BYD Atto 3 2022 Review

The 2022 BYD Atto 3 is one of the cheapest EVs on the road, but with pricing starting at $44,381 plus on-road costs it’s still nudging towards the premium space of the broader new-car market.

While the temptation is to compare it with the MG ZS EV that undercuts it marginally on price, the amount of standard equipment in the Atto 3 will in some buyers’ minds position it against more premium offerings.

Of course, the big thing the BYD lacks is familiarity. BYD may be a big deal in China, but it’s unknown to most Australians.

That lack of brand recognition often affects early acceptance, although rules in the EV sphere are regularly being broken, especially in an era when EV demand comfortably outstrips supply.

We’re not convinced many will like the spelling out of the acronym – Build Your Dreams – across the back of the car. It certainly doesn’t have the lure of a three-pointed star or the majesty of a graceful animal…

But the BYD Atto 3 fights back with features – lots of them.

Included in the entry-level price are 18-inch alloy wheels, smart key entry, an electric tailgate, a (tiny) digital instrument cluster, single-zone ventilation (don’t be fooled by the separate adjustments on each side of the car!), electric-adjust and heated front seats, adaptive cruise control, ambient lighting and seat trim that does a terrific job of looking like leather (it isn’t and the smell rams that home).

There’s also a panoramic sunroof that opens to fresh air or covers up completely with a retractable cover.

The audio system is an eight-speaker unit that is okay but lacks depth. Fine for the price point but not up to the standard of Tesla or Polestar, for example.

Options include exterior colours – white is standard, but grey, blue and red require a further $700 – and a larger battery pack for $3000, which increases the capacity from 50kWh to 60kWh. The red body colour is also only available on this extended-range model.

Each comes standard with a vehicle-to-load (V2L) feature that looks like a power board that attaches to the charging port on the driver’s side.

There’s also an onboard data SIM that is active for the life of the car to download software updates.

Additional features made possible by the SIM – such as streaming audio – will be operational for two years, at which time you’ll need to take out a subscription.

By comparison, Tesla only gives buyers one month. As with Tesla though, some of the Atto 3’s appeal lies in its software and the functionality embedded in the screen.

There’s an array of apps for basic functions such as the phone and audio settings, although it’s curious that AM/FM radio (which is housed in the Radio app) and digital radio (under the DAB+ app) are in different locations.

Yep, there’s the occasional whiff of weirdness, although BYD Australia says tweaks will be made via over-the-air software updates; there’s one menu called DiLink, for example, which will soon be renamed BYD Entertainment.

Dive deeper into some of the menus and there are Tesla-like surprise-and-delight features.

Ambient lighting can be adjusted for intensity and colour and you can even get it dancing to the beat of the music for your own little rolling disco.

You can change the indicator sound from mere clicking, although we only lasted a few turns before disabling what sounds like a reminder that intermission has ended at the theatre.

As for servicing back-up, official BYD servicing can be done at one of 10 BYD official service centres where capped price servicing is offered. Servicing is required every 12 months or 20,000km and prices vary between $190.37 and $661.32.

There are also 30 MyCar service centres set up to service BYDs, although pricing varies slightly at those.

The BYD Atto 3 is backed by a six-year/150,000km warranty, although there are exceptions (the multimedia system only gets three years and 60,000km of coverage, for example).

The battery gets a separate eight-year, 160,000km warranty.

BYD has clearly wanted to distance the 2022 BYD Atto 3 from the mainstream masses with an interior lavished with intricate attention to detail and interesting finishes.

There are sweeps and ridges, patterned silver finishes, various leather-look hues with contrasting stitching, elasticised ‘guitar strings’ for the door pockets and a soft-touch velour-like padding that looks like the stomach of a whale.

All of which has us wondering if BYD is pushing things a tad too far. Some Polestar-like restraint may lift the overall ambience.

There’s also the occasional oversight to the attention to detail. The silver plastic styling grab handle for the door has an ugly join line along its upper edge, for example.

Okay, so we’re being picky and it’s worth highlighting that it’s in another postcode to the grey-on-grey typically found at this price point.

Seats are nicely padded up front and those in the back get good foot space courtesy of the flat floor. Headroom is just okay and knee-room dependent on the generosity of those up front.

Despite acres of spare space under the bonnet, the lack of a binnacle makes it useless for storage. Instead, there’s 440 litres of space in the boot, some of it under a removeable false floor.

There’s a dearth of buttons in the 2022 BYD Atto 3, at least on the centre console.

On the steering wheel, however, there is a more traditional smattering of controls for the audio system, cruise control and some active safety settings.

You can also flip the centre screen directly from the steering wheel, and there are some buttons and switches surrounding the gear selector.

But for most functions you’ll be delving into the centre screen – and it pays to know your way around.

There are four ways to make music come out of the speakers, for example. You can choose Radio, or DAB+ or Bluetooth Music or Media Center, the latter giving you some of that radio functionality as well as the ability to play videos via the SD card slot.

There’s also a Camera app that allows you to take photos looking out the front of the car. Plus, that forward camera also records video vision on a loop system that gives you a library of your week’s driving (it’ll eventually record over older footage).

But BYD says the Android-based screen will soon have a whole lot more functionality, including access to additional apps that can be downloaded.

It’s also due to be upgraded to have Apple CarPlay and Android Auto functionality within months. It’s desperately needed because the current phone functionality is only basic and there are no embedded maps, so you’re relying on your phone for directions.

