BYD Dolphin review: A hatch to the EV world
As an electric car priced to take on combustion hatchbacks, the BYD Dolphin may not be glamorous, but it’s important
NEW technology tends to show up in the premium market first and then trickle down to the masses, which explains the BYD Dolphin. Yours for S$159,888, it’s one of the cheapest electric vehicle (EV) in town right now. (The title of smallest electric car here belongs to the Mini Cooper SE, a jolly fun car but one that costs 50 per cent more.)
It’s instinctive to compare the Dolphin with other electric vehicles, in which case its 340-kilometre range and leisurely acceleration seem unremarkable. But the BYD’s real mission is to lure you from pistons and petrol by offering clean, quiet electricity at a competitive price. It may not be a glamorous EV, then, but it’s certainly an important one.
Conventional hatchbacks like the Honda Jazz or Skoda Scala are its real quarry. Accordingly, the Dolphin sits somewhere between the two in terms of its physical footprint.
But since the components for electric propulsion need so little room – peek under the bonnet and there’s really not much to see – it has a surprisingly spacious cabin. The wheelbase (the distance between the front and rear axles) stretches 2.7 metres, so it has the rear legroom of a car from a larger class.
Fitting three adults across the back seat is still a bit of a squeeze, but at least the flat floor means the person in the middle doesn’t have to sit there with legs splayed.
Up in front, the BYD is a riot of curves that give the eye plenty to explore. The dashboard has perforations that look vaguely marine, in line with the car’s name, and it generally has an organic, sinewy sort of aesthetic.
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One of the Dolphin’s party tricks is that you can push a button and have the 12.8-inch touchscreen tilt 90 degrees. The portrait mode generally makes more sense; when you’re using the navigation system you can see further up ahead in the map, plus the screen blocks the air-con vents slightly when it’s in the landscape position, which is a bother because the rear of the car has no vents and people back there could use the airflow.
The user interface looks gorgeous, but be prepared to wade through menu-after-menu if you want to tinker with the car’s settings. When the main screen is running Apple CarPlay you no longer have access to the air-con controls, while the 5-inch driver display is cluttered and haphazard. BYD could stand to hire a few more user experience experts.
On the plus side, the Dolphin is fairly practical by small car standards. The centre console has room for drinks, a phone and a handbag and quite a bit more, while the 345-litre boot has a deep floor in case you have big pieces of luggage to haul around. Naturally, you can drop the back seats to expand the boot to a claimed 1,310 litres.
As for how it drives, the Dolphin’s winning attributes are its smooth acceleration and soothing ride quality. It’s inherently a quiet car, but BYD must have been uncomfortable with the silence and so decided to fill it with noise. At low speed a sound generator emits an artificial whirr at an intrusive volume (or a looping arpeggiated chord if you choose), while if you creep over the speed limit you get a sonic finger wag in the form of a warning chime.
Meanwhile, the handling department is where the Dolphin’s combustion rivals have it licked, at least if you value a bit of playful agility in a small car. The BYD doesn’t feel deft when changing direction, and it generally prefers straight lines to corners.
Crowded city conditions are where the Dolphin shines. The smooth acceleration suits start-stop traffic, and cornering speeds are low in town. It even seems to use less energy in those settings.
Regardless, if you assume the claimed range of 340 km is accurate, most people here would need to charge the Dolphin roughly once a week. Spending an hour or so at a mall with a direct current (DC) charger ought to do it, because the battery isn’t a big one.
Overall it’s easy to see a few use cases for the Dolphin. It’s a stylish, quirky but practical hatch for the young-at-heart to zip around in. By the same token, it’s a car to consider buying for your kid if they want something progressive and cute, while you want them in something with six airbags, a slew of crash-prevention systems and not enough power to get into serious trouble.
Yet, the Dolphin also has to contend with the Atto 3, a bigger BYD that also runs on batteries. It costs just S$13,000 more but offers enough real estate to tempt young couples from the Dolphin; the Atto 3 is a more future-proof purchase because it has enough space to be a comfortable family car. The new BYD hatch might be named after a sea creature, but its larger sibling is likely to make the bigger splash.
BYD Dolphin Dynamic
Power/Torque 95 hp/180 Nm
Battery Type, Capacity Lithium-ion, 44.9 kWh
Charging Time (Type) 7 hours at 7 kW (AC, estimated), 42 minutes from 0 to 80 per cent at 60 kW (DC)
Range 340 km
0-100 kmh 12.3 seconds
Top Speed 150 kmh
Efficiency 15.2 kWh/100 km
Agent E- Auto Pte Ltd
Price S$159,888 including COE
Available Now
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