Chinese company BYD is launching new energy vehicle offerings to compete with Tesla and Jeep – Global News (Trending Perfect)

Shenzhen – Chinese electric car company BYD It is rapidly expanding its lineup to include vehicles that compete with traditional mass-market automakers, Tesla In the premium category and Jeep in the off-road category.

BYD on Tuesday unveiled three new vehicles for its Fang Cheng Bao brand: the off-road “Leopard 8” SUV, the city driving-oriented “Super 3” SUV and the “Super 9” sports car.

The company did not announce prices. Instead, BYD has mostly described the cars as concept cars and hinted that more details will be released at next week's auto show in Beijing. It was not immediately clear to what extent the new cars would be fully electric.

BYD launched its Fang Cheng Bao brand last summer with a focus on “Personal needs of consumersespecially in off-road vehicles and sports cars. The brand's first vehicle, a hybrid-powered off-road SUV called “Leopard 5”, was launched in November with a starting price of about 290,000 yuan (US$40,845).

The company said on Tuesday that nearly 20,000 Leopard 5 vehicles have been delivered since then.

BYD also sells an SUV and an off-road sports car under its luxury Yangwang brand, which was launched early last year to target consumers willing to spend about 1 million yuan or more per vehicle.

Most of BYD's vehicles are in the mass market segment and rank among the best-selling new energy vehicles in China. This category includes battery-powered cars only and hybrid-powered cars.

“In the past 20 years, our continuous technological innovation and disruption have set multiple standards for the industry,” Lian Yubo, BYD’s chief scientist, said in Mandarin during the launch event on Tuesday, according to a CNBC translation.

“The Blade battery sets the standard for safety. The DM-i sets the standard for power consumption, and DiSus sets the standard for complete vehicle control,” Lien said, referring to various technological systems BYD has released in the past few years.

For off-road vehicles, Lien touted BYD's technology that allows cars to run on hybrid power.

The launch of BYD comes amid fierce competition in the new energy vehicle market in China. Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi Last month it released its first electric car, aimed directly at Tesla's Model 3.

Chinese automakers including BYD also have their sights set on the global market. BYD this month announced plans to launch an electric pickup truck overseas this year.