Chinese carmaker BYD drives into Indian e-SUV segment with Atto 3

Atto 3 can be charged from 0 per cent to 80 per cent within 50 minutes, and it has a range of 521 km. It can reach 0 to 100 km/h acceleration in 7.3 seconds

Chinese carmaker BYD on Tuesday launched its premium electric SUV — the Atto 3 — in India, where it will slug it out with the likes of Hyundai’s Kona and MG’s ZS EV.

BYD will start delivering the Atto 3 to customers from January 2023.

In November last year, the carmaker had launched its first model in India, e6, which is an electric multi-purpose vehicle.

“We intend to sell 15,000 units of BYD Atto 3 in India over the next

year and plan to set up a local manufacturing facility in due course,” 

Ketsu Zhang, executive director of BYD India, said during the launch. The company did not reveal the price of the Atto 3.

Currently, the Chinese carmaker plans to import completely-knocked down (CKD) units of the e-SUV and assemble it at its Sriperumbudur facility in Tamil Nadu.

Tata Motors currently leads the electric passenger vehicle market in India with its SUV Tata Nexon. 

However, Nexon’s variants are priced between Rs 7.54 lakh and Rs 13.8 lakh, and therefore, it would not directly compete with the Atto 3, which is expected to be priced around Rs 30 lakh. BYD will reveal Atto 3's price next month.

BYD has two plants in India covering more than 140,000 sq metres with a cumulative investment of over $200 million in the country till date, Zhang said. The company has around 3,000 employees in India.

“We are fully committed to India’s goal of achieving net-zero emissions by 2070 and will promote sustainability and zero emissions by introducing pure electric vehicles and latest technologies,” Zhang added.

The Chinese carmaker is set to participate in the Auto Expo 2023, where it plans to bring in more products and technologies into India.

The Atto 3 can be charged from 0 to 80 per cent within 50 minutes, and it has a range of 521 km on a single charge. The SUV can reach from 0 to 100 km an hour in 7.3 seconds.

BYD said it has 24 showrooms across 21 cities in India. The car company is eyeing at least 53 showrooms by the end of 2023.