EV vs. ICE vehicles: Electric cars are the future and they # 39; is greener than you think
Chinese automaker BYD is ready to start selling electric cars here appoint a new distributor.
Distributor S dreams yesterday launched a fleet of seven batteries E6 car with five doors, which will be used in a limo service with Uber.
The company is a subsidiary of Si2i, who was known as MediaRing before Indian billionaire B K Modi purchased approximately 60 million in 2009 and renamed.
The seven BYD E6s represent the largest single launch of electric vehicles with regular license plates of cars here.
M. Spencer Tan, who is in charge of strategic partnerships to S dreams, said the E6 has a market value of about 48 000 - in the ballpark of a BMW 5 Series.
So it is not going to be what most people expect Chinese cars to be - cheap.
Although Mr. Tan refuses to reveal retail prices, The Straits Times understands that the car would be close to 200,000 with COE.
It is after a level-2 carbon discount 15,000 But even if E6 should qualify for level 1 Refund 30,000, it would still cost almost as much as a Toyota Fortuner, a huge seven-seat SUV .
Besides price, another obstacle facing BYD is dependent Unlike most electric vehicles, which can be charged via the normal household electrical outlets, the E6 needs a quick charger high voltage.
A potential buyer should spend 12,000 or so ask industrial cables necessary for such a charger.
The advantage is that an owner E6 result less operating costs, never have to pull up at a petrol kiosk, and do their part to save the Earth.
Mr Tan said the car has a range of about 400 km and the vacuum charging would take less than two hours and unlike most electric cars on the market, BYD uses iron-phosphate batteries.
They are safer than lithium-ion batteries, which have been known to burst into flames, he notes.
If the retail version is just like the seven limousines launched yesterday it will appeal to tech-savvy youth.
The fleet of high-end features such as Wi-Fi, collision detection before, pedestrian warning and lane departure warning.
What is less appealing is its design frumpy Resembling a dated break, the E6 is popular among taxi drivers in cities trying to flaunt their green credentials.
These include the hometown of Shenzhen BYD, London, Bogota, Brussels, San Diego, New York, San Francisco and Chicago.
In another company BYD here, new taxi operator HDT Taxi Singapore announced it would launch its fleet of BYD E6 taxi earlier this month.
As for environmentally conscious drivers who want to buy a E6, Mr. Tan said that if someone comes today and says he has no problem with the price and no problems with the load, we can deliver a car in two months.
Meanwhile, BMW i3 is the most popular electric car here, with 60 hit the road since its launch two years ago, it is priced at 215800.
A version of this article appeared in the print edition of The Straits Times September 17, 2016, with the Chinese electric car on sale here as Print edition Subscribe.
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