Tesla may be the face of electric vehicles, but Chinese brands are offering decent looks, solid performance, and impressive range at budget prices.
In the United States, Tesla is charging $44,200 for an entry-level Model 3–– but in Asia, Chinese automakers are producing EVs that cost less than a used Honda Civic. These aren’t niche experiments into the world of electric mobility either; one of the cars on this list sold over a million units in just two years. However, when you consider the fact that this best-selling mystery vehicle costs six times less than Tesla’s cheapest offering – under $8,000 – it’s easy to understand why the market is booming. The Chinese government offers several incentives to EV buyers, making „new energy“ vehicles, as they are called, quite attractive.
In addition, the charging infrastructure in most populated cities in China is quite robust, with many different types of chargers available — all reasons why China is far ahead of the U.S. in terms of EV infrastructure. China’s EV space has outgrown the teething problems that many other EV markets around the world are facing. That said, before you start looking at shipping container costs, understand that these prices reflect the Chinese domestic market. Import tariffs, safety certifications, and various regulatory hurdles would dramatically increase costs for American buyers. However, even when we factor in 25% tariff prices as well as the 2.5% import duty, most Chinese EVs would still be cheaper than the base 2025 Tesla Model 3. Here are five examples.BYD Seagull – ¥56,800 or $7,800
First up, we have the BYD Seagull — one of China’s best-selling all-electric vehicles. It costs $7,800 (¥56,800), which, as we alluded to in the introduction, makes it about six times cheaper than the cheapest Tesla. However, even though we don’t get the Seagull/ Surf here in the U.S., you can still ditch your Tesla Model 3 in favor of better options. Interestingly, the Seagull is so much of a „common person car“ that it, along with all other cars under 4 meters (13.1 feet) long, are banned from driving in Shanghai, as it’s seen as too plebeian to be seen on Shanghai’s streets.
In our books, that’s more of a compliment than anything. An EV so affordable that the powers that be think it’ll paint their city as „cheap“ — if that’s not a win on pricing, then what is? Another interesting tidbit about Shanghai is that cars that are not registered in the city, i.e., cars that do not have Shanghai plates, are also banned from driving in parts of the city.
Anyway, the Seagull, also called the Dolphin Surf in some places, is good value – it has seating space for five people, a range of 190 miles, and a 30.1 kWh battery. All of these factors combine to make the Seagull one of China’s most popular cars, a fact that is evidenced by the one millionth Seagull unit being sold in June 2025, just 27 months from the date it was launched.
