In a Swedish market that is generally very focused on electrics, Chinese BYD’s Atto 3 achieved a remarkable performance in July.
Still little known in our latitudes, BYD is a real juggernaut on a global scale. Based in China, this manufacturer has placed the electric car at the heart of its strategy: it has even become the world’s No. 2 behind Tesla and ahead of Volkswagen. There is no need to look for a thermal model in the French catalog of the brand, you will not find one.
The BYD Atto 3 King of Sweden
BYD has barely set up shop here and currently has neither the notoriety nor the success of MG, another Chinese player specializing in electric vehicles. But the offensive initiated on the Old Continent already seems to be bearing fruit in other countries. Thus in Sweden, the BYD Atto 3 has just closed a record month of July. With 721 registrations, it was the best-selling electric model in the country, and even rose to second place in the best-selling cars of all energies, behind the Volvo XC60.
As noted CarNewsChina, this is the first time that BYD has managed to place a model on the top step of the podium for electric vehicle sales in a European country. This performance made the Chinese manufacturer the second biggest seller of cars in Sweden in July, despite the anecdotal scores of its other models.
The share of electric cars in Sweden stood at 37.5% in July, a figure well above that recorded in France (13%). In this category, the second place in the classification by model is occupied by the Volkswagen ID.4, the third by the BMW i4.
A rather unexpected performance
The Atto 3 figures in Sweden are difficult to interpret. Perhaps there is behind this unexpected success a large order from a company, which would have “artificially” inflated the balance sheet? It will be necessary to carefully scrutinize the scores of the vehicle in the coming months to have an element of answer.
Located in the buoyant C-SUV segment, the Atto 3 is not without quality. However, it struggles to convince on a number of important points, as we saw during our test. Moreover, BYD’s prices are less attractive than those of MG. In Sweden, the Atto 3 starts at 532,900 crowns, or around 45,000 euros. For comparison, MG offers its Marvel R at a price of 489,990 crowns (just under 42,000 euros).
The MG4, which is certainly not in the same category, is sold for 329,990 crowns in the basic configuration (around 28,000 euros). While it is the most popular Chinese car in France, it achieves more mixed performance in Sweden. In July, it was not even in the top 10 electric sales.
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