Behind the rise in maintenance costs for BYD, is it really cheaper to use new energy vehicles than traditional fuel-powered cars?

Is it cheaper to use new energy vehicles than traditional fuel-powered cars for BYD, considering the rise in maintenance costs?

【PhoneAuto】In recent years, with the strong support of national policies and the efforts of auto companies, China’s new energy vehicle industry has developed rapidly. On June 5th, the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM) announced that the expected sales volume of new energy passenger vehicles in China would reach 8.5 million in 2023, with a narrow definition of passenger car sales volume reaching 23.5 million, and the annual new energy vehicle penetration rate is expected to reach 36%, once again exceeding people’s previous expectations. However, behind the rapid development of new energy vehicles, some problems have also been reflected.

New energy vehicle

Recently, the news that BYD’s maintenance costs have increased has sparked heated discussions in the automotive industry. Many BYD owners have reported that the maintenance costs of their vehicles have been significantly increased in the official owner App, and the price increase of some hybrid models has even exceeded 50%. The price increase in some first-tier cities is even higher, which has also caused dissatisfaction among many car owners. Some BYD hybrid owners said that they originally thought they could save some money by using hybrid cars, but they didn’t expect to be charged back by maintenance costs.

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BYD’s increase in maintenance costs for hybrid models has once again raised this question: Although hybrid and pure electric new energy models are indeed cheaper in terms of operating costs than fuel vehicles, if the purchase price and later maintenance costs are included in the entire lifecycle of the vehicle, are new energy vehicles really cheaper than fuel vehicles? With this question in mind, we decided to take BYD as an example to analyze which one is more cost-effective between fuel vehicles, hybrid vehicles, and pure electric vehicles.

Although many people criticize BYD’s product line for being too large and even a bit chaotic, it also provides us with good conditions for this comparison. BYD announced the formal cessation of production of pure fuel vehicles last year, but many fuel version models are still in normal use. We use the hot-selling model of BYD, the Song PLUS, as a template. Since the fuel version and hybrid/electric versions were not launched at the same time, in order to maintain the consistency of the configuration as much as possible, the following comparison will be based on the 2020 Song PLUS 1.5T automatic flagship PLUS (fuel version), and the 2021 Song PLUS DM-i 110KM flagship PLUS (hybrid version) and 2021 Song PLUS EV flagship models (pure electric version) with configurations closest to the fuel version.

Fuel version Song PLUS

Song PLUS DM-i

Song PLUS EV

First of all, in terms of vehicle prices, the official price of the fuel version of Song PLUS before it was discontinued was 143,800 yuan, and the price after vehicle purchase tax was added was about 158,000 yuan. The prices of the hybrid version and pure electric version of Song PLUS are 177,800 yuan and 203,800 yuan, respectively. Since the latter two are new energy vehicles, there is no need to pay a purchase tax. Therefore, in terms of vehicle price, the fuel version is about 20,000 yuan cheaper than the hybrid version and about 45,000 yuan cheaper than the pure electric version.

From the above, it can be seen that fuel vehicles can be cheaper than new energy vehicles when purchasing a car, but the opposite is true in terms of daily use. First of all, in terms of daily use costs, if calculated based on an annual mileage of 20,000 kilometers, according to the test by a certain institution, the vehicle fuel consumption is 8.7 liters per 100 kilometers, combined with the current price of 7.4 yuan/L for 92# gasoline, the fuel cost for Song PLUS owners is about 12,876 yuan per year.

If the hybrid version of Song PLUS DM-i is calculated with a pure electric mileage proportion of 60% and a fuel mileage proportion of 40%, the pure electric mileage will be about 12,000 kilometers per year, and the fuel mileage will be 8,000 kilometers. The car consumes about 5 liters of gasoline per 100 kilometers, and 16 degrees of electricity per 100 kilometers. The electricity cost is 0.5 yuan per degree. Overall, the annual cost of the hybrid version of Song PLUS is about 3,920 yuan. The electric vehicle model is even simpler. According to the average electricity consumption per 100 kilometers reported by car owners online, which is about 15 degrees, the total cost is only about 1,500 yuan for a mileage of 20,000 kilometers. The fuel version of the car is not even worth mentioning.

Small maintenance prices for fuel/hybrid/electric versions

As for the maintenance that caused controversy, the fuel and hybrid models follow the same maintenance standards. According to BYD’s official maintenance requirements, for a yearly mileage of 20,000 kilometers, both the hybrid and fuel versions require two small maintenance appointments in the first year (first maintenance is free) and one major maintenance appointment. Based on the official basic maintenance costs in first-tier cities, the small and major maintenance costs for fuel vehicles are 585 yuan and 670 yuan respectively, while the maintenance costs for the hybrid version are 485 yuan and 560 yuan respectively. For electric vehicles, only one small maintenance appointment is needed within 20,000 kilometers, which costs only 325 yuan, except for the first maintenance. However, the cost for the major maintenance in the second year is 855 yuan, which is more expensive than the other two versions.

