Just got done reviewing this wonderful/flawed, over-priced/under-priced, impractical/practical beast for the local Top Gear office.
Impressions: Okay, it's no GT-R destroying Tesla, but for the supposed $50k price tag, 0-100 km/h in 4.9 seconds (about 4.6 to 60 mph, or even less if you apply the silly 1-foot rollout) is awesome. No large crossover or SUV is beating that for anything close to similar money. And the 80 km (50 mile) all-electric range is nice, if not especially impressive compared to the 250-300 km BYD e6 I drove a few years back.
What's questionable is whether the interior, which is decent enough, will last more than a few years without rattling, and how the non-electric parts of the drivetrain will age. BYD is known for its batteries, not its cars.
But it's an awesome piece. Was a little disappointed with my km per kilowatt calculations, until I saw the calculations for the Porsche Cayenne Hybrid, which are much, much worse.
Was a giggle lighting up the tires in second gear. Apparently, to preserve the drivetrain, power comes in stages. near as I can figure, the car is limited to around 300 hp until 20 km/h, then around 400-ish until 40-50 km/h. It only makes all 500 hp in second gear. Which tells you a lot about packaging compromises. Apparently, the Lexus RX-cloned chassis can't fit tires wide enough to take all that power from a stop.
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Still, if BYD can do this, what's stopping everyone else? And how about a (much lighter) sports car with a similar set-up? Shouldn't be so hard.
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