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The BYD Dolphin surprises with how far Chinese EV design and engineering have come, but it also exposes a few real-world drawbacks in daily use. In this test drive and review, the compact electric hatchback is compared with cars like the MG4, Volkswagen ID.3 and Kia EV3, while the video explains why the Dolphin grew from a China-only supermini into a European-market compact EV.
The review covers range, charging, ride comfort, interior quality, rear-seat space, boot practicality and driver aids, along with some unusual touches like karaoke, NFC access and a screen that rotates. The top-spec version feels impressively premium inside, the suspension is praised for its limousine-like comfort, and the Blade battery setup and LFP technology are discussed in detail. At the same time, poor visibility, slow DC charging and awkward control logic make it less convincing for city parking and longer motorway trips.
Created for viewers searching for BYD Dolphin review, BYD Dolphin test drive, Chinese EV review, compact electric hatchback comparison, EV range test, fast charging review and everyday electric car ownership impressions. It is a useful watch for anyone interested in new electric cars, affordable EVs, urban hatchbacks and real-world car reviews with honest commentary.
The review covers range, charging, ride comfort, interior quality, rear-seat space, boot practicality and driver aids, along with some unusual touches like karaoke, NFC access and a screen that rotates. The top-spec version feels impressively premium inside, the suspension is praised for its limousine-like comfort, and the Blade battery setup and LFP technology are discussed in detail. At the same time, poor visibility, slow DC charging and awkward control logic make it less convincing for city parking and longer motorway trips.
Created for viewers searching for BYD Dolphin review, BYD Dolphin test drive, Chinese EV review, compact electric hatchback comparison, EV range test, fast charging review and everyday electric car ownership impressions. It is a useful watch for anyone interested in new electric cars, affordable EVs, urban hatchbacks and real-world car reviews with honest commentary.
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MotorTranscript
00:00this is the BYD Dolphin, a chinese supermini turned compact EV.
00:04are car brands from china are really a threat to players with established position in europe?
00:09let's find out!
00:55let me explain the jump from b to c segment the Dolphin started out as a china-only supermini
01:02however in order to meet european crash standards it had to have its crumple zones extended this
01:08meant extending the car by a dozen centimeters or so to 429 this puts the dolphin in the same league
01:15as the mg4 or the volkswagen id3 the dolphin also has similar external dimensions to the kia ev3
01:21however byd stresses this is a compact hatchback rather than a b crossover like the recently
01:28launched byd auto 2 which is actually bigger than the dolphin
01:36all this sounds rather complicated because despite being longer than the id3 the dolphin
01:41is narrower than all the cars i mentioned above as far as design is concerned the dolphin was drawn
01:47under the leadership of wolfgang egger the same designer who worked for alfa romeo lancia and
01:54all over the vw group including audi and lamborghini depending on the angle i see a shrunk chrysler
02:00pacifica from the front a bit of sat ibiza from the side and the three-quarter rear is previous gen
02:06hyundai i20 the rear head-on looks the most original mainly thanks to the lighting motif
02:13i don't want this to sound like criticism it's hard to design a car to look like nothing else on
02:17the
02:18market i recall the first byd i saw in 2012 it was an electric people carrier called the e6 and
02:26it
02:26looked like kia and toyota in the early noughties had a baby it wasn't pretty since then byd's design
02:33has made astronomical progress and not just design byd is sometimes described as the biggest car company
02:41you've never heard of it started as a manufacturer of batteries powering all the nokias we carried
02:47around however these days byd overtook long time china car market leader volkswagen and in the last
02:53quarter of 2023 it even sold more evs globally than tesla and something tells me this trend will
02:59continue especially now and of course byd took advantage of the chinese government subsidies
03:06which is why its evs are now levied additional 17 percent on top of the standard european tariffs
03:15depending on the market the dolphin is offered in up to four trim levels and two powertrain options
03:20there's the smaller and less powerful 44.9 kilowatt hour battery version and the larger and more
03:26powerful 60.4 kilowatt hour battery version this is the latter powertrain in top trim it has 204 horsepower
03:34and up to 427 kilometers range in the combined cycle as i'm testing it on the verge of february and
03:40march the daytime temperature is below 10 degrees celsius i'm seeing around 400 kilometers range combined
