23/03/2024 The baby of the BYD eletric car range is the five door Dolphin. The compact five seater may lack heritage but in a very short space of time the Chinese brand has grown to become the largest electric car maker in the world with over 600,000 employees… oh and it helps that the Dolphin is very competitively priced starting at just over €25,000.
The front-wheel drive Dolphin is one of a three model ‘Ocean’ series. It has been styled to appeal to European tastes – no surprise as the firm has some of Europes top designers on its payroll. The carfits four adults in comfort and five at a squeeze. The boot is modest for an EV at 345 litres but with the seats down the Dolphin makes a handy van with a cargo capacity of 1,310 litres. Entry cars ride on 16 inch alloys with 17s standard on all other grades. The extrior is functional and quite distinctive without being overly attractive. The car looks a little under-wheeled but thats me just nit picking as the car has a budget price tag yet looks thoroughly acceptable among pricier rivals.
Inside the cabin is an airy place with lots of recycled plastics of varying shades and quality used. The Dolphin trim materials do not stand up well to the finger scratch test but again I come back to the car’s pricing at under thirty grand and this makes me cut it some slack. The Dolphin has the party trick we first saw in the BYD Atto3 – an impressive rotating centre screen. The standard equipment level is very high. All versions have a heat pump, and its here the car scores very well against European brands. The hatchback is built on a new modular platform and features BYD’s ‘Blade’ battery technology (LFP), in fact BYD is the worlds’ largest LFP battery manufacturuer. The first cars launched feature a relatively large for the class 60kWh battery aimed at potentially one-car buyers with an entry point model coming soon pitched at urban users fitted with a 45kWh battery – so less range from a full charge.
Active and Boost models/grades can charge at speeds up to 60kW (CCS) and 7 kW A/C while the larger battery models in Comfort and Design grades can charge at up to 88kW (CCS) and 11kW A/C. Dolphin weighs in at 1,658kgs and depending on the electric motor, which a choice of three power outputs: 70kW / 94hp (entry grade Active), 130kW / 174hp (Boost grade) and 150kW / 201hp (Comfort and Design). 0-100km/h can be as brisk as 7seconds. Top speed can be as high as 160km/h (100mph). So Dolphin is quick enough without being outrageously fast. Driving range ranges from a little over 310km with the smaller battery u p to 427km (WLTP) in Comfort and Design grades. On the road the car delivers a good and compose ride. Dolphin is not a fish out of water (sorry) and is perfectly at ease in the urban environment. The car handles motorway work well too! It pulls strongly with 310nm of torque on tap. While it won’t have you screaming for a one make racing series the car’s compact size and nimble nature does make it a very pleasant offering.
BYD has gone to town with its lighting and the extraordinary amount of standard fit ADAS (driver safety sytems). All models come equipped with Forward Collision Warning, Autonomous Emergency Braking, Rear Collision Warning, Rear Cross Traffic Alert and Rear Cross Traffic Brake, Lane Departure Prevention and Emergency Lane Keeping Assist. Now the only issue I have with some of th eautonomous sstems is their crude interventions – this had me switching off many of the safety aids as they were more a hindrence than a help. At times the steering would be tugged in a direction that was not necessary at all – at times the system interpreted the car’s position poorly – so there is still a need for humans until these ADAS systems are perfected.
The BYD Dolphin get a 6 year / 150,000km warranty and an 8 year / 200,000km main battery warranty (battery should hold 70%) and a powertrain warranty of 8 years or 150,00km whichever comes first. Pricing starts from €25,570 and rises through €26,507 (Boost), €29,318 (Comfort) and €31,192 (Design). The BYD Dolphin is excellent, and a true ‘value for money’ offering. Michael Sheridan
