LIVING THE DREAM
The BYD Atto 3 pure-electric SUV is a small start in New Zealand for a true mega-company
New electric vehicle brands in New Zealand: get used to ’em. China’s BYD is the latest, launching in NZ through Ateco Automotive (which also distributes Alfa Romeo, Fiat, Jeep, Maserati and Ram).
It’s a young brand by global standards: founded in 1995, with the automotive division established in 2002. But that’s not especially young by Chinese standards and it’s not a small company: BYD made 1.1 million vehicles last year and looks set to hit 2 million for 2022; it’s the third most valuable carmaker in the world by market value, behind Tesla and Toyota.
BYD is also heavily invested in buses and forklifts under the automotive division, not to mention electronics of all kinds, rail transit and renewable energy.
It’s the many layers of BYD that make EVs a logical path. Prior to cars, its core business was batteries, especially rechargeable ones — including mainstream supply to Motorola (2000) and Nokia (2002).
No surprise, then, that BYD considers its proprietary Blade battery technology a key selling point of its EVs. It’s big brain stuff, but the company has made lithium iron phosphate (LFP) work where most other EV batteries employ nickel manganese cobalt (NMC). While most batteries have multiple modules, the Blade stacks all the cells together.
The company claims this tech package is more compact, superior in heat management and provides excellent crash safety. Google “nail penetration test” and you can see what it’s on about.
The Atto 3 has been launched in one high specification, with two battery sizes: the 60kWh version (420km range) is $57,990, while the 50kWh model (320km) will be $52,990 when it arrives later this year. Both are eligible for the full $8625 Clean Car Discount.
BYD is even keeping it simple with colours. There are three: the “hero” Surf Blue, Boulder Grey and the very cool Ski (off) White we grabbed for our photography. White’s the only free one, by the way: the others are $750.
From the outside it’s a sharplooking, if rather conventional small-medium SUV. Size, price and plug-in power put it up against the likes of the MG ZS EV and Hyundai Kona Electric, although BYD argues the Atto 3 is a little more premium in concept and execution.
The interior adds some weight to that argument. It’s high style to be sure; not to all tastes and it’s pretty wild in places, themed around exercise/athleticism. There are ventilation outlets that look like dumbells, console trim that echoes a treadmill, and dashboard finish that looks and feels like muscle.
The party piece is a 12.8-inch screen that can be in landscape or portrait orientation at the touch of a button. There’s a lot of processing power in there, too: the Bluetooth is lightning-fast to connect, for example.
BYD stands for “Build Your Dreams”. We know this because it’s written across the tailgate.
Elements like that and the dashboard come across as a little cheesy, but the hardware and software in the Atto 3 is solid and impressive.
Performance is smooth and on a drive day of nothing but torrential rain, the traction control system kept the eco-tyres seamlessly in check. It’s a maturefeeling car, from the powertrain right through to the huge suite of driver-assistance technology, which gets on with business and avoids feeling intrusive most of the time. Not all, but most.
All Atto 3 models are “live” with a SIM card, meaning over-the-air (OTA) updates and the potential for interesting apps; 2GB of data every month is included, exclusive of OTA. Those apps are not yet a reality; the local BYD app store is still under development, with a launch later in the year. That means buyers also have to wait for their Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. But when it’s available, existing customer cars will of course be automatically updated.
The same goes for another toyto-come, a V2L adaptor that allows the Atto 3 to charge or power other electrical devices via its AC port. Not a new idea, but what is new is that BYD will provide the adaptor free of charge with the car.
Atto 3 is just the start. The Dolphin small-car (which may be called Atto 2 for export) and the Tesla Model 3/Polestar 2-rivalling Seal (or perhaps Atto 4) sedan will arrive next year. A PHEV of some kind is also promised.
Supply from the factory is good, says BYD NZ, and has not been affected by semiconductor shortages . . . because BYD has owned its own semiconductor manufacturing operation since 2010. That’s how it does things; that’s the dream.