BYD ATTO 1 (Seagull) pricing released – “This is the moment for true EV price parity”
Right. Uh anyway, uh today I popped into the office of a certain uh member of the automotive known to many of you who’s been on the channel a couple of times. Uh thanks for joining us, Warren Wall. You’re very good. You’re very welcome, Richard. Yes. Now, we’ve got some big news going out and I think if you’ve been over on a certain other channel tonight, you would have seen this announcement already, but if you haven’t, well then you can come and get it from me here. We have some pricing. We do for some cars that are coming and we’re just going to cut straight into it and go straight for the one that everyone wants to know about the C I mean 801. Yep. I’m more excited about this car than any car ever launched in history because this is the moment where we get actual price parrol rivals. So you’re after the price. Yes. We’ve got two variants. So we have an essential and a premium. The essential starts at $29.99 and the premium 30 grand 30 is the premium is 3590. Right. And what are you getting for your money there? Obviously battery sizes. Yeah, there’s a big difference in spec. So um battery sizes, engine output size, you know, things like 360° cameras. Essential is always um stripped down version and premium has all fruit in it. So two very differentized cars in terms of battery and range. The essential you’re looking at 220ks on WLTP in premium you’re looking at over 300. So yeah, Kiwis really want a little electric car. You must have studied it by now. I mean is the demand for small cars in New Zealand? Not really goes straight up bang up against the Suzuki Swift, a Toyota Yaris, a um a Mazda 2. You know, these are very well-known name plates and that car fits right into that market segment. So for a lot of people I think they’ll uh purchase this car as their secondary car which inevitably ends up becoming their primary car cuz they end up using it every day for commuting. You know just a little runabout around town. Also it’s an ideal car for uh pool fleets. You know having a a low low cost uh high-spec safe. It’s just got fivestar urine cat car on the fleet for pool. It makes a lot of sense. And of course you get all that usual BYD tech vehicle to load um you know the BYD owners app so you can text keys out makes a lot of sense for business. Do you think it’ll cause us to challenge perhaps some of the newer import leafs that are coming in? Absolutely. This is going to absolutely eat into that used market. I mean, if you’re looking at a used and bought Leaf for um 20 to 30 grand or while when you look at a brand new car with a manufacturer six year, sorry, 5year warranty um with a fullbacked deal network around the country. Is it is it really price fairy? How does that compare against a a similly spec Swift? Uh well, Swift Swift’s a little bit older than the truth now, but if we look at a Honda Jazz, that’s $30,600. If we’re looking at a Yarus, that’s $33,000 or a Mazda tube is $29.99. So absolutely price parity. Yeah. And you know it’s cheaper than the than the new Suzuki France as well. When can people go and put their name on the list and when to get the card? Can absolutely put their name down today, Richard. So for a $500 fully refundable deposit, you put your name down now. I’ve ordered enough stock uh to arrive just prior to Christmas and uh another second shipment coming later in January. So um BYD, we got a pretty consistent supply, but we all know when we launch a BYD product, there’s always a big rush at the beginning. So, if you want to avoid disappointment, put your money down now. We can guarantee you being one of our first customers. Do you think there’s some dad out there who’s already planned to like have one wrapped with a bow underneath the Christmas tree for their daughter this year? I mean, with with the Christmas arrival, it seems pretty good time. I can tell you there have been quite a few customers who know it’s coming and have already put deposits down with dealers despite not having any pricing or any spec. So, we’ve already got at least 25 customers who have put them um deposits down and registered with dealers directly first in the first instance. So whether or not we can get them ready before end of the year, it all depends on the shipping schedule. But um the boat from China is due around about the 20th or the 25th of of December. Will this be the smallest car you guys ever land here? Because the BYD has launched a or revealed a K car in Japan. Now you say, you know, K cars don’t come to New Zealand, but Honda’s confirmed that the uh the Super 1 is coming to New Zealand. That’s a K car. Do you guys got sights on maybe bringing the BYD EA car here? You never