BYD Atto 3 review: Enter the dragon face

LET’S see how many times I can write an electric-car review without mentioning Tesla. That first time doesn’t count, but this will be hard because Elon Musk has managed to define for the car-buying public what an electric car should be, just as Steve Jobs’ legacy to the world is a generation of people who would rather spend time on TikTok than in the company of other humans.

Yet, while auto companies are falling over themselves to catch the world’s leading electric-car maker, here’s one that isn’t ostensibly out to destroy Tesla (oops, that’s 1). In fact, there are reports that it already supplies batteries to you-know-who’s Gigafactory in Berlin.

Meet BYD, a Chinese battery maker turned electric vehicle (EV), software, solar panel and face-mask giant. Its newest car for Singapore, the Atto 3, is a sport utility vehicle (SUV) with a motor for the front wheels and a bank of lithium-ion batteries under the floor.