BYD’s glory days seem well over. For a time the F3 was the best selling car in China but recent years show steep declines in sales. The first quarter of 2014 saw a disastrous 29.9 percent drop in sales from the previous year. The only silver lining was strong sales by the hybrid Qin, something the previous F3DM never achieved.

BYD’s greatest handicap is its inability to design cars well. Look at most of the current range and they are still heavily inspired by other manufacturers’ designs. The F3 was well known as little more than an E120 Toyota Corolla clone. However, this still is true of newer models such as the S6 which is largely a Lexus RX copy.

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