Chinese automaker BYD (Build Your Dream) has unveiled a new hybrid powertrain, the secret superpower of which is that it can deliver a range of some 2,000 km between refueling. So the company claims.
The new system was unveiled online live from China on Tuesday. Its potential means that some of BYD's dual-mode plug-in hybrids could travel the equivalent of New York to Miami, or Kamloops to Winnipeg or Halifax to Toronto, on a single charge and a full tank of fuel.
As Automotive News reports, this milestone marks BYD's latest achievement in fuel economy over five generations of hybrid technology, since its introduction on vehicles in 2008.
BYD is on fire at the moment. Headquartered in Shenzhen, China, the firm sold nearly three million vehicles last year and had delivered one million this year, as of end of March. In large part thanks to across-the-board price cuts, made to the detriment of profitability.
That of course is the kind of stratagem made possible when a company is subsidized by the government. Beijing's strategy is simple: help BYD take the electric car market by storm. In 2020, the company received the equivalent of 220 million Euros in subsidies. Two years later, that figure had risen to 2.1 billion Euros. It’s estimated that the company has so far received around 3.5 billion Euros from the government.
BYD stopped producing cars powered solely by gasoline engines at the beginning of 2022. It has increased its exports of hybrid vehicles to emerging markets where battery recharging infrastructure is weak or non-existent.
As for models capable of covering just over 2,000 km without refueling, we're talking about the Qin L and Seal 06 mid-size sedans unveiled at the Beijing Motor Show this past April. They are part of the Dynasty and Ocean series, in that order.
Whether we'll ever see these models in North America remains a complete uncertainty. In the United States, President Biden recently doubled tariffs on vehicles from China; Canada is holding off on joining its largest trade partner, for now. It has to be careful of its American ally, but at the same time, it doesn't want to alienate China.
Looking at the bigger picture, we can expect the technology behind this new powertrain to eventually make its way elsewhere, in powertrains made by other manufacturers.