By adding up the costs for the car and maintenance, the fuel version costs 14,131 yuan per year, the hybrid version costs 4,965 yuan, and the electric version costs only 1,825 yuan. Therefore, the pure electric and hybrid versions are indeed much cheaper than the fuel version in daily use. Of course, the above costs are only rough estimates, and different people will have some differences in terms of mileage, fuel consumption, and electricity consumption. In addition, the cost of vehicle insurance is not included in the above costs, but it’s difficult to determine a fixed value, and it won’t have too much impact on the final result.

Electric vehicle maintenance time

Hybrid/fuel maintenance time

Considering the previous cost of purchasing a vehicle, based on the above standards, the 20,000 yuan price difference between hybrid and fuel vehicles may only take a little over two years to recover the cost. However, the pure electric version of the vehicle has a longer recovery period compared to the hybrid version, which is about four years. However, considering that the normal usage period of a vehicle is definitely more than four years, overall, new energy vehicles are at least cheaper than fuel vehicles in terms of total cost during the usage period. Among the three, the total cost of the hybrid vehicle is the lowest, followed by the pure electric vehicle, and the fuel vehicle is much higher than the first two due to the price of oil. This may also be the reason why the BYD Song PLUS DM-i has long held the first position in the sales of domestic compact SUVs.

Perhaps many people do not understand why, although BYD’s price increase is not small in proportion, the specific maintenance costs are not too high, why the increase in BYD’s maintenance costs has caused many car owners to be dissatisfied?

In fact, from the comments of many car owners, it can also be found that the dissatisfaction caused by the price increase is not limited to the increase in costs, but more dissatisfaction comes from the manufacturer’s monopoly on pricing for maintenance. Just as when fuel vehicles first emerged in China, many joint venture brands required that vehicles must be maintained and serviced at official 4S stores, otherwise they would not provide corresponding warranties. At that time, consumers did not have many choices, even if they knew that the manufacturer’s 4S store maintenance prices were too high, they still had no choice but to comply for the sake of the warranty. Later, the country issued relevant regulations requiring car companies to provide mandatory warranties, and car owners had more choices, which also boosted third-party maintenance platforms such as Tuhu and Tmall Auto Maintenance.

Tuhu Auto

However, after entering the era of new energy vehicles, there have been some changes. Due to the addition of the new three-electric system (motor, electronic control, battery), the maintenance rules for traditional fuel vehicles are not as applicable to new energy vehicles. In order to dispel car owners’ concerns about the three-electric system, many car companies have proposed the slogan of lifelong quality assurance for the entire vehicle’s three-electric system, and BYD is no exception.

But to truly enjoy BYD’s policy, it is also necessary to meet many of the conditions put forward by the manufacturer, one of which is to go to the official 4S store for maintenance in accordance with the maintenance manual, otherwise you will lose the qualification for the lifetime quality assurance of the three-electric system. Many car owners consider that the vehicle’s battery may deteriorate in the future and need to be replaced. If it is out of warranty, there may be a considerable cost for replacing the battery, so they dare not deviate from the maintenance requirements. Therefore, BYD’s significant price increase without notification this time has naturally made car owners unhappy. Fuel vehicle owners believe that if maintenance is expensive, they can go to third-party maintenance companies with cheaper prices, but new energy vehicle owners, especially hybrid vehicle owners who have been hit the hardest by the price increase this time, dare not deviate from maintenance requirements due to future considerations, and can only go to the official 4S store.

BYD’s Three-Electric Lifetime Maintenance Disclaimer

What worries car owners even more is that due to BYD’s previous sales, especially the sales of new energy vehicles, not being particularly high, the issue of battery maintenance for old vehicle models is not too severe. If in six or seven years, when these new energy vehicles of the past two years may need to replace the battery, the base number will be much larger. Even if only a small percentage of car owners need to replace the battery, it is not a small number for BYD, and the cost of battery replacement it causes may ultimately have to be shared by all car owners through the earlier maintenance fees. This is also the most worrying issue for new energy vehicle owners.

From the current perspective of vehicle operating costs, new energy vehicles are indeed much cheaper than gasoline-powered vehicles of the same model, and the longer the use time, the more obvious the advantage in total operating costs. However, it is worth noting that because new energy vehicles are still in the early stages of development, the state has also given considerable policy incentives. Whether it is vehicle purchase tax or road maintenance fees that have already been included in the form of additional fees for gasoline, electric vehicles are completely exempt, which is also one of the reasons for their low operating costs.

However, as the number of new energy vehicles increases in the future, the corresponding preferential policies will inevitably become fewer and the maintenance costs of new energy vehicles will definitely increase. But for now, compared to gasoline-powered vehicles, new energy vehicles still have a significant advantage in terms of daily operating costs.

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