BYD Dolphin Design long-term test: compact EV is a near-perfect family runaround

Verdict

It’s hard to believe that BYD has been selling cars in the UK for such a short time. I found the BYD Dolphin an excellent package that combined practicality, tech and a city-friendly drive at a hugely attractive price. 

• Mileage: 6,017
• Efficiency: 3.9mi/kWh

You can learn an awful lot when you go through the photos on your phone. And what the past few months’ snaps have taught me is that the BYD Dolphin wasted no time in becoming part of the family. 

So alongside all the photos I’ve taken to remind me of family days out, my daughter’s football team and her theatrical triumphs, my photo stream is also full of snaps of the Dolphin. Since Auto Express snapper Pete Gibson took the first pictures of our BYD in March, I’ve taken more photos on trips to National Trust properties, at various sports tournaments and even at recycling centres in Sussex. The sheer range of locations and activities shows just how integral the car became to our family life. 

Mind you, that should perhaps come as no surprise, because even before it had turned a wheel, the Dolphin already satisfied most of the items on the wish list for this three-person family living in south-west London. 

Size? A perfect mix of easy park-ability with decent five-door practicality. On the road? Plenty of performance, but married to a ride that cushioned the dreadful road surfaces I encountered daily. And range? No problem. Officially the car can do 265 miles on a charge, but I never needed more than that. The most I did between top-ups was about 200 miles, and that was easily managed. 

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Come to think of it, ‘easy’ is a word I have no hesitation in using to describe life with the Dolphin. True, what I wanted from the car played very much to its strengths, but my motoring life has a lot in common with that of most British families: lots of pottering around the local area during the week, but with regular longer trips at the weekend. 

The BYD performed superbly. The combination of an easy EV transmission with a smooth ride made it a great city car; and while there was more road noise than I’d like on the motorway, it wasn’t a deal breaker – thanks to my penchant for loud music. 

The practicality was fine, too, with plenty of room inside for me, my wife and our 10-year-old daughter. And when we shared lifts, we were able to get three kids across the back seat easily. I was also impressed by how much I could squeeze in the boot on trips to the tip.

Plus, any fears I had about a Chinese car not matching European rivals for quality soon vanished. True, the Dolphin had only just ticked past a mere 6,000 miles when it went back to BYD, but despite the trials of family life, there was no sign of any problems. 

I won’t pretend the car was perfect, but there was nothing here I’d call a fault – just things that could do with a slight tweak. For example, the lane-keeping assistant tugs at the steering wheel a little too sharply, and the adaptive cruise could respond a little more smoothly to changes in traffic speed. 

My biggest bugbear, though, was the restricted visibility. It occasionally made pulling out of junctions tricky, but also
meant both front wheels bore the scars of parking encounters with the kerb. I was too embarrassed to take a photo of them, though. 

BYD Dolphin Design: second report

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Motorway jaunts reveal noisy foible with EV supermini

• Mileage: 5,302
• Efficiency: 3.9mi/kWh

Our BYD wasted no time slotting into the Pringle family’s generally urban life, but over the past few months the time came for the Dolphin to face some tougher tests. 

In particular, that meant the car spreading its wings (yes, this Dolphin has wings), and heading out of suburban south- west London, onto the M25 and beyond. I’d expected my main concerns to be about a reduced range at motorway speeds and possibly having to use public charge points, but in fact neither was an issue. Instead, there was a bigger problem: noise. 

It was something that was immediately obvious the first time I headed up the slip road onto the M3 on my way out of London. As the speedo swept past 50mph, my thumb instinctively responded to the crescendo of wind noise from around the A-pillars by dialling up the stereo volume using the steering wheel-mounted control.  

The noise isn’t excessive – and, as my 10-year-old daughter will tell you, I have a taste in music that can be used to overwhelm most other noise sources in a car. But the differences in sound level between 30 and 60mph are acutely obvious in an electric car, which is inevitably near silent around town. Unless I’ve turned the radio on, that is. 

The result is that I’m going through something akin to a Pavlov’s Dog experience. Just as the laboratory animal would start to salivate as soon as it heard a bell, I instinctively dial up some particularly loud tunes as soon as I see a blue road sign. And then turn up the volume, too. 

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It’s a practice that has served me well over the past few weeks, when the Dolphin has been pressed into service to whisk me to sports tournaments in Cambridge and Marlborough, on top of my regular trips to visit family on the Sussex coast. 

I’ve come to regard the road name as an instruction to play a certain type of music. So, whether it’s been the M3, M4, or M25, the common theme has been M for metal. With Motorhead, Metallica, Megadeth and (Iron) Maiden often my ensemble of choice. 

