BYD launches affordable Dolphin EV in Japan to unlock market dominated by Toyota
China’s largest automaker, BYD, is set to take on Toyota on its home turf. BYD launched the all-electric Dolphin hatchback starting at ¥3.63 million ($24,570) in Japan Wednesday as it looks to take on Toyota head-on.
The Chinese automaker introduced the Dolphin EV at a launch event in Tokyo on Wednesday. Powered by a 70 kWh battery, the base model provides a range of 250 miles (400 km).
The extended-range variant offers up to 295 miles (476 km) range with a 150 Wh battery pack. It will cost around ¥4 million ($27,080).
Although BYD has rapidly expanded its brand in China and overseas markets, the automaker (like many foreign companies) has gained little traction in Japan.
Domestic automakers dominate Japan’s auto market, including Toyota, Honda, and Nissan. Imported vehicles accounted for just 6% of the market, according to data from Bloomberg senior auto analyst Tatsuo Yoshida. Most of them are luxury cars from Porsche, BMW, and Mercedes.
The Dolphin will join BYD’s Atto 3 (Yuan Plus in China) electric SUV launched in Japan in January as the second EV model in the region.
The Atto 3 starts at ¥4.4 million ($29,800) but has yet to compete with Nissan’s LEAF, starting at ¥4.1 million ($27,800). That said, BYD has sold around 700 Atto 3 models in Japan since launching.
BYD Dolpin EV to take on Toyota in Japan
Toyota, one of the biggest laggards in the EV transition, still dominates its home market.
Last year, Toyota sold around 1.25 million vehicles in Japan, more than twice as many as the runner-up Suzuki, with just over 600,000.
Although Japan is the third largest auto market globally, it still largely favors hybrid vehicles. Toyota’s Yaris was the best-selling car for the third year straight, while the Corolla placed second.
Outside of Toyota, Nissan, and Honda were the only brands with passenger vehicles in the top ten in 2022. The top three foreign brands included Volkswagen (Porsche), Mercedes-Benz, and BMW.
BYD plans to expand the brand in Japan with plans to open 100 dealerships and showrooms by 2025. Meanwhile, the Chinese automaker aims to launch its SEAL electric sedan in the region by early next year.
The move comes after European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced a probe into Chinese EVs, claiming “their price is kept artificially low by huge state subsidies.”
BYD and several other Chinese automakers made their presence known at the IAA Mobility Show in Munich. Automakers from China doubled their presence at the event over the past two years.
BYD showed off six electric models, including the SEAL and SEAL U, aimed at European buyers. The SEAL starts at 45,000 euros ($48,000) with up to 570 km (354 miles) range.
Electrek’s Take
Toyota may still have the edge (for now), but as buyers in Japan transition over to EVs, they will realize the benefits of going all-electric.
EVs offer superior technology, advanced drivetrains, smoother rides, instant acceleration, and much more than ICE-powered (or hybrid) cars could only dream of. The transition took Europe by surprise as Chinese electric vehicles are taking market share away from domestic automakers, which have also notoriously dominated their markets.
The same could happen in Japan. BYD’s Dolphin EV will compete head-on with Toyota’s top-selling Yaris.
With advanced tech, added features, and an affordable starting price, the Dolphin is ready to make its mark in the world’s third-largest auto market.
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In a move that helps the brand duck protectionist anti-Chinese tariffs, Volvo Cars has switched production of its award-winning EX30 models destined for US roads from its Zhangjiakou plant in China to the Ghent facility in Belgium.
Volvo EX30 production began in the company’s Ghent factory back in April, but those first cars were earmarked for the Swedish domestic and European export markets, but that move wasn’t primarily motivated by avoiding tariffs. As Electrive reports, the company seemed happy enough to continue importing its small electric crossover from China and accepting the new 28.8% tariffs (up from 10%), but the wait times to get the vehicles shipped in from China was imply too long.
In 2024, Swedish and German buyers had to wait up to eight months for their EX30 in some cases, according to Volvo Cars’ European boss, Arek Nowinski, per Automotive News. Once production in Ghent is fully up to speed, however, wait times should be cut to about 90 days. Those wait times, and the price hike associated with the tariffs, have hurt sales of the originally Chinese-made Volvo EV. In 2024, for example, the EX30 ranked third in European EV sales, but slipped out of the top 10 first half of 2025.
“The car is now being built in Europe, which means faster delivery times,” Volvo Cars CEO Hakan Samuelsson to Automotive News. “We should return to the sales and market share figures for the EX30 that we had before the introduction of tariffs.”
Coming to Staying in America
The EX30’s switch to Ghent is good news for American fans of the compact, lickety-quick Volvo EV. Now that it’s no longer exclusively made in China, Volvo has decided to give it a stay of execution as it revamps its US product lineup to better align with market trends (read: SUVs) and the changing political landscape (read: tariffs and inflation).
The reason? The Made in China version of the EX30 would virtually unsellable in the US due to the implementation of 147% tariffs on vehicles imported from China. Vehicles imported from Europe, meanwhile, carry just 15% tariffs, keeping the EX30 in a competitive price bracket.
Expect to see both Ghent and South Carolina play an increasingly large role in Volvo’s US product mix – at least for the next three-odd years.
SOURCE | IMAGES: Volvo Cars, Automotive News, via Electrive.
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New filings have revealed that BYD is about to release a ridiculous 3,000 hp electric supercar: the Yangwang U9 Track Edition.
BYD already shocked the world when it launched the Yangwang U9, its first all-electric supercar.
It featured four advanced electric motors with a combined power of nearly 1,300 horsepower. The U9 can accelerate from 0 to 62 mph (0 to 100 km/h) in just 2.36 seconds.
With a motor at each wheel and a highly advanced electric-air suspension, the U9 can turn on itself and even jump over potholes.
But that was only the beginning.
Based on a new filing with the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT), BYD is preparing to launch a new ‘Track Edition’ of the Yangwang U9:
When an automaker releases a “track” version of a car, it typically primarily features body changes for better aerodynamic performance, adding downforce, and it will also often feature bigger brakes.
The Yangwang U9 ‘Track Edition’ appears to feature all that… and much more.
The filing reveals that BYD updated the motors at each wheel to a new 555 kW motor. That’s a higher-performing motor than in most performance electric vehicles. The U9 Track Edition has four of them for a total of 2,220 kW (3,019 hp).
I would have thought that this was a typo if it wasn’t for the insane electric vehicles coming out of China these days.
Here are a few pictures from the MIIT filing:
There are a lot of performance specs that are not included in the MIIT filing. Therefore, it will be interesting to see when the vehicle is fully unveiled and BYD reveals what kind of performance it can achieve with 3,000 hp packed in 4 electric motors.
Here are a few other features mentioned in the filing:
Standard features:
- 20-inch wheels with 325/35 R20 tyres
- Carbon-fibre roof
- Large fixed carbon-fibre rear wing
- Rear diffuser with adjustable blades for aerodynamic optimisation
Optional aerodynamic parts:
- Standard or enhanced carbon-fibre front splitter
- Electric rear wing
Electrek’s Take
How are they going to keep that thing from flying away? Seriously.
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