say never, Richard. It’s BYD. They plan to have a car for every part of the market. And the thing is though, we’ll only bring cars that make a true business sense here in New Zealand. So, um, you know, if we can make the numbers work, if we can make it at a marketable price point for the customer, make it at a price point for the dealer to be able to make some margin on the way through, would absolutely look at it. But, um, well, I think you’ll find there might be one or two of those coming through as you use them bought anyway at some point in time. definitely will be. Yeah. The other aspect to it too is I think when the seagull was kind of say seagull because we’re talking about it back then as opposed to 801 now was first discussed there was some question about whether it could meet safety standards crash testing that kind of thing. It kind of has proven that it can. Absolutely. I mean there was a big surprise to us which by the safety uh regulations are getting tighter and tighter as we know from 2026 all uh ANCAP requirements are going to have to have equal. Um, so every year the the goalpost move a little bit further out and trying to make a small car safe is is a bit of a mission. Um, so we’re very fortunate that yeah, BYD is invested and managed to get that 500 euro encap rate. Do you think we’ll get will it get encap tested ultimately or Oh, inevitably if it’s um if if it’s going to be into the Australian market and it’s been Euro Encap testing evidently you’ll see those um those ratings come across. Do you think it’ll transfer to a five or do you think it’ll be Yeah, it would it which should hit a five star. Okay. Correct. Now we talk parity of the car, right? You think it’s probably closer to par and that’s the uh 802 pricing on that? Absolutely. So 802 again um love this car. You’ve actually driven it in China up in Shenzen. Um so we have two models, dynamic and a premium. So dynamics is a little bit better spec than an essential. And again this comes in a very very sharp price point. So, we’re launching at $399.990 plus on roads for the dynamic and $3590 for the premium. Same battery across both. That’s right. Same battery, same engine. Um, premium’s just got a lot more spec on it. Electric cars don’t have engines. Uh, road motor. Yeah. Can’t get it right. You’re on EVs and beyond here or auto car. However, you’ll have to tweak that one out. Uh, so what is the battery size on that? And what kind of range will NAS? a 51 km battery and the NDC C figure is over 410 km real world or WLTP probably around 345. Now pricing wise and where it sits in your range that does create a little bit of a problem for the Dolphin. I mean is the Dolphin still it’ll be in your range? Absolutely. Look, we we’re not deleting the Dolphin, but we’re certainly not going to be carrying a lot of inventory or that spec. Um we do have fleets that uh plan to replace more cars in their fleet with Dolphin. Um, not forgetting the Dolphin premium version has a 60 kilowatt hour battery. Um, so there is a and there is a definite place for that car in the market as well, but um, stocks are supposed to be a lot lower. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And what do you see that competing with? Because we’re kind of getting into a really stratified kind of used to be small, medium, large SUVs. Now it seems that small to medium segments dividing up into like eight different. Absolutely. Look, you know, this this competes hard up against the other competitors in that beef space probably from China. So, we look at the um the Elite Motive variants and the um and also the the the new MG as well, but where will that price entry point of $3990 um it’s definitely one of the most keenest in the market. So, and it’s a BYD all the BYD tech does a list price kind of make it the cheapest in the lowest price. Yeah, we use the word affordable. Yes. Yes. Yes. Do you think it will will eat uh maybe some of Ed’s lunch as well? And do you think Edo you might tighten up the range from that or Yeah, for sure. Ed’s um again Edo is our main fleet say we’ve got more than 7 and a half thousand arrows on the road in New Zealand um and it’s it’s the most popular be that uh that we sell a lotto it’s a lot of um echos not going anywhere again it’s got a 60 kilow battery a little bit bigger in size so with BYD the number so 80123 the bigger the number the bigger the wheelbase so 803 is is bigger 803 to me is more sort of perfect family Air2 is a little little bit smaller. Yeah. Yeah. My family has one as a family car. That uh plug-in hybrids aren’t left behind. Uh C Lion 5. C Lion 5. Yes. This is actually the car that I’m most excited for because as we know the number one selling car in New Zealand is a RAV 4. And