500+km of range that was almost as basic and the same size as my Accent, I'd be happy....but no, most of them are playing to the luxury and high-end market.

[SilentbutnotreallyDeadly]

@rallydarkstrike
Same here. They play there because, in an unincentivised market, that's the only way to get a quality margin...