03:52that's assuming any motorway commute is no longer than a couple of dozen kilometers on longer trips
03:58at speeds exceeding 100 kilometers per hour i estimate the range to be between 250 and 300 kilometers
04:05depending on the speed and weather it's fine for a city runabout especially if fast charging is fast enough
04:17however here we encounter a limitation dc charging peaks at 88 kilowatts which means charging from 10
04:24to 80 percent takes 40 minutes in 2025 this is subpar on the plus side the dolphin is powered by
04:32lfp batteries
04:33which are more efficient more thermally stable and more dense than older battery technology byd calls its setup blade battery
04:42the whole unit is made up of relatively thin cells which make better use of space
04:50the heat pump is standard on the dolphin which i'm sure helps boosting efficiency however the heating
04:57seems to be either badly designed or malfunctioning in order to feel any warmth i have to set the interior
05:05temperature to 27 28 degrees celsius that's like 80 degrees fahrenheit and this barely heats up the cabin
05:14seat warmers on the other hand are too powerful even in the lower of the two settings
05:24the claimed zero to 100 kilometers power time is seven seconds i checked and i was in high sevens
05:30in sport mode and eight seconds in normal mode the road was damp and the traction control intervened
05:37by the way it intervenes too late perhaps in the dry i would get a better result but i don't
05:42think
05:42there's more than half a second to gain here on the other hand in the city the dolphin has sufficient
05:48punch to nip into any space that opens up in traffic and to be among the first to take off
05:54from the lights
05:59the suspension is superb i recently tested a kia ev3 where the suspension was far too stiff in
06:06my opinion probably to conceal the car's heft the dolphin on the other hand goes over bumps like a
06:12limousine i have several bumpy roads and tram tracks around in my area and nothing below a 7 series
06:20or an s-class can go over them with grace nothing except the byd dolphin it's literally like an s
06:29-class
06:33visibility is terrible especially the first impression is bad not only the a pillars are
06:38thick and their base feels too high but also the wing mirrors don't help and in the rearview mirror i
06:44see
06:44a bit of the front seat headrest this is not the right mirror for this car
06:49i like that the 360 camera can be launched with a button on the steering wheel but overall the
06:54visibility is so bad that in my opinion the 360 camera doesn't help much i feel disoriented during
07:00parking maneuvers also the parking sensors seem to be calibrated to warn at the very last moment
07:06after a week with the dolphin i'm gradually getting used to it but for an urban compact hatchback
07:11the dolphin is really bad in this sphere it's a shame because it's very maneuverable but i'm afraid to
07:16take full advantage of its capabilities
07:22up to about 90 kilometers per hour soundproofing is sufficient above that speed wind noise in the
07:29upper parts of the car starts to be noticeable the undercarriage seems to be better sound insulated
07:34but the wind noise is in my opinion annoying enough to avoid longer road trips
07:40also the fast charging parameters don't help either but most ev owners charge at home where the bigger
07:49battery version can charge at 11 kilowatts ac and the smaller battery takes 7 kilowatts
07:59on the plus side the driver aids aren't aggressive unfortunately isa is buried in the settings menu
08:05and disabling it requires four clicks and a scroll adaptive cruise control and lane keeping assist work
08:13well enough but then this is not your default road trip car so these systems aren't critical in everyday use
08:25what is important in everyday use is regen braking and brakes in general there are two regen settings
08:32normal and high in normal setting i can't really feel if there is any recuperation and in high setting yeah
08:41there is some but it's hardly one pedal driving
08:44however with regen set to high i noticed an unpleasant transition from recuperation to friction braking
08:53as you push the brake pedal at first there is only region braking and only after crossing a certain threshold
09:00i feel as if region braking is suddenly turned off and friction brakes are applied
09:07with force which may cause you to stand on the brake pedal even harder thus causing an unpleasant jerk
09:13once the friction brakes are applied they work fine i never felt the car having insufficient stopping power so
09:22that part is okay it's just the transition that doesn't work
09:32the dolphin interior at least in this top trim i'm reviewing today feels very expensive this is the level of
09:40finish i'd expect from an audi a1 bmw one series or a mercedes-benz a-class sure the driver's display
09:46could be bigger and maybe have better graphics and display the data i want rather than keep going to
09:52the blind spot warning but that's a minor gripe the central display is of good quality and for some
09:58reason it turns byd considers this to be such an important feature that it put a dedicated button on the
