China’s BYD is making preparation to introduce its luxury sports utility vehicle Tang to Japan, with the launch of the premium Han sedan and the popular Qin model also on the pipeline in an increased effort to crack the world’s fourth largest auto market. BYD’s Japanese car dealers will get higher bonuses for the BYD cars they manage to sell compared with luxury models from German’s brands, while hiring of sales employees who previously worked for rivals such as Mercedes-Benz, BMW, and Toyota, sources told 36Kr on Tuesday. BYD began selling the all-electric version of Tang at a sticker price of €72,000 ($80,266) in Europe in late 2022, and rolled out the refreshed Tang EV with a price range of between RMB 219,800 and RMB 269,800 ($31,322-$38,447) at home in April.
The Chinese auto giant sold 137,184 units of the seven-seater last year, while the numbers for the Han and the Qin reached 228,383 and 482,145 units, respectively, including battery EVs and plug-in hybrid variants. BYD’s car exports more than tripled year-on-year to around 300 units to Japan in August, although that was only a fraction of some more established rivals’ volumes, according to the Japan Automobile Importers Association, Nikkei reported. It has three models on sale in the country – the Atto 3 compact crossover, the Seal sedan, and the Dolphin hatchback. Japan remained fourth place in global market size by sales volume as of last year, after the US, China, and India. [36Kr, in Chinese, Nikkei, in Japanese, TechNode reporting]
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