Atto 3 electric SUV maker BYD forced to raise prices as material costs jump

The maker of the Atto 3 electric compact SUV, BYD, has succumbed to the increase costs of materials and followed the suit of other carmakers in raising prices.

The Atto 3, a rebadged Yuan Plus, is currently the most affordable electric vehicle in Australia. It launched in February at a starting price of $44,900 driveaway (depending on which state you live in), and BYD importer EV Direct informs The Driven that the price increase will not affect existing orders.

The price increase in China has seen its range of electric vehicles increase by a relatively small amount compared to Tesla’s recent price hikes, and those announced by Rivian.

With two price increases in as many weeks, the Californian EV maker upped the price of its Model 3 in Australia by up to $4,000. In comparison, from last Wednesday BYD increased its prices by 3,000-6,000 yuan, equal to $A635-1,271.

Fellow China carmaker MG has also increased pricing for its electric compact SUV, the MG ZS EV. Introducing its refreshed 2022 ZS EV, it added $2,000 to its base Excite grade model, bringing on-road pricing to $46,990.

While the pricing increase is not likely to be applied to the Atto 3 in the near term, the importer declined to comment on the possibility of a future increase.

Another China EV maker Nio, which also sells EVs in Norway, has said that it will not increase prices for the time being, China EV news site CNEV Post reports.

BYD’s price increase in China came only days after it opened pre-orders for two new variants of its premium Han electric sedan, the Han DM-i and Han DM-p.

The budget-focussed DM-i and performance-focussed DM-p went on sale with a price range from 216,800 – 322,800 yuan ($A45,926 – $A68,381 converted) before China’s electric vehicle subsidies of 30,000 yuan ($A6,355) are applied.

With 10 hours of going on pre-sale, BYD said that it had taken more than 12,000 pre-orders – about a tenth of its entire Han sales for 2021.

The BYD Han was originally slated to be the first BYD electric vehicle to launch in Australia under a world-first exclusive deal with importer EV Direct.

A range of factors from the Covid pandemic to changing priorities in BYD’s product development has meant that the Atto 3 has been made available to order first instead, with first deliveries slated for mid-2022.

It is understood that it will be followed by a BYD electric hatchback, named the Dolphin in China, and the EA1 in Thailand, that will cost between $30,000-$35,000 according to sources. It will also be joined by the BYD Seal electric sportscar, slated to arrive locally in the second quarter of 2023.

BYD has a plan to make and sell one million EVs a year, and has recently announced it has started building a new lithium-ion battery factory in collaboration with state-owned carmaker FAW Group that will make 45GWh worth of batteries a year in order to achieve that goal.