- The BYD Seagull was China's best-selling car in August.
- BYD asserts its position as sales leader in China, with 14 out of the 40 best-selling vehicles in the country last month.
The pint-sized BYD Seagull EV sold 46,830 cars in August in China, making it the country’s best-selling vehicle regardless of power source. Its most affordable version costs the equivalent of just under $10,000, and for that, you get a Chevrolet Bolt EV-sized vehicle with four doors and a 30-kilowatt-hour battery that’s rated for 190 miles (305 kilometers) of range on the Chinese test cycle.
For around $12,000, buyers can upgrade to a 38 kWh battery that pushes the claimed range to 252 miles (405 km). The CLTC test cycle used in China is pretty optimistic, so you’re unlikely to come close to matching the claimed range in the real world, but the big-battery variant should still manage to hit 186 miles (300 km) on one charge.
The Seagull’s sales performance is only part of the story. Seven of the first ten best-selling cars in China last month were made by BYD. The BYD Qin Plus was in second place with 42,765 sales, followed by the Song Plus in third spot with 39,799 sales. All seven top-selling BYDs were either plug-in hybrids or full EVs.
BYD is asserting its dominance over the Chinese car market, making 14 out of last month’s 40 best sellers if you include the Denza sub-brand, which is now fully owned by BYD as of this month. The automaker purchased the last 10% stake from Mercedes-Benz after the German company reduced its shares from 50% to 10% as a result of a restructuring of the joint venture in 2021.
BYD sold 373,000 plug-in vehicles (EVs and PHEVs) in August, of which around 148,470 were fully electric.
The cutesy Wuling Mini EV (also available as a drop-top), which is about half the price of the Seagull, was the seventh best-selling model last month. The fact that it was outsold by more than two to one by the BYD shows that Chinese car buyers prefer a slightly larger car and are willing to pay for it.
But will the Seagull be to Europeans’ tastes? BYD is getting ready to launch its subcompact EV in Europe next year, and even though tariffs and markup will drive the price north of $20,000, it will still be one of the continent’s cheapest EVs. Its only real rival is the Dacia Spring, also built in China was recently given a major redesign that completely changed its appearance.
