MotorTrend Testing Director
Category
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MotorTranscript
00:00The BYD Han is a very popular car in China.
00:13It's interesting, it doesn't seem like the SUV craze has hit quite like it has in
00:17America or even in Europe.
00:20Sedans are still really popular here and you see that with the vehicles that NIO and Zeker
00:25and Xiaomi and BYD are building.
00:28Yeah, there's plenty of crossovers, Tesla Model Y might be the best selling vehicle
00:32here, but sedans are alive and well and something like this BYD Han feels like it's got the
00:39substance in it to be taken seriously in the U.S.
00:43I guess that would require American car buyers to take sedans serious.
00:51Shall we do it?
00:51Zero to 60 in a Honk.
00:55Whoa!
00:56Zero to 60 in 3.9 but man it launches harder than that.
01:00Numbers are great at telling you a lot about a vehicle but they don't tell you everything.
01:04The speed with which this thing delivers torque when you lift off the brake and it just goes
01:11makes it feel just as quick as a car that does zero to 60 a second quicker than that.
01:16That's why you gotta watch a video like this.
01:17I am a sucker for cheap thrills like the quick initial hit of torque.
01:23Quarter mile in 12.6, that's quick, just as quick as a Tesla Model 3.
01:28This car to me doesn't have the kind of minimalist sleekness that we've seen in a lot of the
01:35other Chinese EVs.
01:36This feels almost more traditional, like something you would expect a GM to build and maybe that's
01:42because BYD has been in the game longer than many of these other Chinese EV startups.
01:48This layout here feels very traditional with this gauge cluster kind of set down in there.
01:53Lots of different layers on the dash, different trim materials, quite a bit of bright work
01:59and then obviously this matte faux wood which is quite well done.
02:04The center console has a very traditional feel to it, like it's got a little bit of
02:11feel to it, like it came out of a vehicle with a transmission tunnel.
02:15Seats are pretty great, really like the bolstering on it, the shape, the headrests.
02:25All right, let's cool the brakes off a little bit.
02:27You can smell them, they need to be cooled off.
02:30How does it handle?
02:31That's what Motor Trend's Figure 8 test is for.
02:34Stability control, there's an off switch but it turns back on above a certain speed so
02:40that's going to be inhibiting.
02:42It's a very intrusive stability control program.
02:47When I'm exiting these corners it does not want to give me full power until about now.
02:52Try your best to work around it but really there's only so much you can do, right?
02:56I don't want to come around this corner slowly at the end but there's several seconds there
03:01where it's just not giving me full power when I'm flat on the accelerator.
03:07It's frustrating.
03:08It's interesting because it feels like if you lift it will rotate a little bit but then
03:13it just won't give you power.
03:14Unnecessarily aggressive stability control system, it's not even saving you from anything.
03:20It's not like power is going to put you in jeopardy at that point.
03:23It's pretty well balanced in the middle of the corner.
03:25It's just right there where you want to be going back to power, it starts to cut it out.
03:30Good body control though and like I said, fairly neutral handling.
03:35The BYD Hon to me feels like one of the more solid Chinese industry offerings when it comes
03:43to electric sedans.
03:44Really nice ride quality, good body control, great power delivery.
03:50The one thing that I think would hold it back is how traditional this interior is.
03:55I think EV buyers, especially in America because we're still looking at early adopters and
04:01fast followers being the buyers, want something that feels more novel, more stylish, more
04:07modern.
04:08And this car, aside from this tablet center screen that's kind of hanging out here, feels
04:14exactly like a GM vehicle.
04:16If you took this out and replaced this with a screen that was more integrated into the
04:21dash, I would tell you we're driving in a Buick.
04:24That's what I would think we were in.