BYD Seagull and Wuling Bingo attack the 100% electric B segment
- In the first half of 2023, the Chinese carmaker BYD, specializing in 100% electric vehicles (BEV) and plug-in hybrid vehicles (PHEV), experienced a spectacular growth on the PC (Passenger Cars) market. It quasi- doubled its sales while, over the same period, the sales of the former star of the market, the Wuling HongGuang Mini EV collapsed, due mainly to the decrease of incentives for buying these cars. While 426,482 units were sold in 2021 and 572,757 in 2022, sales of the Wuling HongGuang Mini EV did not exceed 39,829 units in the first half of 2023.
- Two new 100% electric models appearing in 2023 seem to have taken over part of the E-Wuling customer base: the Wuling Bingo and the BYD Seagull, four-door B-segment sedans (the HongGuang Mini EV was a two-door sedan of segment A) which collected 64,207 sales and 38,805 sales respectively, but over five months of marketing for the Bingo and only three months of marketing for the Seagull.
- The sales potential is therefore 155,000 units over the year 2023 for each of these two models, or 310,000 units together.
- If we add the sales potential of 90,000 units for the HongGuang Mini EV, we obtain a sales potential of 400,000 units per year, which represents the majority of sales of the HongGuang Mini EV in 2022 or 2023.
- This fact is interesting as the B segment is traditionally very weak in China. Bingo and Seagull will try to revive this segment in China, before a hypothetical export to Europe.