Middle of the pyramid
A new front has opened up on the entry-level luxury EV fight with the battle cry being a single motor. The segment has expanded in the last year with first the Ioniq 5 having a free run for nearly 12 months and now getting competition at almost the same time in the form of the XC40 Single and BYD Seal RWD variant.
Game plan
Their strategy is pretty straightforward - have all the bells and whistles both inside and outside and with even the same battery pack as the AWD models but power only one set of wheels to keep the cost and complexity down. Almost all the cars in the fight have multi-zone climate control, powered front seats, Level-2 ADAS, LED light packages, connected car technology, V2L, V2V in addition to the usual like dual digital displays, upholstery made from recycled materials and multi-stage regenerative braking. You get the brand tag, and luxury trappings but without the loss of the punchy performance or range that an EV of this size and price bracket offers.
Cost advantage
In this, the Ioniq 5 and BYD Seal are pretty closely matched as both are priced at Rs 46.06 lakh and Rs 45.55 lakh, the difference of Rs 1 lakh an acceptable amount in this part of the market. The XC40 Single is at the other end of this game with a price tag of Rs. 54.95 lakh while if you wanted something to stand out, it would be the Mini Cooper SE priced at Rs. 55 lakh. However, the final car is a CBU pushing it a bit away from where it would find a place in the price hierarchy.
The Ioniq 5 at present doesn’t have an AWD variant in India while the difference between the Single motor and AWD XC40 is just Rs. 3 lakh. The biggest difference is the BYD seal where the mid-spec RWD Premium model is priced at Rs. 45.55 lakh while the AWD Performance variant is priced at Rs 53 lakh.
Future players
While RWD is a current game, we also expect AWD-only models from Volkswagen and Skoda to enter this part of the market within the year or so. The former with the ID4 GTX and the latter with the Enyaq SUV.