BYD’s latest model, an ultra compact electric vehicle named Racco, debuted at the Japan Mobility Show this week, fitting into Japan’s beloved kei car category. For years, domestic giants like Nissan and Honda have dominated urban streets with vehicles little bigger than a generous sneeze, accounting for one-third of all car sales.
Now, the Chinese automaker wants a piece of the action by developing a model just for Japanese shoppers. The Racco is slightly over 3.3 meters long, 1.48 meters wide, and 2 meters tall, yet it has enough surprises to make you stop in the middle of your commute. Few cars capture Japan’s daily grind quite like a kei vehicle. These micro-machines zip through crowded alleys, park in spaces that would swallow a compact SUV whole and carry tax breaks that make them affordable for city dwellers.
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The Racco is BYD’s first attempt into the genre, a four-door box on wheels with movable rear panels that fling open wide when stuck between vending machines and salarymen. The electric powertrain is hidden behind a sealed grille in the front, flanked by tiny C-shaped LED headlights that give it a welcoming squint. Around the rear, corresponding lights form a full circle, and the BYD insignia glows at night. It stands 1.8 meters tall on 14-inch wheels, providing plenty of headroom for four passengers without taking up too much space.
Power comes from a single front-mounted electric motor rated at 64 horsepower, the maximum for kei cars to be agile on twisty backroads. With a 20-kilowatt-hour Blade battery—BYD’s famous lithium iron phosphate pack—the range is 180km WLTC, enough to get you through a day of errands in Tokyo without breaking a sweat. Plug it into a 100-kilowatt DC charger and you’ll be charged in under 30 minutes, faster than most EVs this size. Because of the flat battery floor, the Racco’s center of gravity is low, so it corners better than gas-powered keis.
When you get in, you’re greeted by a thin digital gauge cluster behind a three-spoke wheel, a bigger central screen for maps, music and climate controls. The air vents are neat rectangles on the dash, while the seats are a bench layout front and back with room for groceries. You’ll also get driver aids too including adaptive cruise control, lane-keeping assist and collision warnings that scan the road ahead. A heat pump cools or warms the space uses less energy than a conventional system and extends the range on cold mornings.
Pricing is in the middle of it all at 2.6 million yen – about $17,000 before any government subsidies that can knock off another chunk. That puts the Racco alongside the Nissan Sakura, the current EV darling of the kei world which starts at 2.53 million yen and has the same battery and range.