this car goes hard up against a RAV 4, hard up against um Kia Sportage and Hundai Tucson. So we are introducing twospec again essential and uh premium. The essential is launching into the New Zealand market at $399.990. What kind of power, what kind of range, what are we looking at? So we got the again the two variants. Um so the uh essential has uh nearon a 13 kWh battery that gives you about 70ks range on EV and then the premium has an 18.3 kWh battery giving you over 100 km range in EV mode plus 1,000 in the in the hybrid mode. So for those who wanted to say take a step into electrification, this is a perfect vehicle. You don’t have to have the hardware, right? You don’t have to have a home charger. It comes with an emergency charger, but you don’t have to charge it. You can just run it like a hybrid and you’re still going to get the benefit of very low fuel consumption. I’m guessing nearly a,000 ks of global range. Yep. D’s DMI technology. So really excited. It just again breaks down that barrier into um electrification for many people. Fleet’s going to go crazy for that current. I’ve driven it in China. It’s I would say it’s not necessarily the the flashest, most modern, outrageous thing in the market. I suspect a lot of people will like that. Well, we brought it in to be affordable. Yeah. Um, we’ve got the Cine 6 as you know, which is a beautiful high-spec car with every creature comfort, but that comes at price point. So, by having an entry- level vehicle like the Cine 5, it’s what our fleet customers have been asking for. What else on the radar after that? Look, Seine 8’s getting a lot of crest in Australia moment. The journalist there. made made no secret Cine is coming. That’ll follow a month after these cars, right? So, you might uh might have a little um another one of these to do in the next couple of weeks. And then if we roll on to the first quarter next year, I’ve got another four cars or five cars after that to roll on. So, um what was it what hasn’t been mentioned um is at the same time as the C1 51 A2, we have the BYD Shark 6 cab chassis version arriving as well, right? So that’s a lower spec um shark with the wellside tub removed so our customers can build things like flat decks and um service bodies and etc. How much lower speed? What are we talking fabric interior and vinyl floors? I know if you don’t do fabric interior just some things like um that fleets have have asked to be removed like heads-up displays and those sorts of things. So price tup yeah not much less than the current shark 6 because actually deleting those things doesn’t actually add up to a lot of financial gain. It just comes down to the fact that um you fleets just don’t want all that extra flippery and and uh or fluff on the cars when they’re work vehicles. So you’re looking about $1,000 less than the current shark. But what it does do is um takes all the five or six hours that of um labor time to remove that well side to build a flat D or the back because when does the charging port go when it’s not in the side of the well? So that’ll depend on the bodybuilder on and the or the deck maker and where they’re going to where they um relocate those things. So all package up really nice and easy. We’ve actually got a bodybuilder’s guide um available in advance to to registered bodybuilders here in New Zealand. They can access that file and sub their designs. Great. Excellent. Well, look, that’s just a little bit of a chat here with Warren. So, that’s the pricing. $299.90 for the new ADO1, $39.99 for the ATO2, and $3990 starting point for the C Lion 5. Three new cars. Look, I will have linked through this video all the drives in China on these vehicles. We’ll probably have New Zealand drives coming sometime early next year, I’m guessing. That’s right. End of January. Yeah. Yeah. And uh yeah, don’t forget like and subscribe for more great content like this.
BYD New Zealand general manager Warren Willmot sits down with EVs & Beyond’s Richard Edwards to discuss the brand’s next phase — including the Atto 1, Atto 2, and Sealion 5 plug-in hybrid.
Willmot explains why the Atto 1’s $29,990 price tag marks a genuine step toward EV price parity, how the Atto 2 bridges the gap between city hatch and small SUV, and what fleets can expect from the new Sealion 5 DM-i and upcoming Shark 6 cab-chassis.
📈 Topics covered:
– Why BYD believes the Atto 1 changes the affordability game
– How fleets are driving the next wave of electrification
– Plug-in hybrids as a bridge for mainstream buyers
– What’s next for BYD NZ heading into 2026
🎬 Watch the full interview and subscribe for more EV news, reviews, and analysis from EVs & Beyond.
#BYD #BYDAtto1 #BYDSealion5 #EVsAndBeyond #EVNZ #WarrenWillmot #BYDNewZealand
