ECONOMYNEXT – Sri Lanka Customs has detained around 1,000 Chinese-made BYD electric vehicles in six consignments that arrived in the island over the declaration of motor capacity issue which is used to calculate taxes, official sources said.
Customs have been declared a motor capacity of 100 kiloWatts but there have been concerns that the car are usually produced with a 150kW motor, which attracts a higher rate of duty in Sri Lanka.
The excise for a 100 KW motor vehicle is 2.4 million rupees, but this rises to about 5.4 million rupees for a 150 KW vehicle.
The BYD vehicles had arrived in six consignments and reached Sri Lanka in two different days of this month, the sources said.
They have been now detained in port.
In the case of conventional piston engine cars, it is customary for the same model to come in different sized engines. The same model of some mid-sized petrol cars for example used to come in 1300cc, 1500cc and even 1800cc engines.
However, it is not yet clear if an electric motor’s output is limited or de-rated by the manufacturer but the physical motor is the same, how Sri Lanka authorities will view the issue.
If it is determined that the tax applicable for a 150kW car is charged on the 100kW vehicle, a user may have to pay about 4 million rupees extra, an official source said.
Already over 1,000 vehicles have been released to end users, he said.
BYD sells 100kW models of its Atto 3 model in some markets, though it usually comes in a 150kW version.
BYD in Singapore sells an Atto 3 model with a 100kW rated motor to conform to what is called a Category A certificate of entitlement in Singapre, according to the company website.
Singapore’s Straits Times newspaper reported that Tesla has also launched a 110kW version in Singapore of its 255kW Model Y RWD.
A lower rated motor means its performance will be lower, and for example may not be able to accelerate as quickly as the one with the higher output motor.
According to the review site OneShift.com the BYD Seal 100kW version takes 10 seconds to accelerate from 0 to 100 (km/h), while the 150kW version does in 5.9 seconds.
“There are different vehicles with different performance made by BYD,” a spokesman for JKCG Auto, the agents for Chinese car maker in Sri Lanka said.
“This model is available not only in Sri Lanka but also in countries like Singapore and Nepal. And the configuration is done by the manufacturer.”
Customs Spokesman Seevali Arukgoda was not immediately available for comment.
At meeting of the Parliament’s Committee on Public Finance earlier this year, some participants raised the matter that the same model car was being charged different taxes based on the motor output declared in the documents submitted by the manufacturer.
At the time Arukgoda said a complaint had been made, and Customs was looking into the issue.
“We know the two models we have started an investigation,” he said. (Colombo/July 28/2025)
