BYD is looking to end 2026 strong, after several months of sales struggles put it into a pretty deep hole (in terms of a year-over-year sales comparison). As I just reported, the company’s battery-electric passenger vehicle sales were up a lot in August, and they nearly pulled the automaker’s overall passenger vehicle sales into positive territory. The question is whether BYD will be able to raise sales enough at the end of 2026 to make the year a growth year. Well, the BYD Sealion 08 should help with that, and maybe the company’s new 4D radar chip as well. BYD Sealion 08 First of all, let’s talk the Sealion 08. The Sealion 08 is a fairly large SUV, and it comes in both full electric (BEV) and plugin hybrid (PHEV) options. It’s also the new flagship model for BYD’s “Ocean” lineup. With various options for the two different powertrains, there are 8 variations of the Sealion 08 on the table (I assume that’s a coincidence). You can get the model with either five or six seats. Pricing starts as low as 229,900 yuan ($34,216) — which seems like a pretty crazy price for the size vehicle you get with the specs it provides (but this is China) — and goes up to 279,900 yuan ($41,657). Looking at the specs, I thought there was something wrong or that I was reading things incorrectly. Apparently, the electric range on the PHEV (DM-i) version of the new Sealion 08 is 400 kilometers (249 miles) on the rear-wheel-drive versions and 350 kilometers (217 miles) on the all-wheel-drive options. Not too shabby…. In fact, that’s more range than my fully electric 2019 Tesla Model 3 now has. (I know, it’s getting old….) The fully electric versions, which cost 239,900 yuan ($35,704) to 279,900 yuan ($41,657), come with range ratings of 900 kilometers (559 miles) and 800 kilometers (497 miles), respectively. That’s an insane amount of range for a vehicle that costs under $35,000! Naturally, like all new BYD models (as far as I can tell), the Sealion 08 can “flash charge,” and it includes a second-generation Blade Battery. That means charging from 10% to 70% in just 5 minutes, or 10% to 97% in 9 minutes. This has gotten to truly disruptive charging speeds. The model comes with the God’s Eye B driver-assist system (nearly fully autonomous self-driving). There’s a lot of competition in the segment the Sealion 08 is competing in, but BYD is BYD, it should do well. Oh, by the way, this model comes with a 26-inch head-up display that incorporates augmented reality (AR), and it has a huge rear entertainment screen. It also has ridiculous comfortable looking reclining seats in the second row. In-House 4D Radar Chip BYD is an extremely vertically integrated EV company. It produces a lot of its own supplies, including most notably its batteries. Now, the company has also decided to in-house some of its chip production. The BYD Semiconductor arm of the company (which I didn’t even realize was a thing) is now mass producing a next-gen 4D millimeter-wave radar chip that the company needs for its semi-autonomous driving technology. “The chip uses a satellite architecture centered on BYD’s in-house developed Xuanji A3 smart-driving chip,” CnEVPost summarizes. “Conventional millimeter-wave radar lacks elevation-angle data, limiting its ability to handle complex urban road conditions and creating a perception bottleneck for advanced driving systems, according to the company. “The new chip is built on a 28-nanometer automotive-grade process and designed for high-resolution radar systems. It features a high-speed MIPI CSI-2 interface and supports several mainstream serializers/deserializers (SerDes), allowing it to connect with widely used smart-driving chip platforms. […] I mean, frankly, all of this is above my head. But the point is clear that BYD is advancing key technology quickly, beginning to mass produce more of it in-house, and never stops racing forward. “The chip enables stable detection at distances of more than 400 meters, horizontal angular resolution of 0.8 degrees and parking-grade range resolution of 0.05 meters, according to BYD Semiconductor.” BYD continues to be a leader in the auto industry.
