The Chinese company BYD has begun offering advanced autonomous driving features in most of its models, including those sold for $9,555, much less than its competitors’ offerings, in a move that analysts say is set to trigger a new price war.
According to the news agency Reuters, the electric vehicle giant has equipped all of its BYD brand models priced above 100,000 yuan ($13,688) with the advanced driver assistance system “God’s Eye”, owned by the company, said BYD founder Wang Chuanfu at a live-streamed event from Shenzhen.
Additionally, the system was installed in three models priced below 100,000 yuan, the cheapest of which is the Seagull, at 69,800 yuan. These models, 21 in total, went on sale immediately after the event. According to Wang, this is the “first batch”.
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Until now, BYD only offered these features, which allow cars to drive on highways autonomously under human supervision, in models starting at $30,000.
Although some Chinese electric vehicle brands, such as MONA, from Xpeng, and Leapmotor, a Stellantis partner, have also launched affordable EVs with smart driving features, the cheapest at the time was the Baojun Yunhai, priced at $15,000, from SAIC-General Motors-Wuling.
“The biggest revelation from BYD is that they want to equalize the right to technology. Technology doesn’t have to be high-end, and here they can engage in a price war,” said Yale Zhang, managing director of Automotive Foresight.
“It’s a bit like DeepSeek,” he added, referring to the Chinese artificial intelligence startup that shook global markets last month by revealing that it had built its AI models at a fraction of the cost of Western tech giants.
John Zeng, head of market forecasting for China at GlobalData, a consultancy based in London, said that the move towards smart driving was likely an acknowledgment by BYD that its sales, which reached 4 million units last year, had stalled and that it needed a major breakthrough.
