BYD
Song SUV
The
BYD Song SUV has been launched on the Chinese car market. Price starts at
96.900 Yuan and ends at 146.900 Yuan. First a word on names. Up until today we were
lead to believe that the petrol powered variant of this new SUV was going to be
called ‘BYD S3‘, and the hybrid variant ‘BYD Song‘, just like they go with the
BYD S7 and the BYD Tang.
But
no. BYD, in its undeniable brilliance, has suddenly decided to call the entire
range ‘Song’, petrol and hybrid alike. And to make things even better: today’s
launch is for the petrol variants only, the hybrid will follow in early 2016.
No
matter that mess; the Song is a fine looking car. Sleek and sporty lines, dual
tone paint works fine with black and orange, trendy D-pillar, usable roof
rails, and the wheels are of the right size.
There
are two engines available: a 1.5-liter turbo with 154 hp and 240 nm, mated to a
six-speed manual or a six-speed automatic, and a 2.0-liter turbo with 205 hp and
320 nm, mated to a six-speed DCT. Power goes to the front wheels only.
The
plug-in hybrid will have a turbocharged 1.5-liter petrol engine mated to two
electric motors, one on each axle, creating a four-wheel drive car.
Transmission is the six-speed DCT. BYD says that the acceleration from 0 to 100
takes only 4.9 seconds. In electric mode
the Song has a range of 70 kilometer. No word yet on combined output.
Price
of the hybrid will start around 280.000 Yuan without and 190.000 Yuan with green-car
subsidies, making it about 40.000 Yuan more expensive than the 2.0 turbo.
