Can you buy a brand-new new electric car for under £7,000? And I mean a proper car – not a jumped-up motorcycle like the Citroen Ami that you can’t take on the motorway.
No, I want a proper car for my £7,000 with five doors and I want it to look good. Inside, I want all the latest touchscreen for navigation and entertainment and a decent range so that I don’t suffer the Tesla disease of ‘battery anxiety’.
Impossible. No, it’s not.
Step forward the Seagull from Chinese auto manufacturer BYD (who they?) who last quarter churned out 431,603 cars, just 3,456 fewer than Tesla.
So what is the spec of my new Seagull from BYD? Well, it’s a five-door hatchback about the size of a Fiat Panda and it’s got all the whistles and bells like a 12-inch swivel touch screen.
And they’re classy – BYD’s head designer Wolfgang Egger – best-known for the Alfa Romeo 8C Competizione, Seat Ibiza and several Audi and Lamborghini models is the man behind the Seagull.
Where it falls down is on speed 0-60 in 13 seconds is roughly what Jeremy Clarkson gets from his combine harvester and the top speed of 70 mph won’t cut it at Silverstone.
But, as I walk around London and see all the huge machines – Range Rovers, Mercedes and the like – that are used to transport just one person and then imagine that each of these was a Seagull, you could see that not only is it friendly to the environment, it can free up a lot of road space.
So, maybe the Mayor with his ULEZ is taxing the wrong parameter, maybe it should be on the size as well as emissions.
BYD has launched one car in the UK – the Dolphin priced around £26,000 – but that is just a toe in the water.
How long before BYD start to tackle the European market, which its founder and CEO says he is ‘going to demolish and achieve new world-class brands.’ I don’t doubt him.
Meanwhile, I’m booking a flight to Beijing to buy my Seagull and drive it back at 70 mph so see you in a few weeks.
Have a good weekend.
Tom
by the Planning PR guru 