Strip the BYD Racco back to its specification sheet and the character is already there: electric motor, 47 kW. Byd built from 2026, in the decade the industry is turning electric. The shape is credited to Under the lead of Wolfgang Egger.
The background
The BYD Racco (Japanese: BYDラッコ, Hepburn: BYD Rakko; lit. 'sea otter') is a battery electric kei car manufactured by BYD Auto in 2026 for the Japanese market.
It is the carmaker's attempt to making an electric kei car for the Japanese market and also the first and only one dedicated pure kei car model from a non-Japanese brand. It was revealed at the 2025 Japan Mobility Show, and has been made in China for export to Japan since July 2026. While designed as a tall-roof kei car with sliding doors, mimicking the body styles of petrol-powered competitors such as the Honda N-Box, Daihatsu Tanto and Nissan Roox, the Racco competes with existing battery electric kei cars such as the Honda N-One e, Mitsubishi eK X EV, and Nissan Sakura.
The engineering
The engine is electric motor; the output is 47 kW. On the scales it comes to 1160 –. That is roughly 41 horsepower per tonne: leisurely, which for a car of its age and purpose is the point. The layout matters: the engine drives the front wheels, the packaging choice that gives a small car a big cabin. The wheelbase is 2520 mm. These are manufacturer figures carried by Wikipedia and Wikidata, not road-test measurements.
Where it sits
In the Byd line-up the BYD Racco has a clear place: the factory was Changzhou, Jiangsu, China. The cars a buyer would have weighed it against include the Škoda Auto Škoda Epiq, the Hyundai Inster, the Geely EX2. Its Byd stablemates include the BYD 8TT and the BYD Atto 2.