BYD has launched its cheapest and smallest electric vehicle (EV) in the UK, as it takes Chinese carmakers’ battle for affordability in Europe into a compact-car segment that has remained stubbornly reliant on the internal combustion engine.
The Dolphin Surf, with a starting price of £18,650 (€21,874.03), is the British equivalent of BYD’s popular Seagull hatchback, which is priced at less than £6,000 in China amid a price war in the world’s largest car market.
“Compact cars are the next frontier for electrification in Europe,” BYD’s executive vice-president Stella Li said at a recent launch event in Rome, noting the electric transition had been slower for small cars than for bigger sport utility vehicles.
According to the International Energy Agency, of the 360 EV models available in Europe last year, only 33 were in the small car segment. An additional 23 compact models are expected to be launched this year.
Compact cars have taken longer to shift away from petrol engines due to thin profit margins and the difficulty of making them both affordable and moneymaking with the high price of batteries.
BYD, the leading EV maker, announced an assault on the Japanese small-car market last month, with plans to release a low-cost battery-powered Kei car next year. The boxy minicar would be cheaper than the compact Dolphin, which sells for 2.9 million yen (€17,839) in Japan.
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Even before Dolphin Surf’s European debut a few weeks earlier at a price below €23,000, rival compact EV offerings from the Renault 5 and Citroën ë-C3 to the Dacia Spring had already hit the markets with similar or lower prices.
Chinese brands have adopted a pricing strategy in Europe that is more restrained than in their home market, especially with Brussels imposing higher tariffs on imports of Chinese-made EVs since last year.
Still, BYD’s expansion into all car segments in Europe is set to accelerate its overseas growth. The market share of BYD and other Chinese brands in the UK and on the continent has grown from 2.9 per cent in the first quarter of 2024 to 4.8 per cent in the first four months of 2025, according to Schmidt Automotive Research.
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The UK, which has not imposed higher tariffs on Chinese EVs, now accounts for nearly a third of all Chinese-brand models entering western Europe.
According to UK online marketplace Auto Trader, stocks of Chinese EVs for sale between January and April increased tenfold year-on-year, with more than 3,300 cars for sale. That represented nearly 3 per cent of new car stock for sale on the marketplace compared with 0.2 per cent a year earlier.
Analysts say there is more room for prices to come down for smaller electric cars as western carmakers use cheaper lithium iron phosphate batteries to compete against Chinese rivals, which are increasing local production in Europe to avoid the tariffs.
Renault and Volkswagen are using Chinese engineering expertise as well as components made in China to speed up vehicle development and lower the costs of compact EVs due to be launched next year.
“Once they start coming to the market, we will see price deflation,” said automotive analyst Matthias Schmidt.
Cao Li, senior vice-president of Stellantis-backed Chinese carmaker Leapmotor, told journalists on Wednesday that the convergence of car prices for EVs and petrol cars was a broad trend in the European market.
Some Chinese car executives fear the bruising price war in their home market could spill over into Europe. However, rising trade tensions between China and the European Union (EU) are seen as changing the pricing dynamics in Europe.
Beijing and its carmakers have offered to introduce a system of voluntary price controls to replace the EU tariffs, but it remains unclear whether Brussels would accept this minimum pricing approach.
People close to discussions said Beijing offered a €35,000 minimum regardless of the model in earlier negotiations. At that level, cheaper cars such as those offered by BYD and Leapmotor would be excluded from the market.
But even if the price cuts are more limited in Europe, analysts say consumers will probably be drawn to Chinese offerings due to the high quality of their technology and software.
BYD’s Li recently told Belgian media, for example, that the Chinese group plans to bring its superfast charging technology to Europe within the next 12 months.
While the price war in China is considered destructive for the domestic car industries in the UK and Europe, greater competition may help boost vehicle demand, which is still below pre-pandemic levels.
“Increasing levels of competition and some new standout performers now seen in our market will likely create wider pricing pressures that will be good for car buyers in the short term and which will hopefully also fuel further innovation and market growth in the midterm,” said Ian Plummer, commercial director at Auto Trader. – Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2025
