BYD is the biggest company you've never heard of. The Chinese engineering company is massive, making equally massive investments in electric transport technology. BYD batteries and motors already power many of the world's electric buses, and now the cars are coming to Europe.
420km ranged crossover
First up is the Atto 3 - a mid-sized crossover with a range of up to 420km. The first cars are already arriving in Ireland, and initially, there will be three dealers; two in Dublin and a third opening in Cork in the coming weeks. All are drawn from the Motors Services Limited (MSL) group, which makes sense as the Irish importer for BYD is Motor Distributors Limited, long the Mercedes importer for Ireland, but also agents over the years for the likes of Volkswagen, Mazda, Skoda, and Citroen.
We don't have pricing for the Atto 3 yet, that will be announced in the next couple of weeks, but it's expected to be competitive with the likes of the Volkswagen ID.4. BYD is promising a simple model lineup for the Atto 3 - three trim variants, all with very high equipment levels are expected to be announced - but beyond this initial model the ambitions for BYD are enormous.
Largest maker of EVs in the world
BYD has already taken the mantle of the world's biggest maker of electric vehicles from Tesla, based largely on Chinese sales alone. Ireland is just part of a broader European launch, and BYD expects to be present in 20 European markets in short order.
The model range will also rapidly expand beyond the single Atto 3. There will be a compact hatchback - the Dolphin - and a Tesla Model 3-sized saloon - the Seal. By 2024, there will also very likely be a larger four-door saloon called the Han, which is already available in China as a fully-electric car, a plug-in hybrid, and a petrol car. Ireland will almost certainly only get the fully electric model once right-hand drive production begins, but that's not fully confirmed as yet.
After that, BYD expects to expand to nine models in Europe and Ireland. While it's not officially talking production figures or sales expectations yet, the single overriding expectation is to be 'the leader in electric transportation.'
EV supercar, EV SUV too...
BYD's car lineup is just one facet of an enormous organisation. The company has other car brands too, including the Yangwang luxury car lineup, which now includes the U9 electric supercar - which was recently shown off with complex active suspension that allows it to actually jump in the air a few inches... - and the U8 SUV, a Mercedes G-Class-alike with four electric motors, 1,100hp, and the ability to sprint to 100km/h in three seconds. Oh, and that one can jump in the air too.
BYD has grown dramatically in recent years, attracting investment from the likes of the famed Warren Buffet, and to give you an idea of the scale, the factory where the Atto 3 is built, was, just over a year ago, a green field site. Now it's turning out 1,000 cars per day. Equally, when BYD found that shipping costs and delays were threatening its expansion into Europe, it cut out the middleman and spent billions buying three gigantic roll-on, roll-off cargo ships. And then it bought five more...
BYD is currently something of an unknown brand in Ireland (and yes, it really does stand for Build Your Dreams), but you can pretty safely expect that to change dramatically in the coming weeks, months, and years.