Will the BYD Atto 4 go mainstream at this price? How much you can expect to pay for the Tesla Model 3- and Polestar 2-rivalling electric sedan

BYD has revealed pricing and specs for its incoming Atto 4 sedan for the Chinese domestic market with impressive range, specs, and pricetags, allowing us to draw some conclusions on how it might stack up to its rivals when it arrives in the Australian market.

The Atto 4 arrives in four variants in its home market of China, with trim levels clearly aimed at rivals like Tesla’s Model 3 and the Polestar 2.

The base Standard Range rear drive costs from ¥212,800 (AU$44,765) for the entry-level Elite trim, or the equivalent of AU$47,411 for a higher-spec Premium grade. The Standard Range sports a 550km range from a 61.4kWh battery, a significant upgrade from the Atto 3 SUV (60.4kWh/420km range), which will hit the market in Australia imminently.

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Next up is the Long Range which starts from the equivalent of AU$55,200 and upgrades the battery capacity to 82.5kWh for a massive claimed 700km range driving the rear wheels. Finally, the range-topping Performance all-wheel-drive variant wears a pricetag equivalent to AU$60,880 and offers 650km of range from the same battery pack as the Long Range.

To put those prices in perspective, the Australian market receives a single high-spec Atto 3 with either a Standard Range battery from $44,381 driveaway or a Long Range battery from $47,381 The closest equivalent spec variants in China cost the equivalent of AU$29,141 for the top-spec standard range and AU$33,544 for the top-spec Long Range, suggesting a roughly $15,000 premium on Australian delivered cars when you remove the generous Chinese market new energy vehicle discounts and consider taxes, local compliance and import costs.

This would place the Atto 4 Sedan at a price range of roughly $59,000 for the base Standard Range rear drive to around $76,000 for the Performance AWD. This places the BYD Atto 4 range remarkably close to the Tesla Model 3 and Polestar 2, both of which now start from $63,900 before on-road costs.

Our rough calculations place the BYD Atto 4 in a similar price league to its popular electric sedan rivals.

However, overseas prices very seldom translate so clearly to Australian-market vehicles, so there could be larger price discrepancies when the Atto 4 lands locally.

The Atto 4, or ‘Seal’ as it will be known in China has several familiar interior components to the Atto 3 SUV, including LED headlights, a 10.25-inch digital dash cluster and 15.6-inch rotating multimedia touchscreen, and even bi-directional charging.

Importantly, the Atto 4 offers a new ‘CTB’ chassis architecture which integrates the top of the battery cover with the base of the vehicle’s frame to allow a 10 per cent increase in battery density while also offering an improvement to cabin space and allowing the car to have an overall lower profile. It also adds a new torque vectoring system claimed to react much faster to wheel grip discrepancies compared to standard systems using a wheel speed sensor.

Not only should the Atto 4 be competitive on price, it offers appealing features and a genuine performance variant.

The Standard Range variants use a rear-mounted 150kW motor, while the high-performance all-wheel-drive version puts out a massive 390kW for a 0-100km/h sprint time of 3.8 seconds. Standard Range variants can charge on a DC fast connection at a rate of 110kW while the Long Range variants can charge at a rate of 150kW.

The BYD Atto 4 is set to arrive in Australia in early 2023, stay tuned for more accurate pricing and local spec closer to its launch date.