BYD Dolphin Chinese EV Debuts In North America, Starts From $31,000

The BYD Dolphin, which is considered one of the most affordable and well-packaged all-electric vehicles on the global market today, has been launched in Mexico, marking its debut in North America and bringing it one step closer to the United States, where cheap EVs are few and far between.

With this being said, it looks like shipping an electric car from China and putting it on sale in Mexico took its toll on the starting price, with the Dolphin going for 539,990 Mexican pesos (roughly $31,000), which is almost double the price of the base model in China, where the hatchback starts from 116,800 yuan (about $16,000).

It’s a similar scenario in Europe, where the Dolphin has an MSRP of €29,990 ($31,900), but it’s worth noting that the EV that’s sold on the Old Continent is slightly different from that on the Chinese market, with Western markets getting a slightly longer car that has a different front-end crash structure compared to the domestic market version.

In Mexico, however, it’s the same Dolphin as the one sold in China, only more expensive. Powered by a front-mounted 94 horsepower (70 kilowatts) electric motor hooked up to a 44.9-kilowatt-hour Blade battery pack, it measures 162 inches long, 70 in wide, and 62 in tall, making it 7 in shorter than the European version introduced in June.

The zero-emissions hatchback boasts a “class-leading efficiency” of 11 kWh/62 miles (11 kWh/100 kilometers), as well as an NEDC-rated range of 251 miles (405 km) on a full charge. Topping up the battery can be done from either a 7 kW AC source or a 60 kW DC outlet.

The Dolphin is BYD’s fourth battery-powered car to be sold in Mexico, after the Han sedan, Tang SUV, and Yuan Plus crossover. The compact EV is also sold in Australia, New Zealand, Thailand, and Malaysia, and was recently launched in Japan. From its debut in 2021, the Dolphin was built in 500,000 units.

Sources: CarNewsChina, CGTN America (YouTube)

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