BYD Dolphin - Range, charging & running costs

If you choose the entry-level BYD Dolphin, you get a 94bhp motor and a 44.9kWh battery pack. The mid-spec Boost version changes the motor to a more powerful one, while top-spec Comfort and Design versions come with an even more powerful motor and a 60.4kWh battery pack. 

BYD has its own design for the batteries called “Blade”, as the brand was primarily a battery maker before it branched into making cars. The benefit of this is that the Dolphin in 60.4kWh form has more capacity than rivals like the Fiat 600e. The downside is that this also adds weight, so the electric range figure is on par with lighter rivals since efficiency takes a slight hit. During our testing, we’ve achieved an efficiency rating of around four miles per kWh, which is pretty average for an electric car in 2024.

Electric range, battery life and charge time

The entry-level car has a range of 211 miles on a single charge from its 44.9kWh battery pack, while the bigger 60.4kWh battery affords up to 265 miles of range. The smaller 44.9kWh battery takes a little over seven hours to fully recharge from flat using a 7.4kW home wallbox charger, while the bigger 60.4kWh pack takes around 10 hours. 

The smaller battery pack has a maximum charging speed of 65kW, allowing for a 10 to 80 per cent top-up time of nearly 40 minutes. To maintain a similar 10 to 80 per cent charging time with the bigger 60.4kWh pack, the maximum charging speed is increased to 88kWs.

Tax

As with all electric cars (at least until 2025), annual VED costs nothing, plus company car tax is far more affordable than a petrol or diesel car. Affordable company car tax is one of the biggest incentives for choosing an electric vehicle because Benefit-in-Kind (BiK) rates are currently at two per cent.

Insurance groups

The entry-level Active trim starts in insurance group 23 (one less than the entry-level Renault Megane E-Tech), while the Boost trim goes up to group 31. Both the Comfort and Design trims are in insurance group 33.

Our example insurance quote came back as £764 for the BYD Dolphin Design, which is very high despite its relatively reasonable group 33 rating. This compares unfavourably with the rival Fiat 600e La Prima in group 26, which had a quote of £487 for the same driver.

Depreciation

Our experts predict that the BYD Dolphin will retain around 54 to 58 per cent of its value after three years or 36,000 miles, which is really impressive – a similar MG4 will only hold on to about 44 per cent of its value in the same period. 

To get an accurate valuation for a specific model, check out our valuation tool...