BYD Atto 3 SUV (2023 - ) Electric review

This is the biggest reason to buy the Atto 3. Simply, it is very good value, with a similar price tag to much, much smaller electric cars, and relatively good monthly finance payments. There are three trim levels with not much cost between them, and the lowest includes a lot of standard kit. If you’ve got off-street parking and a dual-stage electricity tariff, you’ll be able to charge it at home for next to nothing during your off-peak hours. That won’t be enough for a full recharge but if you’re religious about plugging it in every night you’ll always have at least 100 of the 200-odd mile range at a very low cost. Note that the first 500 owners get 1,000-miles worth of free charging at Shell Recharge stations, too. And it makes huge sense for company car drivers who’ll pay almost no tax on it, ditto city drivers who’ll be congestion-charge exempt.

Too early for any owner feedback, but there’s a four-year/70,000-mile total warranty, 12-year bodywork guarantee and the battery is covered for eight years. Bear in mind BYD has a jaw-dropping 49,000 engineers working across its cars, phone technology, software, electric buses and trucks, and a staggering 10,000 engineers working on battery technology alone. So, we feel fairly confident in saying that whatever might go wrong with your Atto 3 it won’t be the battery.

The Atto 3 has advanced ‘blade battery’ technology that makes the cells of the battery an integral part of the car’s structure so they are far less likely to be damaged on impact, or heat up and catch fire. A safe battery, then. All models get automatic emergency braking, rear-collision warning, a rear cross-traffic alert which is handy for reversing out onto busy roads and a system of warning sounds, graphics and interventions by the car if you stray out of your lane. Additional safety aids on higher trims include blind-spot detection (shame it’s not standard), automatic vehicle hold, information about the speed limit and hill descent control for, er, all that tricky off-roading you’ll be doing in this suburban family car. Like much on this car, on paper it looks impressive, but it doesn’t inspire much confidence when you drive - the steering feels vague and the brakes provide little feedback regarding what they’re doing, so although there’s no issue with stopping, you do momentarily wonder…

It’s a very spacious SUV, with a deep boot and lots of light and room in the rear, thanks to that huge panoramic sunroof. Part of the comfort is due to the slightly soggy ride, spongey steering and even spongier brakes. You feel like you’re driving a trifle. But passengers will no doubt delight in all the room, which comes at such a comparatively low price for an electric car.

There are lots of toys, gadgets and gizmos, so the sense of value for money is strong, and makes the Atto 3 a fun, if slightly wacky, place in which to pass the time. First up is that giant tablet, in the manner of Tesla’s, although in a literal twist it spins from horizontal to vertical and back at the touch of a graphic. We know not why, but it looks good on TikTok. Also, unlike Tesla some functions remain the preserve of actual switches, thankfully. You get a vegan leather interior, big glass sunroof, phone mirroring, a wireless charging tray, atmospheric lighting in different colours, and three strings forming cargo netting for the door bins, which link to the speakers and mimic a guitar. Just for the hell of it. BYD says the design is muscular, in order to make the car appear “fit”. We think the lines on the fake leather in the dash is reminiscent of the flayed muscles on the Bodyworks exhibitions, but that might just be us. It certainly feels weird to prod.

BYD claims a maximum range of 260 miles. We didn’t cover that distance on our test route but the forecasted range seemed to accurately reflect the distance covered, it was freezing outside, we had the heating on and weren’t hanging about. Given, however, that the battery is meant to be state of the art tech, we’re a little disappointed it isn’t closer to a 300-mile range, which customers are coming to expect from medium SUVs. It is, however, the character of this car that is off-putting in the end. The brakes and steering lack the dynamic finesse of cars designed for European drivers, who tend to drive on twisty roads and are in a permanent hurry to be somewhere else. You feel uncertain about how long it might take the car to halt, or exactly how tightly you just turned into a corner. If, however, budget overrides such concerns, you are rarely in a rush, or don’t much enjoy driving for driving’s sake, then go ahead and buy this rather strange vision of the future.