This is the new BYD Qin EV300 for China
This the new BYD Qin EV300, the full-electric variant of the BYD Qin hybrid. The Qin EV300 will launch on the Chinese car market late this month. Price including subsidies will start around 160.000 yuan. The Qin EV300 comes with blue on the grille because blue = really green.
Behind the BYD badge are hiding the sockets for the 220V charge and the 380V fast charge.
The EV300 is powered by a single electric motor on the front axle, it is mated to a 48kWh battery. Output is 218hp and 310nm, good for a 150 km/h top speed and a 0-100 in 7.9 seconds. Range is 300 kilometer, hence the EV300 name.
The interior is busy to the eye but a tech fest as usual.
A completely digital instrument panel with a power-reserve meter on the left.
Power button to switch on the motor, a sensually shaped gear lever, an electrinic parking brake, and the button to switch between the eco, normal, and sport modes.
The main screen is 12.7 inches, which isn’t that much for 2016. It is on radio here.
Note badge mid-under the screen. The stereo system is equipped with ‘DTS Digital Surround’, a system that was hip for home stereo’s in the early 2000’s. It’s been a long time since I saw a DTS badge on a music system, let alone one in a car, but BYD got it! Surely another reason to buy this Qin EV300 electric car, not..? It also has a CD and DVD player to make the stereo system time warp complete.
Seats look very trendy in orange over black, and with the Qin character on the top end of the back rest.
Rear end is the same as on the regular Qin but without the exhaust pipe, and with…
… an EV badge with some green. Real green. No blue. The characters read ‘dian dong che’, electric car.
And now for the very good news. BYD has announced that in the EV300 the batteries are placed lower in the chassis than in the Qin hybrid, using up space that was used for the complex hybrid power train. This means that luggage space grows 150 liter to a grand total of 450. The poor hybrid got to do with 300. The above photo shows a big suitcase in an endless sea of space, so we tend to believe BYD on this one.
