This dragon has wings
BYD ATTO 3 EXTENDED RANGE
NEVER mind the excitement of an allnew electric car model; how about the excitement of an allnew allelectric automotive brand?
BYD is the new name plate in town and it has already gained quite a profile by promoting vehicles via popup dealerships in locations such as Dunedin’s Wall Street Mall. The marque, whose name stands for Build Your Dreams, launched here in mid2022, securing some 500 orders between June and September, and commencing customers around October.
While further BYD models are NZbound this year, for now the sole model in the lineup is the Atto 3. It’s a compact crossover, similar in size to the Hyundai Kona, MG ZS, Lexus UX300e and Mazda MX30 electric vehicles.
Returning for a moment to the backstory, BYD is the latest of several Chinese vehicle makers to have entered the New Zealand market in recent years. BYD Auto was founded some 20 years ago and has an electricvehicle
Rating:
Design & Styling:
Interior:
Performance:
Ride & Handling:
Safety:
Environmental:★★★★★ SPECIFICATION
Price: $62,490
Clean Car rebates and charges (additional to price): $8265 rebate.
Motor: AC synchronous electric motor, maximum power 150kW, maximum torque 310Nm.
Transmission: Direct drive automatic, frontwheeldrive.
Brakes and stability systems:
Safety rating: Wheels and tyres:
portfolio that spans not only cars, but also buses, trucks, bikes and forklifts. It produces at serious scale too; in fact, last year, BYD overtook Tesla to become the largest EV manufacturer in the world.
BYD is also at the leadingedge of rechargeablebattery design, with its key technology in the field being the Blade Battery design. This is a lithium iron phosphate battery rather than the lithiumion battery type that dominates in current EVs. BYD claim it is safer, cheaper to produce and able to handle significantly more recharges before battery health suffers.
The Atto 3 is the first car to deploy the new Blade Battery
Battery and economy: 60.5kWh lithiumiron blade battery, estimated combined economy (WLTP test) 14.4 kWh/100km.
Emissions: Zero emissions. Dimensions: Length 4495mm, width 1840mm, height 2640mm.
— as part of a new underlying vehicle platform that will be used on a raft of future models. Longterm, the platform is said to be suitable for cars with fourwheel drive, supercar levels of performance, battery ranges of as much as 1000km and ultrafast charging that would enable 150km of range to be added in just five minutes.
Back in the hereandnow, the Atto 3 doesn’t quite push those boundaries. Rather, it has quite typical EV compact crossover credentials, being frontdrive, deploying a single 150kW/310Nm electric motor and sprinting from rest to the legal limit in a respectable 7.3 seconds.
There are two battery options on offer, comprising a 50kWh unit for the ‘‘standard’’ $58,990 Atto 3, and a 60kWh pack for the $62,490 extendedrange Atto 3, as tested.
What comes as standard?
Battery capacity aside, the two Atto 3 variants share a standard equipment specification that is most impressive for a compact crossover EV at this price point.
There’s smartkey access and pushbutton start, a poweroperated panoramic sunroof, powered tailgate, wireless phone charger, climate control airconditioning, eightspeaker premium sound system, satellite navigation, synthetic leather upholstery, poweradjustable front seats and poweradjusting heated mirrors.
Along with the main 12.8inch centre touchscreen, which rotates at the push of a button between landscape and portrait format, the instrument cluster — mounted on the steering column — is fully digital. There’s seamless Bluetooth connectivity, USB and USBC plug/charge points front and rear and a comprehensive BYD voicecontrolled system.
While the Atto 3 launched here without Apple CarPlay and Android Auto functionality, this lack is being addressed with a downloaded update this month. The digital interface also features a swag of inhouse apps, even including an inbuilt ‘‘dashcamstyle’’ videorecording system, along with a crisply resolved 360degree surroundview camera system.
A vehicletoload adapter is also supplied as standard, enabling up to 3.3kW of power to be used to power devices and small appliances on camping trips and the like.
The Atto 3 holds the maximum 5star safety rating under the ANCAP assessment programme. It’s equipped with adaptive radar cruise control, lanekeeping assistance and lanedeparture warnings, speedsign recognition, blindspot monitoring, front collision and rear crosstraffic alert, and a suite of autonomous emergency braking interventions.
The warranty package covers six years or 150,000km of motoring, 8 years of roadside assistance and an EV battery warranty of 8 years or 160,000km.
What does it look like?
If there’s a hint of understated European sophistication to the Atto 3’s conventional but contemporary styling, that should come as no surprise — BYD’s design chief is Wolfgang Egger, who before joining the Chinese company was head of Audi Group
Design, and prior to that was at Alfa Romeo.
The Atto 3’s blunt nose, semiclamshell bonnet, and rising waistline are features common to many current compact crossovers, but there is sufficient distinctive detailing to keep it from getting lost in the crowd.
Chinese dragons have been the inspiration for that detailing, which finds its most obvious expression in the ultrathin eyelike headlights, patterning within the lights and dragonscale themed metallic inserts on the rear pillars. A metallic finish features on the integrated roof rails, 18inch alloys are standardfit, and the exterior lighting is LED allround.
BYD Auto doesn’t have an emblem other than stylised letters of its name, which is presented in full as Build Your Dreams across the tailgate, with much smaller EV and Atto 3 badging below.
What’s it like inside?
Design boss Egger’s team have struck gold with the Atto 3 interior, producing a cabin that is both visually exciting and highly practical.
Swooping lines define the dash, with a metallic highlight strip separating the dark blue upper surface from the cream lower surfaces. The blueandcream contrast is repeated in the seats, this time with red piping and contrast stitching, while the doors’ centre console follows the same colour pattern.
Time will be the ultimate test but the standard of fit appears firstrate, and there is a highquality feel to the softtouch surfacing and upholstery.
Apparently the interior was inspired by ‘‘fitness culture’’; the bulges and patterning of the dash and door inserts are reflective of muscles, and the cylindrical air vents and chunky gear shifter of dumbbells. Someone in the design team must be a music fan too, as a set of red elastic ‘‘guitar’’ strings run across each door pocket. Those on the driver’s side were decently tuned, but with just three strings, I was one string shy of the number needed to play the opening riff of Deep Purple’s classic rock anthem Smoke on the Water!
Design fun hasn’t got in the way of practicality. The sculpted hand grips atop the indoor tweeters are also the door handles, and the ability to rotate the large centre screen between portrait and landscape format is more than a gimmick; portrait format is ideal for navigation, while landscape is handier for accessing music playlists.
There are plentiful storage options, including a large tray at the base of the freefloating centre console (the front USB ports are placed here), the charge pad on top of the console, separate dual cupholders and a lidded centre bin.
The rear of the cabin isn’t as bold, but the key design themes carry over. There is a folddown centre armrest, and rear leg and head room is good. The rear seating position is quite low mind, and this combines with the high waistline to limit visibility for shorter occupants.
A 400litre boot capacity, expanding to 1340litres when the 60/40 rearseat backs are folded down, is excellent by class standards. A duallevel boot floor is provisioned, and it can be positioned low to maximise the main space, or at loadlip level for easy loading with a sizeable storage cavity beneath.