BYD EV range over 1000km

MouldyOldDough

https://electricdrives.tv/byd-flagship-electric-saloon-revealed-with-over-1000km-battery-range/?fbclid=IwY2xjawT6S6RwZG9mAWV4dG4DYWVtAjEwAHNydGMGYXBwX2lkEDIyMjAzOTE3ODgyMDA4OTIAAR4BwqIQLsjaUmyayu2QzML2yXscBdK4RL3tIipDL_PgT5cBuy5mxJGl3cG6Gw_aem_yLt_kQ7k4jC3wHGjNWNn6g

This could be a game changer - shame the car is so big though

Mind you priced from $37,000 USD - Its still cheap (ish)

Exodi

To be honest, I don't think it is a game changer. Many new EV's can already do 300, 400, 500+ miles. At this point I don't know why the continued push to 600 miles ranges (like the article) and beyond. I imagine a vanishingly low amount of people actually need this (in contrast to the people who are doing a long trip 'once in a blue moon', and could use expensive public charging).

If it's to tempt ICE drivers over, despite the suggestion to the contrary, it was never really about range. They'll inevitably still mention they can't drive from Land's End to John o'Groats.

Interestingly, most people 'only' have a 7kW home EV charger installed, and EV tariffs have gotten less generous over the years, giving 6 hours of off-peak rates, meaning you can charge ~42kWh in that time. Many of the newer and higher range models (such as the one in the article) have 100ish kWh batteries, meaning, you can only charge around 40% per day at off-peak rates (and presumably it'll only get worse if battery capacity continues to trend upwards).

The price is impressive, though there are quite a lot cheap (Chinese) EV brands now - my wife and I now drive electric MG's, I honestly felt like the police should have been called on us for theft the price we paid for them.

born_again

As a EV owner I find 300 miles enough range for daily & holiday usage.

While we see bigger & bigger batteries, they pose more problems for home charging. Given a 7 kWh home charger. If you are lucky to get 7 hours off peak, that's only 49kWh into battery.

So that car would require at least 2 nights to get the range quoted, at off peak rate. If you do that many miles on a regular basis.

So car has 621 range & that's hoping you can get 6 mi/kWh out of it. Which would be amazing for such a car.

Keep_pedalling

Such large batteries are a solution for a problem that does not exist.

Nasqueron

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82114094#Comment_82114094

For the UK perhaps not, for other markets with bigger countries they would be very useful.

For the sport I do I need to some trips which are over 300 miles (the longest is 415 miles) around normally done in 1 day, it's not often possible to charge at the other end so if I could comfortably do them without charging even in winter it would be very useful.

oldernonethewiser

But does it have physical knobs for air con and/or the radio?

Herzlos

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82114196#Comment_82114196

I think it's mostly a marketing exercise, just like the 1000kW charging. It gets headlines and shows that the brand is better than others, but virtually no-one will make use of it in real life.

I suspect in this case most people will go for a smaller battery than the headline 102kWh one, to save weight and money. Even a 51kWh battery will be ~300 miles range and plenty for most.

The non-UK thing is a good point though, and oft missed on a UK centric board. There are places with larger distances with poor infrastructure, like rural China or USA.
It's still more of a perception problem than a reality one; average US annual mileage is double the UK's at 14,000, but that's still only 31 miles/day.

What the massive ranges and ludicrous charging times do mean is that there is an option for those edge cases that really do need to drive 600 miles each way towing a caravan without stopping or access to chargers

Exodi

born_again

So car has 621 range & that's hoping you can get 6 mi/kWh out of it. Which would be amazing for such a car.

Yeah I was very surprised to read the battery capacity (it was the first thing I checked).

My current car (MG 5 EV Trophy) based on nearly 3 years of usage I can see I'm getting almost exactly 3 mi/kWh. My drives are mainly 3 mile trips to work at 30mph 10 times a week. Throw in the odd hour drive on the motorway a few times a month for activities/visit family/etc. It advertises a WLTP range of 235 miles, which is about 3.85 mi/kWh, but we know this is based on ideal conditions, I'm achieving 78% of that, fine.

Mine is an estate which aren't as aerodynamic as saloons and of course is a bit older (73 plate), I know newer EV's can get to the 4 mi/kWh mark, with some (mostly smaller city cars) even getting to 5 mi/kWh. Due to the weight of the battery, you seldom see a car with high efficiency simultaneously having a large range. You can have your cake, but you can't eat it, as they say.

Except this car seems to suggest you can. When I saw the over '1000km range', my default assumption was that it would have a massive battery - maybe 150kWh. I was very surprised to see it was 'only' sporting a 102kWh battery, while simultaneously boasting 626 mile range. As you say, giving an incredible (I'd say optimistic) 6.14 mi/kWh.

If we compare this to, say the MG IM5, which is also a saloon and also features a 100kWh battery, it promises a 441 mile WLTP range, giving a 4.41 mi/kWh ratio.

This means, BYD have not increased the battery size, but instead suggest that their car is instead just 40% more efficient than other comparable EV's, which would be incredible if true, especially at that price (though I guess it is to be seen what that translates to in the UK once you add on duty, tax, etc).

MyRealNameToo

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82114238#Comment_82114238

The US is more complex because of much more variability than the UK, yes the average is double but the average in NYC is a a third of that and Wyoming is double again.

Most dont buy for their daily commute but for the remaining 5% of their annual milage which is the cross state treck for thanks giving or 4th july where you can be doing 300 miles each way with no guarantee of fast charging at the other end (or a desire not to waste time on doing it)

Plus in the US you have the super commuters who drive 150 miles each way to work and dont necessarily have charging facilities there. Here you are a heavy commuter driving 40 miles each way

daveyjp

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82114094#Comment_82114094

It exists if you live somewhere larger than the GB, which is most of the world!

born_again

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82114212#Comment_82114212

If current BYD's are anything to go by NO. But voice activation can do these for you a lot safer than even buttons can. As I have found out in my new one.

Old E-Niro did 4.3 mi/kWh over 19K miles.

Current Atto3 EVO is averaging the same over 1K

So 4 to 5 mi/kWh should be possible. But 6 is a stretch to far.