BYD Racco: Here comes the brand’s first electric kei car, offers up to 320km of range

Originally announced at the Japan Mobility Show last year, BYD has officially rolled out its first-ever EV that is designed for Japan, the BYD Racco. The new model is being designed to compete in the country’s unique microcar segment, which is widely known as kei car.

The Japanese kei car market is a regulated segment in which there are legal limits to the car size and power output. Interestingly enough, BYD didn’t take any of its existing models and adapt them according to kei car specs, but instead, the company built the Racco from scratch.

There are already several fully electric kei cars in the market, such as the Honda N-One e (which provides the foundation for Honda Super-One) and Nissan Sakura. However, all of them came from Japanese automakers until the arrival of the BYD Racco.

BYD Racco Quick Specs

BYD Racco, which means sea otter in Japanese, is a 3.4m-long, 1.48m-wide, and 1.8m-tall vehicle. Together with a 2.5m wheelbase, Cell To Body (CTB) implementation, and 15-inch wheels, BYD has developed a custom suspension setup for Racco in order to adhere to its tall physique, which is typical for a kei car, although it still features a MacPherson strut on the front and a torsion beam at the back.

The EV is equipped with a front-mounted 47kW (63hp) electric motor that also produces 160Nm of torque. The powertrain allows the Racco to accelerate from 0 to 100km/h in 14 to 15.2 seconds, depending on the variant.

Speaking of variants, the Racco 200 is powered by a 22.4kWH BYD Blade LFP battery, which enables it to deliver a WLTP-rated range of up to 210km. On the other hand, the Racco 300 Plus and Racco 300 Premium are running on a 35.84kWh battery that empowers them to deliver 310km of WLTP-rated range.

When it comes to charging, the Racco 200 can support a DC charging speed of up to 35.8kW, while the higher-end Racco 300 Plus and Racco 300 Premium can support slightly faster DC charging speeds at 49.7kW. As for AC charging, the onboard charger (OBC) module on Racco 200 maxes out at 3kW while the OBC on the other two trims supports up to 6kW.

Being a Japanese EV, the Racco is equipped with Type 2 AC and CHAdeMO DC charging connectors, which are different from the connectors you usually see on EVs in Malaysia. Interestingly enough, it comes with Vehicle-to-Load (V2L) and Vehicle-to-Home (V2H) capabilities.

Other notables features that you can find on all Racco variants includes powered sliding doors on each side of the car, a 7-inch digital instrument cluster, a 10.1-inch centre infotainment screen, 6 airbags, Automatic Emergency Braking (AEB), Adaptive Cruise Control (ACC) Intelligent Cruise Control (ICC), Lane Departure Prevention (LDP), Forward Collision Warning (FCW), and Child Presence Detection (CPD).

As for pricing, the Racco 200 goes for JPY2.145 million (~RM53,590) while the Racco 300 Plus and 300 Premium are available for JPY2.398 million (~RM59,911) and JPY2.497 million (~RM62,384), respectively.

BYD Racco Image Gallery