30 million won worth of electric cars...China's BYD lands in Korea

The world's No. 1 Chinese electric car, BYD...Small SUV launched in Korea
'early 30 million won' price competitiveness
Pre-contract starts...Domestic consumers are "half-hearted."

[Anchor]
China's BYD, the world's No. 1 electric vehicle company, has taken its first step into the Korean passenger car market.

The first small electric SUV to be introduced showed a low price of around 30 million won.

Attention is focusing on whether it will cause perceptual fluctuations in the domestic electric vehicle market.

Reporter Choi Ah-young reports.

[Reporter]
The first car introduced in Korea by China's BYADI, the world's largest seller of electric vehicles, is a small electric SUV.

As it was originally a battery company, it is equipped with self-produced lithium, phosphate, and iron batteries and can run 321 kilometers on a single charge.The

'Ato3' is one of the main vehicles that has overtaken Tesla to become the world's No. 1 electric vehicle seller.

Considering the distrust and concern of domestic consumers about Chinese products, we have attached an unconventional price tag.

The general model is 31.5 million won and the high-end model is 33.3 million won, and the general model is expected to be available for 20 million won if the maximum subsidy is received.

It is much cheaper than other markets such as Europe and Japan, which were released earlier, and is comparable to domestic competitive models.

[Cho In-cheol / CEO of BYADI Korea Riding Division: It may be a concern about both product quality and service. We will expand opportunities to experience Villadi's excellent marketability.]

We immediately started pre-contracting and plan to deliver the car to the customer by the middle of next month.

Domestic consumers are skeptical for now.

[Ahn Hyung-joon / Mok-dong, Seoul: I think it's competitive in terms of price. What I'm worried about is that the AS, which was previously introduced by Chinese cars, is that the AS is not working well.]

Hyundai Motor Group's think tank also expressed caution, saying, "We should not take Villadi's entry into Korea lightly."

The domestic automobile industry is also paying close attention to whether BYD's strategy, which has been targeting the global market with low prices as a weapon, will work in Korea.

I'm YTN's Choi Ayoung.

Reporter:
Filming: Kim Jung-won
Design: Ji Kyung-yoon