China Concept Cars: The 2004 BYD ET

Today in China Concept Cars the BYD ET, seen here on the BYD booth on the 2004 Beijing Auto Show. The ET was an electric concept car, imagining a future compact family MPV.

The ET story starts in early 2004 when BYD released this image of their upcoming concept, showing the ET from the side. Most notable were the out-sized fenders, the large wheels, the large and low windows, the black window frames, the lack of a rear-door  handle, the white interior, and the aerodynamic shape of the whole vehicle.

A little later BYD released a second drawing, showing the ET from 3/4 front and top with the doors out. The image revealed a four-seat interior and, strikingly, a large sun roof. The ET was then all set for its public debut.

But before we go to Beijing; where was BYD itself in 2004? BYD Auto, the aut0making subsidiary of the larger BYD conglomerate, was founded only in 2002. It came into being by the acquisition by BYD of Qinchuan Machinery Works, a car maker owned by Norinco, China’s largest weapon maker.

Qinchuan made only one car, the Q7081BD Flyer, which was largely based on the China-made Suzuki Alto. After the acquisition, the Qinchuan Flyer was re-named BYD Flyer. But of course, BYD wanted much more than just sell a an old Alto-based rebadge.

2003 BYD Flyer.

BYD EF3 concept, an electric sedan based on the BYD Flyer.

On the same 2004 Beijing Auto Show as where the ET debuted, BYD showed 4 new variants of the Flyer, including a sedan (pictured) and a wagon. I will discuss these interesting vehicles in a later post.

However, even that wasn’t good enough. BYD also wanted something more extreme, something futuristic, to show what the young company was capable of and dreaming about. And that wish became the BYD ET.

The ET was unveiled without much fanfare. I remember it well. I actually was at the 2004 Beijing Auto Show and the ET stood really far at the back of the BYD booth, on a separate little stage with a glass fence. It was surrounded by balloons with the BYD logo on it. Somebody even taped some balloons to the roof! Not a very respectful way to treat a new concept car.

It was a innovative but somewhat odd design. It seems that the occupants can barely see out of the front window, which sits very high up and lies almost flat. The side windows cut deep into the doors, so at least there the passengers do have a good view.

The wheels are gigantic with sporty five-spoke alloys. The fenders extend far outwards front and rear. There are no side mirrors but there is a very standard-looking rear-view mirror above the windshield.

On the wall were two images. The left one is the same as the one previously released but the one on the right is new. It shows the side again bit with the doors removed. You can clearly see how high the seats sit inside the vehicle. The space below the seats was reserved for the batteries.

BYD said the ET was powered by four wheel hub motors, one in each wheel. The motors got their juice from a “high-performance” 200AH lithium-ion battery. Range was 350 kilometers and top speed 165 km/h. The ET was furthermore equipped with as ABS, ASR and ESP. However, BYD never showed anything power train, motor or battery pack, so I guess it didn’t have any, but that’s okay for a concept car.

BYD claimed the ET concept “Made people see the dawn of commercialization of electric vehicles.”

BYD was criticized by some because the front of the ET looked a tad too much like the front of the first generation (W168) Mercedes-Benz A Class.  I agree the lights and grille looked similar but the rest of the car was very different. But as we will later see, BYD took the criticism very seriously.

The rear also had a few hints of the A-Class, especially the light units.

Wide wheel arches very visible from behind. Interestingly, the sun roof, as promised on the earlier released image, failed to appear on the real car.

As we have seen, there are no door handles on the rear doors. Not even hidden ones. BYD never said anything about this, nor did they open the doors. Perhaps they

During an interview at the show, BYD chairman Wang Chuanfu said:

“As the energy crisis is getting worse and the human living environment is getting worse, car environmental protection is getting more and more attention. BYD takes the initiative to take part of the responsibilities. BYD is confident and capable. BYD’s goal is to achieve the commercialization of electric vehicles in 5-10 years, to have a clearer sky.”

The ET was an important part of that plan. After the Beijing show ended the ET disappeared from public view. For a while. In the run-up to the Guangzhou Auto Show, in November 2004, BYD released a new ET image:

It was the same drawing as they released before the Beijing Auto Show earlier that year but now painted in a shiny shade of green.

On the show, BYD surprised with an updated variant of the ET. Paint wasn’t as shiny as on the image, more light green than shiny green.

Design had changed a lot, most notably at the front. The A-Class nose was completely gone, replaced with a more modern and cleaner design. The grille, lights, fog lights, and bumper were all new. BYD had added an indicator on front fender above the wheel.

The basic design did not change. The windows frames were still black and the wheels still big. But somehow the updated ET seemed to work better, better balanced, and a bit prettier. The windows were clear now so the interior was better visible. And… The ET now had the promised sun roof!

It also helped that BYD put it on center stage on its own platform. As a side-note memory: in those years scantily clad ladies were an important and very popular part of every auto show until about 2015. Sadly, today this is no longer allowed. But we still got the brochure babes.

The rear was cleaned up too. Light units, door, and bumper were all redesigned. And details like the…

… third brake light were suddenly better visible as well. Note how much space there is between the seats. That’s a wide center tunnel.

A good look at the sun roof. Head rests are fully integrated in the seats.

BYD also announced a new range: 450 kilometers instead of 350. But the other specifications did not change. There was a small change in wording though: with the blue car, the battery was called “high-performance”, with green car it was renamed “Large-capacity, high-performance“.

BYD furthermore claimed that the ET had independent suspension with double wishbones, a multi-function steering wheel, and an electric power steering system.

Many asked if BYD had any intentions to produce a car like the ET. Sadly, they had not. And BYD didn’t start making EVs very soon either, instead embarking on a rocky road with lots of copy-paste petrol cars and a few lost hybrids.

Note vague similarities in the grille, bumper, position of the fog lights, and the wheel arches.

Finally, in 2011, BYD launched the BYD e6. The e6 was the BYD’s first mass produced EV, a mid-size MPV close to the original idea of the ET. When launched, the BYD e6 had a 48 kWh battery pack, a single electric motor, and a 300 kilometer range.

And the ET name? In China, car makers can not copyright numerical or short-abbreviated car names; X5, A3, etc are a free for all. So ET was up for grabs too. In 2019 the ET name made a comeback on a concept car, but on a NIO, not on a BYD.

More concept cars soon!

Sources: Sohu, Sina, PCauto, PCauto, Kuaibao.