Rented a BYD Atto 3 for the day.

I took my car in for a service today. They didn't offer a courtesy car, but SIXT, which had an office nearby, was doing a special on the BYD Atto 3 EV, so I thought I'd rent one for the day to see what it was like.

I'll stick a British review at the end. The video is worth a watch: it gives you a good feel for the car. The reviewer's view is kind of moderate, but I think that's a result of UK pricing. In the UK, the cheapest EV is the MG4, is £25,000. A Model 3 starts at around £40,000. A VW ID.3 is £37,000, and an Ioniq 5 starts at £43,000. The Atto 3 starts at £37,000, so it's competing pretty much directly with everything from an ID.3 to a Niro EV to, just about, a Model 3. In Australia, the MG4 is about to come out, and will be A$45,000. They don't sell the ID.3, but the similar Cupra Born starts at A$60,000; the Model 3 is A$61,000, and the Ioniq 5 starts at A$72,000. The Atto 3 is $48,000.

So while the review (and most other UK reviews I've seen) looks at an Atto 3 as a competitor to a Niro EV or Model 3 or ID.3, and finds that it's surprisingly good but lags these cars a little bit in some areas, in Australia it undercuts those cars by A$10-15,000. Australian reviews, unsurprisingly, are very positive.

Given that it is currently the cheapest EV you can buy here (until the MG4 and Ora Cat come out), I have to say I was impressed.

I've driven it about 130km today.

It's quite big. Bigger than a BMW X1. Inside, there's more legroom than in my X3, but it is narrower - three across was a bit tight.

The interior is bizarre, but I think this is a good thing. It's supposedly inspired by a gym (I wouldn't know). But it's bright, and has lots of interesting shapes.



The materials feel weird - a bit like a cross between neoprene and rubber - but nice. They're soft, and the seats are breathable. The seats are soft but supportive. The switchgear is well-damped and feels expensive. The infotainment screen is enormous (and it rotates between portrait and landscape) and it's very clear and very responsive. Android Auto is well integrated too. And I like that there's a little driver's display too: it's clear and easy to use. The strings on the door bins are taut, and are tuned: my daughter was able to play the start of Smoke On The Water by Deep Purple on them.

It's quieter than any EV I've driven, apart from maybe a BMW iX3: much quieter than an ID.3 or an Enyaq pr a Polestar 2, or an EQA or EQB, and in a different league entirely to an electric Volvo XC40. I took it up to about 70mph on the motorway, and it was really very quiet indeed.

It's not Tesla fast. But it will hit 60mph in 7.3 seconds, which is plenty fast.

The ride is spectacularly good. It's really comfortable. Handling is OK - there's decent grip, not much steering feel, and a fair bit of roll in the bends - but it's definitely built for comfort rather than handling.

The footwell is big, but the gap between the centre console and the door isn't. I was comfortable, but my knees were leaning on the door and the centre console. In the back, there's a flat floor, and loads of foot room and knee room: even when I put my seat as low as it would go, you could get your feet under the driver's seat when you sat in the back. And the floor in the back was not too high (as I find it is in some EVs, such as the EQA).

Equipment levels for the cheapest EV you can buy here were remarkable. There was adaptive cruise control (which was really very good - smooth and accurate), and a 360-degree camera, and that massive screen, and heated seats, and proper buttons for aircon and volume and stuff, and an electric tailgate, and a vehicle proximity alert when you open the door, and a huge, opening, pano sunroof with a blind, and electric seat adjustment.... really, just about everything I could think of.

The indicators (turn signals) made a weird annoying bong noise. Apparently you can change this to a normal clicking sound somewhere in the menus. The pedestrian alert sound (if you're going under 25km/h, is musical and silly and you can hear it inside the car: I don't know whether you can reprogram it to a less irritating generic EV sound, but apparently you can unplug it. Not sure whether that's legal, though.

The native nav is a bit intrusive: it will keep giving you warnings like "school zone ahead" or "speed camera ahead" or whatever. But you can turn this off, or use Android Auto and avoid it altogether.

The voice recognition is remarkably good: more intuitive, more natural, and more comfortable with my accent, than any voice recognition system I've used.

I doubt I'll buy a new car until next year. But I think this is now top of my list. Before this, it was probably the BMW iX3, but I could buy two and a half Atto 3s for the price of an iX3, and I just don't see where the value is in comparison.

It's the third-biggest-selling EV in Australia this year - after the Model 3 and Model Y - and I can see why.

 

https://www.topgear.com/car-reviews/byd/atto-3

 

Yes. But bear in mind this is Top Gear. When they say whether a car is "good to drive", they mean something very different to what I mean. As I said in my post, I thought the ride was excellent, and the handling was OK.

But for me, "good to drive" means "smooth, comfortable and quiet; easy to control smoothly in heavy traffic, well planted on motorways/freeways". For Top Gear, "good to drive" means "handles like a 911. Flat round corners. No understeer. Easy to power-oversteer out of a hairpin bend that you entered at 80mph. Loads of steering feel. Can drift round an entire track. Will do the Nurburgring in under 8 minutes." The only SUV they think "drives well" is the Macan, and pretty much the only EVs they think "drive well" are the Taycan and the i4, and maybe the Model 3 and MG4 at a push. A car that "drives well" for Top Gear is one that I find harsh and unpleasant.

So yes, they think "'decent' is as good as it gets" for the entire EV SUV class - this, the Niro, the ID.4, the Enyaq, and so on. For me, that's a good thing.

 

Yes, precisely. Top Gear hated the Prius.

There was a similarity between this Atto 3 and the Prius. Of course the BYD was an SUV, but it was still a similar sort of ride/handling compromise.