Can the BYD Atto 2 EV compete on price?

The Independent

Driving BYD Atto 2 - the sixth BYD model to launch in two years Source: Steve Fowler, BYD

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00:00In just two short years, BYD have bought five cars to the UK market. We've had the Atto 3,

00:20the Dolphin, the Seal, the Seal U, DMI, big SUV, plug-in hybrid, and the C-Line 7. Now this,

00:28it's a small SUV, the Atto 2. It's coming to the UK probably around September time. And

00:35you know what? I think it's probably their best looking car yet. That's the thing about

00:39BYD. Every new car just gets better and better. Clearly, they need to tell you what the car

00:44is. There's a big BYD logo at the front there. Lots of SUV styling cues, as you would expect.

00:51So you've got wheel arch extensions there, these bits down there, chunky bits to tell you

00:55it's an SUV. One thing I do like actually, if you look at how the door opens, the door

01:00opens so you don't get dirty trousers when you get out. See, they go down really low,

01:05the doors. That's really quite clever. Charging port at the front there, telling you that it's

01:09designed by BYD. Don't know who else would design it, but there you go. And you know what I think?

01:15Don't tell anybody. There's a whiff of Mercedes around this design. Look at Mercedes SUVs. It's

01:20not that different. Let's have a look around the back as well. See what I mean? It's got a definite

01:25whiff of Mercedes around it. You've got these LED lights, which are a double-knock light in the

01:30figure eight, which is lucky in China. And the boot. There you go. 400 litres or there or thereabouts.

01:40Got a split level floor. You can put that down there. The seats fold flat. Now, one of the really

01:45interesting things about this car technically is the battery is a really advanced blade battery,

01:50they call it. And this is the third generation of their EV platform. So it has real benefits

01:54when you sit inside. It's also called cell to body, which means that the whole battery structure is

02:00part of the body of the car, which is great for noise, vibration and harshness, which they say is

02:06something that really matters in a car these days. It's just the buzz and the noise that really tires

02:11you out when you're driving. And also very important for safety. Right. Let's have a look in the

02:15back. So this is important for a family car. And look at this flat floor down here. That's because

02:24of that clever blade battery system, a really low floor and loads of room back here. For a car that

02:31is quite small, this is only 4.3 metres long, this car. There's so much space in here. That's one of the

02:37joys of EVs. Loads of headroom, even with a panoramic sunroof. And yeah, seems pretty comfortable

02:45with a good few out. I reckon your kids or your family, they're going to be really happy in the

02:50back here. Now it's time to get in the front and go for a drive.

03:02Let's start as we always should do with the numbers and the numbers are a bit off because we're going

03:08to get a slightly different version of this car when it comes to the UK. But this one has a 45.1

03:15kilowatt hour battery, which when you do the conversion kilometres to miles gives you a range

03:20of around 193 miles. Not fantastic. We should get, I understand, a 50 kilowatt hour battery. So it's

03:28probably going to push that range up to over 200 miles. When it comes to charging, there is fast charging,

03:35but it's not that fast. It's 65 kilowatt charging. So we will probably get a charge from 10 to 80%. I

03:43think it's around 37 minutes. Yeah, I'm a little bit disappointed in those figures. We also need to

03:48talk about price. We'll come back to price in the end because this isn't a cheap car. Now, what BYD

03:55will tell you is you get so much kit. You get this lovely 13 inch touchscreen. You get a display here that

04:02the touchscreen actually normally revolves. Sadly, it doesn't twist around in Spain, but you've got

04:08voice control, which works really, really well. You could say, Hi BYD, put my heated seat on.

04:19And there it is. It puts my heated seat on for me. But I can open the sunroof,

04:24or the panoramic sunroof blind, do all sorts of things with voice control. This screen also has

04:30YouTube on it and some games. So if you are stuck charging from 10 to 80% in 37 minutes,

04:36or thereabouts, you can watch a video on YouTube or play some games, which is good news. It's also

04:43got vehicle to load capability, which means you can plug something into the car and have your own

04:50barbecue outside or your coffee machine or whatever you fancy. You can just plug anything in. In terms of

04:57other technology, I've got a camera here watching me. There's all sorts of safety and driver assistance

05:03features. The camera will keep telling me to keep my eyes on the road if I'm looking away too much.

05:08There are beeps and bongs if I go too near the, there we go, too near the white lines in the middle.

05:14Or if I do stray a little bit over the speed limit, it'll beep and bong at me then. But what impresses me

05:20here is the quality, lots of touch, surfaces that are really nicely soft when you try and squidge them

05:28down, good visibility around, nice big mirrors, which I'm a sucker for a big mirror. And generally,

05:35it does look and feel quite premium in here. Got vegan leather on the seats, which is an important

05:41thing these days. Every car has electric seats. So you are going to be paying for this car,

05:47but you're going to get an awful lot for it. Let's talk about how this car drives. And I have to say,

05:54I'm really, really impressed. Now, it's another example of how each BYD that comes along is better

05:59than the last one. And I've been driving this around on some pretty ropey Spanish roads and it rides

06:06really nicely, which is probably the most important bit when you're talking about a family SUV. It's no

06:12sports car, but acceleration is swift enough. It's around 7.5, 7.9 seconds, or it's a 60 something in

06:19that region, but it's not a sports car. The steering feels comfortable enough and connected enough,

06:26but it's comfortable. The view out is pretty good. Nice, large rear screen, nice big mirrors there.

06:34It's comfortable. It goes around corners securely enough. And I would find this very easy to live

06:41with, particularly with some of the clever little functions, just using the voice control or using

06:47three fingers to change the temperature on the touchscreen. Some clever, really thoughtful little

06:54touches. Nice storage space in the front here, wireless charging for your mobile phone. It's a proper

07:01posh little car.

07:09So the BYD Atto 2, should you buy one? Now I alluded to price earlier on and although this car isn't

07:16going on sale in the UK till about September, it'll have a slightly bigger battery than this one and

07:20there'll be another probably 60 kilowatt hour battery that'll do 250, 260 miles. But the standard car will

07:27probably cost, I understand, in a region of £30,000. Not a lot, but when you can get a Citroen EC3

07:35Aircross for under £23,000 that is bigger than this car, probably a little bit more comfortable than

07:42this car, might not be as posh or have quite the technology that this car has, but this car does

07:50look a little bit expensive. That's the only disappointment I've got with this car. Otherwise,

07:56it's little luxury and I love little luxury, but I just wish little luxury was a bit cheaper.

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