The most eye-stealing highlight is the Flash Charging technology, which works in conjunction with the latest Blade Battery 2.0.
– Charging from 10% to 70% takes only 5 minutes.
– To charge to 97%, it only takes 9 minutes.
– Even in temperatures as low as -30°C, it can still be fast-charged in 12 minutes.
Also no mention of crash test ratings. Which is likely the real reason we won’t see it here, and even if we did it would never be for that price because that price is subsidized by the Chinese government.
Edit: Why do so many people think pointing out that some Chinese EVs have been through crash test ratings refute that this article doesn’t mention them?
Also, please note that all the ones that have good ratings aren’t being sold for $22k.
Hmm, good question, and a quick google later:
Chinese EVs may not have to pass USDOT crash tests, but they do have to pass Euro NCAP crash tests, and Chinese NCAP crash tests, which are similar.
And a lot of them did quite well in that regards.
And and they also have to pass however Canada does crash tests as well.
BYD vehicles all rate 5 stars in the Australian ANCAP ratings as well.
The “Chinese vehicles aren’t safe” thing is just fear mongering these days or, more generously, a misapplication of their micro vehicle standards for low speed urban use to ordinary passenger vehicles.
Those smaller vehicles are definitely safer than pickup trucks, which are loopholed for safety standards.
This article is counting Tesla and Polestar as Chinese EVs…
Polestars basically are. They are owned by Geely and some are built in China
Still seems disingenuous in the context of the article linked. Like those “assembled in USA” stickers. Technically correct but also misleading and mostly missing the point.
A lot of iPhones are made in China too. Do you consider them Chinese?
Isn’t Geely a Chinese company though?
Yep, the article is purposely conflating “Chinese” with “Made in China”.
22k USD is around 31k AUD
The BYD Atto 1 sells for 24k AUD + on roads, so less than that figure.
It got a 5 star ANCAP rating.
Just saying.
I did a quick search and cannot find any of those for that price. Source please.
Base model is 26.5k AUD drive away, Premium is 30.5k AUD drive away, so both slip in under the 31k AUD / 22k USD price point.
https://bydautomotive.com.au/atto-1
To be fair China has their equivalent of the NHTSA with more or less comparable tests. US crash tests are particularly bad and still assume a sedan when everyone drives SUVs/light trucks now. Even mini vans in China are smaller than the majority of American SUVs.
The government subsidy is the bigger reason for why the West generally blocks or heavily tariffs the import of Chinese cars. It’s just not fair competition (though there’s also an argument of it being a good thing for us to let them subsidize our imports of lithium)
Ontario built cars and trucks are subsidized by the Canadian and Ontario governments, why aren’t they $22K?
What? What does this have to do with anything?