10:05steering wheel to turn the screen android auto and apple carplay work only in horizontal mode and the
10:12screen will not turn until you exit from android auto to the main menu so what's the turning for i
10:18have
10:18no idea perhaps some apps available in china better work in landscape than portrait mode or the other way
10:26other simply clever stuff includes um karaoke oh yes this is the feature that uh none of the european brands
10:41understand and uh they fear and they have no idea why on earth would you do karaoke in a car
10:49but
10:51i don't know i don't know i'm sitting here on a meadow trying to find a usb port which kind
11:00of tells us
11:02ah okay the mic's on is it oh yeah hello hi so i'm gonna sing for you today and i'm
11:16going to do it
11:16um with the screen in um horizontal mode because there's a polarizer filter on the other camera
11:23so you wouldn't be able to sing along with me but um okay so this one's uh hello yeah this
11:32one's by
11:33billy joel the piano man and you'll see if i can sing and if this mic is any good
11:40i hope i hope i'm not gonna get demonetized i may have to cut this short later in edit
12:11okay so i can only turn up the mic volume but it doesn't seem to do much so
12:16yeah i don't know much about karaoke singing but i think that this is not the best mic for it
12:23still
12:23if you have nothing better to do while you're charging and this is gonna take a while you can
12:30sing along to some popular tunes
12:35a more useful feature is access using an nfc card which can replace your key to open and start the
12:41car
12:41and it fits your wallet just like tesla but this car comes with a start button speaking of buttons
12:48there are many but for some reason the designers couldn't make up their mind whether these will be
12:53buttons or toggle switches so they said yes to both most of these buttons toggles have to be pressed and
13:01flicked upwards the gear selector and the volume knob have some texture but everything else is smooth so
13:07sometimes it's hard to get traction not to mention hitting two buttons at the same time
13:13another feature designed by someone who didn't know what they were doing are the air vents they look
13:18great but there is no indicator telling you whether they're opened or closed there should be a marker
13:24on those nipples in the middle and since the heating barely works it's hard to tell if there's any air
13:30flowing through the air vents the seats are comfortable especially for integrated headrest type
13:35i wouldn't mind lumber support adjustment and since the seats are electrically operated where's the memory
13:41setting function under the screen is a tray for coins and under the button toggles thing there is a cubby
13:49with usbc ports and a 12 volt outlet there is no lockable storage under the armrest only a difficult
13:55to access space on the armrest is a wireless charger and it's better than in most cars meaning
14:01it fails me every several uses rather than working every several uses like in many other cars i review
14:08the glovebox is average size the door pockets could be bigger but my water bottle fits okay
14:16the rear door pockets are bigger than those in the front rear passengers also get an extra cup holder
14:26in the middle above two usbc ports there are no air vents there is no ski hatch the backrest splits
14:3140 60
14:33but there is an armrest with cup holders and the float floor is flat in the middle there is also
14:40a lot of
14:40leg room and okay ish headroom there are two ice fix anchor points in the rear and one on the
14:48front
14:48passenger seat the boot volume is 345 liters the parcel shelf doesn't fit under the double floor the
14:55parcel shelf also keeps falling off the hinge and then it blocks the rear visibility there are no shopping
15:01bag hooks but at least with the floor in its upper position there's a flat loading area when you fold
15:06the
15:06rear seats on the very bottom of the boot there is a small niche for a repair kit the charging
15:11cable
15:12and the vehicle to load adapter take up space under the boot floor as there is no frunk byd has
15:18an app
15:19for the dolphin but i wasn't able to test it because the app can be configured for one user only
15:23and in
15:23this case it's the byd press office byd dolphin prices start at 32 990 euro this test car is the
15:32top
15:32design trim and it costs 34 990 euro
15:39the byd dolphin turned out to be better than i expected but poor visibility limits its city prowess
15:45and slow dc charging doesn't do it any favors outside the city on the other hand compared to the
15:51established european competition the byd has nothing to fear and what do you think about the byd dolphin
15:58let me know in the comment section below if you like my sarcastic down to earth and possibly mildly
16:07amusing car reviews join me every friday at 3 pm central european time and don't forget to subscribe
16:13and like this video as it helps me with the youtube algorithm thanks for watching and i will see you
16:20in the
16:20next one
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