China’s Electric Vehicle Giant Claims To Have New Hybrid That Runs American Automakers Off The Road
China’s largest electric vehicle (EV) manufacturer, BYD, announced Tuesday that two of its new hybrid models have ranges that far exceed those of American competitors, The Wall Street Journal reported.
BYD’s chairman Wang Chuanfu claimed at an event in Xian, China, that the company was launching two new hybrid models that could go 2,100 kilometers, or 1,306 miles, on a single tank of gas and a full charge, according to the WSJ. The range is almost double the range of global hybrid competitors, which is around 1,100 km, or 683 miles, at the upper limit, and far exceeds the 700-mile range achieved by America’s longest-driving hybrid in 2023, the Lexus ES 300h. (RELATED: China Pumps Tens Of Billions Into Key Industry Amid Tech War With US)
In addition to the high range, the vehicles are also planned to be sold for the equivalent of under $14,000 each, according to the WSJ. The average list price of a used hybrid in the U.S. was more than $30,000 at the end of 2023, according to inventory data from Cars.com.
Following the announcement, the company’s shares listed in Hong Kong rose 5.3%, while those listed in Shenzhen were up 8.35% for the day, according to the WSJ. The range claims of the new models are even impressive for the Chinese market, beating out competitor Li Auto’s L6 model, which has a range of more than 860 km, while Seres’ can longest travel around 870 miles.
The range of the new vehicles from BYD would mean that they would get around 81 miles per gallon of gas, more than three times greater than the average car sold in the U.S. for model year 2022, according to Business Insider.
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BYD has so far failed to break into the U.S. market despite producing vehicles that cost far less than American products, mostly due to huge tariffs placed on the industry. President Joe Biden announced that tariffs will be hiked later this year on a number of Chinese products crucial to the EV and hybrid supply chains, and plans to raise levies on Chinese EVs themselves from 25% to 100%.
The Biden administration has tried to spur adoption of lower-emission vehicles as part of the president’s climate agenda, finalizing rules in March that effectively require around 67% of all light-duty vehicles sold after 2032 to be electric or hybrid. Biden has also put in place a $7,500 tax credit for each American EV, depending on where certain components were made.
BYD did not immediately respond to a request to comment from the Daily Caller News Foundation.
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