First drive review: BYD Atto 3

Friday, 19 August 2022

• BYD ATTO 3

• Price range: $52,990 to $57,990

• Powertrains: Single permanent magnet synchronous electric motor with either 50kWh battery or 60kWh battery, 150kW/310Nm, 320km to 420km WLTP range, FWD.

• Body style: 5-door SUV

• On sale: Now

The newest brand to arrive in New Zealand is China’s BYD. It stands for “Build Your Dreams”, which is undeniably cheesy, but the company’s first offering here – the Atto 3 all-electric small SUV – is anything but.

Make me an instant expert: what do I need to know?

BYD is distributed in New Zealand by Ateco Automotive (which also handles Ram, Fiat, Alfa Romeo, Maserati and Jeep here), and is a relatively young brand by global automotive standards – the company was established in 1995, with its automotive division not starting up until 2002 – but it has grown incredibly quickly, with its share of the Chinese domestic market growing from 0.5% to 5% in just three months shortly after it was started, and is now accounting for a massive 30% of the same market.

**READ MORE:

* Toyota taps BYD for new battery tech

* The BYD Atto 3 available to taste by end of July

* BYD confirms local Atto 3 pricing

* Six initial dealers for cheap new EV

**

BYD is first and foremost a battery company, supplying Motorola (from 2000) and Nokia (from 2002) with lithium-ion batteries, so unsurprisingly puts a lot of emphasis on the battery technology in the Atto 3.

And it is impressive stuff, with BYD being able to get lithium iron phosphate (LFP) cells work at a far higher efficiency than any other battery maker, while most other EV manufacturers use nickel manganese cobalt (NMC) batteries. BYD says this makes its “Blade” modules (so-called because they are made up of long, thin, flat cells, as opposed to the cylindrical cells that are more common) far safer and less susceptible to catching fire if the battery is penetrated.

The Blade batteries also take up far less space (or offer more capacity in the same space) than traditional batteries, while also degrading at a significantly slower rate.

It’s all very clever stuff, and a seemingly huge achievement for a relatively young company – but it pays to remember that BYD isn’t actually that young in Chinese market terms, has backing from American billionaire Warren Buffett (it is a publicly listed company with no backing from the Chinese government) and is currently the third most valuable car company in the world in terms of market value, sitting behind only Tesla and Toyota.

So the small SUV that has just landed here comes from a very big place, raising expectations beyond the usual “just another cheap Chinese EV” ones. And the Atto 3 effortlessly meets – and even exceeds – even those higher expectations.

The Atto 3 (otherwise known as the Yuan in its home market) is roughly similar in size to the Hyundai Kona and is a handsome, if slightly unobtrusive-looking small SUV, that is vaguely reminiscent of a Volkswagen ID.4.

First impressions are that it appears very well put together, with consistent panel gaps and a quality paint finish (the white of the car we drove is the standard finish, with blue and grey being a $750 option. Red may or may not make it here…), reinforcing those vague VW allusions.

But things get considerably more wild on the inside, with a heavily sculpted interior of deeply impressive quality.

Okay, so things do tend to get a bit over-designed and fussy in places (and may well turn off as many people as it appeals to), but you can’t deny it has presence. The interior is designed around the idea of fitness and athleticism, with things like the centre console referencing a treadmill and the air vents being weights.

It’s all very fresh and interesting, but things go a bit far for me with the dash that is supposed to represent muscle, and comes complete with a soft touch finish that feels creepily like artificial skin and, to be honest, is vaguely unpleasant to the touch.

It is, however, very high quality, and the whole cabin (maybe apart from the icky dash) is a tactile delight – including the weird-but-cool little “door banjos” that stretch from the speakers and form a flexible part of the door pocket. They all produce notes vaguely around E, however, so you can’t produce much of a tune on them…

But the absolute rockstar feature of the interior is the 12.8-inch central touchscreen. While there is divided opinion in the industry as to whether a portrait or landscape orientation is better for a main screen, BYD has simply given you the option for either, with its central screen rotating between the two orientations at the touch of a button. It also packs some impressive computing power and is slick, fast and utterly satisfying to use.

Where did you drive it?

From BYD’s freshly opened showroom in Auckland’s Newmarket (the company has four open now, the other being in Hamilton, Wellington and Christchurch, with three more opening before September and a further 8 by mid-2023) we were given free rein to head wherever we wanted for the afternoon.

That was after we were served up a delicious brunch of bacon rolls and banana, peanut butter and honey smoothies, all created using appliances plugged into the Atto 3’s DC charging port using the V2L connector that will come standard with every car. Well, it will eventually come standard with every car, but they’re not quite ready yet – BYD NZ is still waiting for it to be certified, but says it will get them out to anyone who buys a car when they are.

While we are on the subject of cool things that come standard, but you will have to wait a bit for – OTA, or over-the-air updates are also on the cards, via an onboard 4G SIM, but not functional just quite yet, meaning things like wireless Android Auto and Apple CarPlay will be added to customer cars at a later date as well.

BYD says a local app store is also being set up, and each Atto 3 will get 2GB of data per month for “personal use” (ie; not used for OTA updates, which will be free for the life of the car) like streaming music, videos and downloading apps.

Of course, the weather was utterly atrocious, so we headed out to grab some photos in a sheltered spot before hammered south out of Auckland to try it out on a few favourite roads, as well as a bit of motorway cruising to test out the adaptive cruise and other driver assists, all of which were nicely calibrated and not intrusive or annoying in the slightest.

While the Atto 3’s eco-tyres (the brilliantly named Atlas Batmans) did offer up the occasional slip under heavy acceleration, the traction control system was nicely calibrated and tidied things up far more subtly than other Chinese competitors.

The ride was suitably impressive as well, while the stability on the motorway in high winds was exceptional. In fact, the Atto’s biggest party trick on the road was just how utterly convincing it was as a car – never mind “for a Chinese car' or “for an EV” – this is just a very, very good car, full stop.

What’s the pick of the range?

The Atto 3 is only available in two models, both with identical – and very high – equipment levels, with the only difference being battery size.

The Standard range version packs a 50kWh battery and a WLTP range of 320km. It costs $52,990 before the full Clean Car rebate and features 70kW charging. The $57,990 (again, before the rebate) Extended range version gets a bigger 60kWh battery good for 420km range and bumps up the maximum charge rate to 80kW.

On-road costs aren’t included, but both models are eligible for the $8625 Clean Car rebate, pushing them down to $44,365 and $49,365 respectively.

This means that selecting the best model will depend on you range requirements, without having to worry about missing out on any good gear. And the Atto3 is extremely well-equipped as standard, making it remarkably good value for money.

Put it this way, you could easily pay comfortably more than $50-odd grand for an ICE-powered vehicle from another brand with the standard kit the Atto 3 packs, let alone an EV.

Why would I buy it?

Because you want an exceptionally well-equipped small SUV that looks great, has a fantastic interior, is comfortable, well-built and is solidly convincing to drive. The Atto 3 comfortably dispels the “EVs are too expensive” argument in terms of new vehicles by offering up more standard equipment, equivalent quality and comparable interior space to a Mazda CX-5 for CX-30 money.

Oh, and there are no supply issues due to computer chip shortages, because BYD also make their own semiconductors…

​Why wouldn’t I buy it?

Because you can’t get past the dated view that you would “never buy a Chinese car” because of quality concerns. Or you are utterly repelled by the slightly creepy feel of the dash…