And given that I’m rarely happier than when listening to loud music – especially when returning from a sports tournament with a trophy on the back seat – I’ve been perfectly happy driving long distances in the BYD. Apart from the wind noise, it’s pretty much good news all round, with a decent ride and a sure-footed feel at 70mph. 

If there is weakness, it’s that some of the tech could be better. In particular, I’ve already stopped using the lane-keeping assistant, because it tugs away at the steering wheel too much. Far from removing stress, it makes me feel anxious. At least the adaptive cruise control system is better. 

Naturally, efficiency takes a hit at motorway speeds, but 200-mile round trips are dispatched without even a hint of range anxiety. And my overall efficiency remains at 3.9 miles per kWh. Plus, I’ve still never had to use a public charger. Even when I did back-to-back day trips to Eastbourne, the battery was easily replenished overnight. 

Those journeys to the south coast have also shown off an unexpected practical side to the car. My main job down there is to help clear the family home after my mother’s death, meaning several trips to local tips. And it turns out that the Dolphin is something of a Tardis: it’s amazing just how much rubbish you can pack in. 

It may look small from the outside, but the rear seats drop down to leave an almost flat load bay, while there are no major intrusions into the space. The result is a nice, straight-sided shape I can pack right to the edge. It’s another way that the BYD just works. No fuss, no bother; and that’s music to my ears. 

BYD Dolphin Design: first report

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Electric supermini gets the seal of approval from Andy

• Mileage: 3,582
• Efficiency: 4.0mi/kWh

There’s no better indication of how seriously BYD is taking its assault on the UK market than walking into one of the brand’s new showrooms. Which is what I did when collecting my new Dolphin fleet car. 

BYD Milton Keynes is a gleaming place that sits happily alongside franchises for premium brands on the city’s outskirts. The car park is packed with brand-new examples of the Chinese firm’s handiwork, not least because 10 Dolphins have just been delivered on the morning of our visit. 

True, it’s a Tesla Model 3-rivalling BYD Seal that takes centre stage in the showroom, but although I’m here to pick up BYD’s smallest car, I’m not short-changed on the experience. 

That’s a thought that constantly comes to mind as salesperson Sophie Barrella talks me through the Dolphin. This may be BYD’s cheapest model in the UK at the moment, but it’s still packed with kit and tech – and it’s something of a bargain. We’re getting a model in top-spec Design trim, but you’ll struggle to find a pure-electric supermini, even in its most basic trim, that can match the BYD’s sub-£32k price tag. It’s little wonder that more than half of Dolphin buyers are choosing this top trim level. 

For that money, we’re getting lots of big-car kit as standard. So, Sophie explains, the two-tone paintwork, three-colour alloys and rear privacy glass are all included in the price. As are vegan leather trim, electric adjustment and heating on the front seats, a 12.8-inch rotating touchscreen and – crucially for an EV – a heat pump. 

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BYD’s tech game is strong, too, and the car’s spec list is full of safety features and driver-assistance systems. They include Adaptive Cruise Control, Front and Rear Cross Traffic Alert, Predictive Collision Warning and Traffic Sign Recognition. I’m delighted that the overall safety package adds up to a five-star rating from Euro NCAP. For a family man coming to a car from a relatively unknown brand, such independent assessments provide very important reassurance. 

Although BYD is new to the UK market, opting to run a Dolphin wasn’t a shot in the dark. I can remember my colleague John McIlroy thoroughly enjoying his time in the company’s Atto 3 last year, and the Dolphin received the coveted 2024 Car of the Year award from our sister brand Carbuyer. My car’s first appearance in Auto Express came when it comfortably beat the new Fiat 600e in a twin test. 

Given those resounding endorsements, it will probably come as no surprise that, since I collected the Dolphin, it’s slotted into my everyday life extremely well. 

At the most basic level, it’s a compact five-door hatchback, which is ideal for me, my wife and our 10-year-old daughter. It gives us a lovely blend of family-friendly space and practicality within parking space-friendly dimensions. That small size means it also copes well with the demands of London traffic. I’ve already decided to leave the car in its Eco driving mode, but that still gives me more than enough performance. Plus, the soft suspension set-up copes well with the frequently appalling road surfaces I have to encounter. 

So far, we’ve been confined to mostly suburban journeys, and we haven’t come close to seeing how accurate the claimed 265 miles of range on a charge is. The car is currently returning bang on 4.0mi/kWh, so one charge can usually see us through a week’s driving comfortably. Longer journeys and bigger tests are still to come. 

Perhaps my biggest frustration so far is that I live in south west London, but had to go to Milton Keynes to collect my car. However, even that is being attended to by BYD. Its dealer network is expanding all the time, with two brand-new outlets much closer to my home. The company’s plan is to have 40 retailers up and running by the end of June, and twice that by the end of the year. 

*Insurance quote from AA (0800 107 0680) for a 42-year-old in Banbury, Oxon, with three points.