BYD Dolphin (2023 - ) Electric review

As with so many other compact electric vehicles, the Dolphin will likely prove very cheap to run. Every version is 100 per cent electric – there’s no hybrid or petrol version to muddy the waters – but they aren’t all equal. Not only is the Dolphin offered with a choice of different electric motors, but there’s also a range of battery sizes too. With the smallest the distance you can cover on a charge will, inevitably, be less but the battery will be smaller and therefore cheaper to top up. Replenishing the bigger battery will be more expensive, but you can go further between charges. Pays your money, makes your choice. As with all electric cars, prices will depend on where you can charge – doing it at home is generally cheaper than public charging but choosing the battery that suits your needs is the order of the day. If you’re only going to do short journeys, to which the Dolphin is well suited, the smaller battery will suffice.

BYD’s UK reliability record is something of an unknown here but the company isn’t entirely a bolt from the blue. The brand’s global sales are huge and BYD builds batteries for Tesla and has a technical partnership with Toyota in its home market, which helps confidence levels. Having said that we were a little concerned at a lack of consistency in the reported range between start-ups, the car at one point seemingly ‘losing’ as much as 10 per cent of its battery charge while parked overnight and unexpectedly leaving us ‘on fumes’ until we could plug in and charge up.

BYD might not have much of a reputation in Europe as yet, but the brand is keen to emphasise its safety credentials. For a kick-off the Dolphin includes a 360-degree camera system included as standard, so there’s really no excuse for low-speed bumps. And there’s assistance technology to help you out on the motorway, too, with standard-fit autonomous emergency braking to hit the brakes automatically if the driver doesn’t respond to a hazard ahead. Lane departure prevention technology is also standard, along with something called Rear Cross Traffic Brake, which is designed to prevent you from reversing out into oncoming traffic. Adaptive cruise control, which maintains a safe distance to the car in front on the motorway, is also standard. That the only bit of assistance tech not standard on all models are the front parking sensors is a sign of just how generously equipped it otherwise is.

One of the Dolphin’s greatest strengths is its ride comfort, which is little short of remarkable. Soft suspension makes it incredibly smooth on the motorway, although the body isn’t very well controlled meaning it can sway in corners or dip and dive under braking on twisty roads. Around town the ride is more composed, and the springs soak up most undulations admirably. As a result, the BYD is more than a match for the MG4, and streets ahead of the GWM Ora 03. The caveat being that the base model gets a more basic suspension system that we’ve not tried yet, so we’ll have to see if that matches the Boost, Comfort and Design versions. More generally the seating position feels good and has plenty of adjustment but if we’re moaning we’d say the angle of the windscreen and chunky bodywork blocks your view at junctions, the haunting pedestrian warning is a bit intrusive and there’s quite a bit of tyre roar at speed. Practicality is also an issue – there’s plenty of space in the back seat but the boot has a very high floor and not as much space as you’d hope.

The centrepiece of the Dolphin’s cabin is the huge central touch-screen, which seems to ‘float’ above the dash and rotates at the touch of a button, allowing it to be portrait- or landscape-oriented. The screen is massive, measuring 12.8 inches from corner to corner, and it uses software clearly designed to look like the Android Auto smartphone integration system. In truth, it’s a cheap facsimile and nowhere near as slick or as stylish but it still works fairly well, and the big screen is clear. Most owners will be happier plugging their phones in and using the Apple CarPlay and Android Auto smartphone integration. A pity only the top spec gets wireless charging, though. Unfortunately you can’t use those systems to replace the digital instrument display, which is small and fiddly. Miniscule icons, a mess of colours and tiny lettering combine to make the display tough to read, although the main info like battery charge and speed are reasonably easy to spot.

The BYD Dolphin is offered with a choice of battery packs and electric motors. The smallest battery pack is 44.9kWh, and it’s available with either a 95 or 176 horsepower motor, depending on whether you choose the Active or Boost versions. If you want the more luxurious Comfort or Design variants you get the larger 60.4kWh battery and a 204-horsepower motor as standard. Naturally, the more powerful versions will be the most desirable for many, offering up to 265 miles of range, while the 204-horsepower motor offers plenty of performance. The Dolphin never feels especially fast, but the most potent versions are pretty brisk. Brisk enough, in fact, to have the tyres scrabbling if you need to pull smartly out of a junction in slippery conditions, the traction control taking longer than we’d like to gather things up. This adds to the sense of a few rough edges yet to be sorted out, the vague steering, wobbly ride and rather grabby brakes all suggesting BYD needs to benchmark its set-up against some European rivals before releasing cars into the market here. One other thing to note is a relatively slow charging time when plugged into fast chargers, which comes as a surprise given BYD’s signature ‘Blade’ battery tech and a disappointment if it means longer hooked up than you would be in many rivals.