2024 Chery Omoda E5 electric car to undercut BYD

The upcoming 2024 Chery Omoda E5 electric SUV is all but confirmed to cost less than $50,000, and undercut the equivalent version of its chief rival, the BYD Atto 3.

Chery Australia chief operating officer Lucas Harris told Drive the brand is "not really interested in a race to the bottom", and does not want to engage in a price war with rivals BYD and MG.

The Omoda E5 is the electric version of the petrol-powered Omoda 5 small SUV, sized similarly to a BYD Atto 3, MG ZS EV, Hyundai Kona Electric or Peugeot e-2008.

"I think that would be a safe assumption," Mr Harris told Drive, when asked if the Omoda E5's price will start with a four.

A drive-away price of less than $50,000 – assuming the nationwide drive-away pricing of petrol Chery models carries over to its electric cars – would undercut the top-selling version of the BYD Atto 3, the Extended Range.

The Atto 3 Extended Range is priced from $51,011 plus on-road costs, or $51,678 to $55,394 drive-away, depending on where the vehicle is registered – while the cheaper Standard Range is $48,011 plus on-roads, or from $48,678 to $52,030 drive-away.

The MG ZS EV is priced from $36,990 to $46,990 drive-away, the MG 4 from $40,990 to $59,990 drive-away, and until the end of May 2024, the Nissan Leaf from $39,990 to $49,990 drive-away.

"To be totally transparent, we've not actually set any pricing for that car even internally yet," Mr Harris told Drive.

"We've still got a few months to go before a launch is going to happen, so there's a bit of time to look at the market and look what's happening.

"We're not really interested in a race to the bottom, we certainly think that we're offering a better product than what some of those competitors are. And so we've got no real interest [in being] the cheapest either."