CarBrandLogos archive · BYD · 2020

BYDHan

The Blade battery's launch vehicle, and BYD's first credible shot at a premium car.

Photo: Kevauto · CC BY-SA 4.0

The story

A defining chapter in BYD history.

Explore the ideas, engineering and context that shaped the BYD Han, then continue into its specifications and place in the marque's lineage.

Origins

The Han arrived in 2020 with two jobs. The first was to give BYD a full-size flagship saloon capable of being taken seriously against imported premium brands and against Tesla, which had just started building Model 3s in Shanghai. The second was to introduce the Blade battery.

BYD Han 001 · Jengtingchen · CC BY-SA 4.0

Design and engineering

Blade is a packaging idea rather than a new chemistry. BYD took lithium iron phosphate cells — safer and longer-lived than nickel-based alternatives, but less energy-dense — and formed them into long, thin blades arranged directly into the pack structure, eliminating module housings and recovering most of the volume that LFP normally gives away. BYD publicised it with a nail penetration test comparing its pack with a nickel-based one, which was aggressive marketing but rested on a real safety advantage.

BYD Han 002 · Jengtingchen · CC BY-SA 4.0

In production

The car around it was BYD's most convincing to date: a low four-door with a long wheelbase, a quiet and well-trimmed cabin, and a choice of fully electric or dual-mode plug-in hybrid drivetrains. It sold strongly against the Model 3 in China at a moment when Chinese buyers were deciding whether a domestic brand could be a luxury one.

BYD Han EV CRI 01 2022 3637 · Mariordo (Mario Roberto Durán Ortiz) · CC BY-SA 4.0