Photo: BYD
There was a time when rental car companies buying large amounts of a particular vehicle meant that the carmaker had issues selling these cars to regular customers. To keep production going, these automakers would give rental car businesses massive discounts. When Tesla said the same one year ago, it got a $100 billion boost in market cap. It is now time to test if things changed that much: BYD announced a pretty similar deal with SIXT.
The European rental car titan bought 100,000 EVs from BYD to be delivered over the next six years. In Tesla’s case, the deal would involve delivering all 100,000 EVs until December 2022 (14 months after the contract with Hertz was signed). The American EV maker would receive $4.2 billion for the deal because it gave no discounts to Hertz. It is not clear if BYD and SIXT reached any special conditions regarding prices.
For Tesla, the deal with Hertz would only be welcome in a situation of low demand from regular customers. For BYD, selling its cars to SIXT has a clear PR role: people getting these EVs from the rental car company may decide they are good enough for them to buy one. Although BYD is very popular in China, most European customers have never heard about it. The Chinese carmaker has just started its European offensive with dealers in Norway. Denmark, Sweden, Germany, France, Netherlands, Belgium, and the UK.
The first vehicle to reach SIXT stores will be the ATTO 3, but you also know it as Yuan Plus. The C-segment SUV works at 800V, making it a much easier vehicle to fast charge. The Dolphin shares the same e-platform 3.0 with the SUV and can recover 150 kilometers (93 miles) of range in only five minutes with fast chargers. BYD never disclosed its top charging speed, but it should be above 200 kW.
Considering BYD will also sell the Han EV and the Tang in Europe, these are the two other EVs that SIXT should offer, even if they do not seem like the most affordable option. That said, we would not be surprised if the BYD Seal soon joins the three vehicles BYD will sell in the Old Continent. The new sedan is the EV that a rental car company such as SIXT would be more willing to purchase.
For Tesla, the deal with Hertz would only be welcome in a situation of low demand from regular customers. For BYD, selling its cars to SIXT has a clear PR role: people getting these EVs from the rental car company may decide they are good enough for them to buy one. Although BYD is very popular in China, most European customers have never heard about it. The Chinese carmaker has just started its European offensive with dealers in Norway. Denmark, Sweden, Germany, France, Netherlands, Belgium, and the UK.
The first vehicle to reach SIXT stores will be the ATTO 3, but you also know it as Yuan Plus. The C-segment SUV works at 800V, making it a much easier vehicle to fast charge. The Dolphin shares the same e-platform 3.0 with the SUV and can recover 150 kilometers (93 miles) of range in only five minutes with fast chargers. BYD never disclosed its top charging speed, but it should be above 200 kW.
Considering BYD will also sell the Han EV and the Tang in Europe, these are the two other EVs that SIXT should offer, even if they do not seem like the most affordable option. That said, we would not be surprised if the BYD Seal soon joins the three vehicles BYD will sell in the Old Continent. The new sedan is the EV that a rental car company such as SIXT would be more willing to purchase.
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