Reasons for Chinese electric vehicles entering Korea

This is the Seagull, a compact electric vehicle from BYD, China’s largest electric car company.

It can run 300 to 400 km on a single charge, but the price is only around 13 million won.

The base price of a larger hatchback, the Dolphin, is around 19 million won.

The price is less than half that of Kia’s light electric vehicle Ray EV, which costs 27 million won, and compact SUV EV3, which costs 42 million won.

BYD, which has already sold large quantities of electric buses in Korea, is also aiming to enter the passenger car market within the year.

Geely, whose flagship product is the Zeeker series of mid-sized luxury electric vehicles priced at 50 million won, is also steadily taking steps to enter the Korean market, including trademark registration and hiring personnel.

The Chinese car is expected to break away from its low-priced image and compete with Hyundai’s IONIQ series.

In addition, Geely is the second largest shareholder of Renault Korea, so it is predicted that electric vehicles will be produced at the Busan plant from the second half of next year.

BYD, which is already operating a plant in Thailand and expanding its overseas production base, is also considering establishing an assembly plant in Korea.

This is interpreted as an intention to open a detour in the outskirts in the face of high tariffs imposed by the United States and Europe on electric vehicles produced in China.

The price of Chinese electric vehicles is usually higher when sold overseas due to differences in subsidies and taxes by country, but there are also predictions that the company will go on a volume offensive with deep discounts in the early stages of entering the Korean market.