BYD has decided that the battery pack it engineered for a 3,395 mm Japanese kei car will underpin a family of small EVs sold worldwide. In the same fortnight, its Fang Cheng Bao sub-brand showed a 5,270 mm plug-in hybrid weighing roughly 2.9 tonnes and claiming 2,300 km (1,430 miles) of combined range. The two sit 1,875 mm apart in length and share a parent company, a cell chemistry and a 2026 calendar.
Start with the small one. It carries the transferable idea.
X-PACK Is A Packaging Solution That Happens To Be A Battery
Japanese rules cap kei cars at 3.4 metres long, 1.48 metres wide and 2 metres tall. Inside that box, the hardware a normal EV keeps under the bonnet has nowhere useful to go. BYD's answer, X-PACK, moves ten of those components into the battery housing itself and mounts the assembly under the floor: inverter, DC-DC converter, on-board charger, battery management system, climate unit and vehicle control unit among them. Blade cells with LFP chemistry do the storage. What was a parts bin at the front of the car becomes crash structure instead.
Nikkei reports that BYD has now committed to X-PACK as the basis for small EVs outside Japan, with detailed development running over the next few years and Europe, Southeast Asia and South America named as targets.
What the packaging buys shows up at the other end of BYD's own catalogue. The higher-spec Racco carries 35.84 kWh for 320 km WLTC. The Ti 9 carries 66.5 kWh for 310 km CLTC. The large car needs 85 percent more battery to cover 10 km less, measured on the more generous of the two cycles. Efficiency is what X-PACK sells, and it does not scale up with the vehicle.
Japan Bought It Faster Than BYD Expected
The Racco went on sale on 28 July at 2,145,000 yen (13,430 dollars), falling under 2 million yen after a 150,000 yen subsidy. The entry version uses 22.4 kWh for 210 km WLTC; the 320 km version adds 50 kW DC charging. BYD calls it Japan's first electric kei car past 300 km and its first with power sliding doors.
By 9 August it had 1,002 orders in two weeks, 80 percent of them the 300 Premium. The internal target was 1,000. BYD beat it by two cars and issued a statement about it, which tells you how closely this one is being watched.
Brussels Wrote The Category, Shenzhen Is At The Door
In late 2025 the European Commission proposed an M1E subcategory modelled on the kei car: battery-electric, fully equipped for safety, 4.2 metres maximum, with preferential subsidies and regulatory treatment for cars built inside the EU. The stated purpose was to make small European cars viable again. The first manufacturer visibly positioned for it runs a Hungarian plant starting production this year and is headquartered in Shenzhen.
Local assembly would qualify BYD for the support and sidestep the EU's tariffs on China-built EVs at once. The European ceiling is also 800 mm more generous than Japan's, which buys cabin space or battery; Heise estimates 250 to 350 km WLTP as realistic on this hardware.
Price is where it lands hardest. The Renault Twingo E-Tech opens at 19,990 euros for 262 km WLTP, the VW ID. Polo at 33,795 euros with a 24,995 euro base version to come, and Stellantis sits nearby with the Citroen e-C3. A BYD built in Hungary does not need Japanese pricing to undercut them.
The Other Extreme
The Fang Cheng Bao Ti 9, unveiled at the Chengdu Auto Show, pairs a 154 hp 1.5-litre turbo with two motors making 536 hp combined. Its 66.5 kWh pack gives 310 km (192.6 miles) of CLTC electric range, and 1,500 kW flash charging takes it from 10 to 97 percent in nine minutes. At 5,270 mm it is longer than a Mercedes-Benz GLS or BMW X7, comes in five, six and seven-seat layouts, and carries DiSus-P Ultra hydraulic suspension, 22-inch wheels and roof LiDAR.
The 2,300 km figure is a claim on an optimistic cycle and the real number will fall well short. Even discounted heavily, a six-seat SUV of this mass with 310 km of electric range is a different proposition from Europe's plug-in hybrids, where 80 km is a good result.
Fang Cheng Bao has sold 29,613 vehicles in China to date. Ti 9 sales at home begin later this year, and the smaller Ti 7 has already launched in the UK at 47,995 pounds (65,465 dollars).
In the first half of 2026 BYD reported revenue of 344.82 billion yuan (50.84 billion dollars), of which 181.27 billion, or 52.57 percent, came from outside China. It is the first time overseas business has accounted for more than half.