Spotted: a BYD Han

The spotted specimen

In a parking garage in Zeist, we saw this BYD Han. That is one of the models with which the BYD brand was introduced to the Dutch market in 2022. Although BYD has now become a fairly common car brand on the streets, sales of the Han never took off. Indeed, this is only the first one we have encountered in the wild. Some three years after its introduction,…

According to the license plate register, there are currently 46 examples of the BYD Han on Dutch plates. The one we spotted is not one of them because, as you can see, it has Belgian plates. We have no idea whether the car sold better there. In any case, there won’t be any more examples in the Netherlands any time soon, as the Han will be removed from the Dutch range during 2024.

The BYD Han in the Netherlands

In the Netherlands, the BYD Han was available with a single powertrain and in two trim levels: the already richly equipped Executive and the even more exclusive Emerald Edition. In both cases, you have 380 kW (517 hp) and a maximum torque of no less than 700 Nm. Good for a 0-100 sprint in just 3.9 seconds. The top speed, in turn, is limited to a modest 180 km/h. More important is the range. The 83 kWh battery pack (net) is good for a range of 521 km according to the WLTP cycle.

Several variants of the BYD Han

Outside of Europe, there are quite a few variants of the BYD Han. The Han entered the Chinese home market in 2020, both as a plug-in hybrid and fully electric drive. Remarkably, the EV version received a different front end than the plug-in. More rounded shapes instead of a sleek design. In 2022, the Han already underwent another facelift, with the rear in particular fitting a bit better with the rounded front of the EV version. This facelift model is also the Han as it came to Europe. You can see the various design variants in a row at the bottom of this article.

Why did the BYD Han sell so poorly?

So in the meantime, the BYD Han has already disappeared from Dutch offerings. It was sometime in 2024, but we can’t find out exactly when. Given the low sales, no one really noticed the supply stop… But why didn’t the model sell? It doesn’t look wrong per se, and after a driving test we were quite positive about the BYD. Also, it was already pretty richly equipped as standard. On the other hand: that brought the starting price to over 70,000 euros. Although that in itself was still sharp next to its direct – mostly German – competitors, in that price range one quickly chooses a brand that has already proven itself….