From a safety perspective there are seven airbags, although the crash structure of the car hasn’t been tested by ANCAP (it’s apparently being tested now by Euro NCAP).

However, the autonomous emergency braking (AEB) system only works up to 45km/h, something that makes it tough to achieve a five-star rating.

Above that speed there’s only forward collision warning, which we found too sensitive. Parked cars in a suburban environment can regularly trigger unwanted beeping.

There’s no shortage of other warnings either, many of which are spoken in an authoritative female voice.

Go to open your door when traffic is streaming past, for example, and you’re warned: “Please be careful of cars coming behind when opening the door.”

The 2022 BYD Atto 3 is built on a bespoke EV architecture rather than a traditional internal combustion engine (ICE) platform converted to electric, but curiously the single electric motor drives the front wheels.

Most time when car-makers are starting from scratch they send the drive to the rear.

In the case of the Atto 3 there are compromises, predominantly when it comes to getting the power to the ground.

Unleash the full 150kW of power and 310Nm of torque, and the front wheels will chirp and skip as weight is transferred to the rear.

It’s exacerbated on a wet road, at which point you don’t want to be too vigorous with your right foot.

Your choice of drive modes will also impact how much of that grunt you can get to the bitumen.

In Eco, for example, it pulls back the peak power subtly. Combined with less intensity to prods of the throttle, it makes things more relaxed.

At the other end of the spectrum is Sport mode, which is quicker to get the full 310Nm thrusting. A power gauge within the compact but busy instrument cluster also suggests it at times makes up to 160kW, which is 10kW above the claimed peak.

There’s a Normal mode splitting the two and it’s the one we relied on most.

There are two levels of regen, both of them mild, although the more aggressive High mode means less braking down gentle gradients.

The claimed range is 480km and we saw that predicted on the instrument cluster. But once under way it was clear the reality would be less.

While our day of driving wasn’t representative of how customers will use an Atto 3 – we had the ancillaries running regularly when stationary and there were some spirited country road attacks – we also managed to rack up many representative kilometres.

Our early estimates suggest you’d be able to get something like 400km from the Extended Range battery pack.

Energy use hovers around the 16.0kWh/100km WLTP claim.

Charging can be done at up to 7kW on an AC wallbox charger. That suggests a full charge time of about 7.5 hours for the Standard model with its 50kWh battery or nine hours for the Extended with its 60kWh battery.

Charging from a regular power point would take about 22 hours and 27 hours respectively.

The Standard model can also be charged at up to 70kW using a DC charger. There are no claims for a 10-80 per cent charge, but it should be somewhere around half an hour. The Extended model can take up to 80kW of DC electricity and should yield a similar charge time.

The Atto 3 also comes with V2L functionality, allowing the car to power other 230V devices – or even charge another EV (albeit slowly).

The vehicle-to-load function uses a four-outlet power board attached to the charging port. It can provide a combined 3.6kW of power, easily providing enough power for a campsite or to power fridges and lights in the event of a blackout.

The 2022 BYD Atto 3 is surprisingly supple in the way it deals with bumps. And with the softness comes decent initial recovery from bumps.

Throw in a calm cabin and it makes for easy around-town running.

But you don’t need much of a bend or even an aggressive lane change to realise the emphasis has been on comfort over athleticism and excitement.

There’s a sponginess and squidginess that results in some leaning and lurching once the pace is dialled up. The steering is mushy and with a fairly slow ratio (not such a bad thing given the leaning if you’re aggressive with the tiller), plus the tyres don’t convey much in the way of precision.

Speaking of which, it’s not often we haven’t heard of a brand of tyre, but the Atlas Batman hoops on our car are certainly something fresh.

As mentioned previously, the fronts often struggle to contain all 310Nm so short-lived yelps can be a regular accompaniment, more so in Sport mode.

Grips levels are okay, but ramp up the pace and the limitations soon become clear.

Dial everything back and the BYD settles into its leisurely way of doing things – and does it in a relaxed kind of way. It’s more suburban cruiser than corner carver.

But competent rivals such as the Kia Niro and EV6 show there’s room for improvement dynamically with the Atto 3.

The 2022 BYD Atto 3 is a long way from perfect, and its biggest shortfall is in the way it tackles corners and gets its power to the ground.

Sure, it delivers on electric range and behaves itself in the suburbs, but we’d like to have the same whiffs of wow factor on show elsewhere embedded into its dynamics.

Sidestep that and the bones of a good EV are there. The Atto 3 is a sensible size with a list of equipment that would embarrass many luxury cars and a price tag that puts it at the pointy end of an EV field.

And there’s enough bling and standard fare to help propel it beyond the EV competition it hovers around on price.

At the very least, it’s fired an electrified rocket across the bows of those dabbling in the circa-$50K EV market (most of which have been mediocre at best).

The BYD Atto 3 at least arrives with a point of difference and some tech-focused flair.

While the company says it has thousands of early buyers, there will no doubt be work to convince many to give the Chinese newcomer a go.

How much does the BYD Atto 3 cost?
Price: $44,381 – Standard, $47,381 – Extended (plus on-road costs)
Available: Now
Powertrain: Permanent magnet synchronous motor
Output: 150kW/310Nm
Transmission: Single-speed reduction gear
Battery: Lithium-iron phosphate 50kWh – Standard, 60kWh – Extended
Range: 320km – Standard, 420km – Extended (WLTP)
Energy consumption: 16.0kWh/100km (WLTP)
Safety rating: Not tested