BYD Atto 2 DM-i (2026 - ) Electric review

We don’t have confirmed prices for the Atto 2 DM-i yet, but we expect it to offer bags of tech for about the price of a Dacia Duster hybrid. There are very few other plug-in hybrids of this size available and models like the Toyota CH-R and Mazda MX-30 R-EV are considerably more expensive. The Atto 2 DM-i will come with a choice of two battery sizes, the largest of which has an all-electric range of up to 56 miles so if you can charge at home, firing up the petrol engine could be a rare event. If you’re not keeping the battery topped up, private buyers will likely find a 'self-charging' hybrid alternative like the Renault Captur or Toyota Yaris Cross offer similar mpg without the need for cables. Meanwhile, company car drivers will score a Benefit In Kind advantage for choosing a plug-in hybrid – there are better incentives for going fully electric, though.

BYD may still be a new brand to the UK, but it has now sold over 14m vehicles worldwide, so it has plenty of experience building electric and plug-in hybrid cars alike. Everything but the tyres and glass is manufactured by BYD itself, giving it has total control of all the parts used. It’s still too soon to know for sure how the Atto 2 DM-i will hold up in the long run, but for peace of mind BYD offers a six-year warranty with eight years of cover for the battery and motor.

The Atto 2 DM-i is jam packed with safety systems including driver attention monitoring, emergency braking and a speed limiter, plus you get the really useful stuff like blind spot monitoring and adaptive cruise control as standard. The car also has plenty of airbags so you should be protected should the worst happen. Interestingly, without digging through the various shortcut menus or changing the advanced driver safety assistance system settings, our plug-in hybrid test car didn’t tell us off anywhere near as much as the fully electric version, which would even scold us for something as fundamental as checking our mirrors. However, we are still concerned by how many of the car’s functions are controlled with a touch-screen, requiring you to take your eyes off the road to operate it.

The Atto 2 DM-i has a softer ride than its electric equivalent, with less thudding over speed bumps and road surface imperfections. But it is still roly-poly by nature and far from performance-focused. The general interior ambience is rather uninspiring and lacks the stylish touches you’ll find in many rivals. The dark upholstery has a particularly austere vibe, while the lighter option does at least brighten things up a tad. There’s a smattering of soft touch materials but don’t expect the refinement of premium models like the Lexus LBX. The Atto 2 DM-i has a slightly smaller boot than the electric version, but it’s still a decent size with an adjustable floor height adding flexibility. Rear passengers are well catered for with a reasonable amount of space for a compact car and there’s no central bump in the floor for the middle passenger to contend with. Out on the road the car does let some wind noise in at higher speeds, but we rarely heard the petrol engine kick in during our entire test drive test drive.

There are two trim levels: Active and Boost. All cars get a large digital driver display, though it isn’t the clearest with its tiny fonts and cluttered layout. There are a few physical buttons but like models from Leapmotor and Jaecoo most features are controlled via the central touch-screen. Rear parking sensors and a rear camera also come as standard along with the ability to lock and unlock the car using your phone as a key. Upgrading to the Boost model you’ll get goodies like a 360-camera, electrically adjustable heated front seats, a heated steering wheel, wireless phone charging, a panoramic roof and vehicle-to-load (V2L) technology allowing you to charge other devices using the car’s battery. Additionally, you’ll get wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, Google-powered built-in maps and by the time the Atto 2 DM-i arrives in spring next year they’ll be over the air updates with an AI voice assistant.

Extra tech isn’t the only reason to upgrade to the Boost model as this higher trim gets more power and a bigger battery, upping the all-electric range from around 25 miles to 56 miles. This was the model we tried and BYD claims with the battery charged and a full tank the Atto 2 DM-i Boost could manage just over 600 miles before needing to refuel. Though the hybrid system is complicated from a technical standpoint the Atto 2 DM-i is smooth to drive, so you can simply sit back and let the car work out the most efficient way to combine the electric motors with the engine. You also have the option to put the car into EV only mode, which would be useful for local town driving so you to save your petrol for longer journeys. The DM-i version of the Atto 2 was noticeably peppier and nicer to drive than the long-range electric version of the car we drove for comparison. It still wasn’t especially fast, mind, but there’s more than enough power for daily driving and its laid back, quiet, and fuss-free approach should make it easy to live with.