BYD Dolphin Review (2024-present)
Byd Dolphin cars for sale
3.0
Expert review
Pros
Very well equipped
Great value for money
Very decent real-world range
Cons
An MG4 is better rounded
Infotainment has its irritations
Some cheap-feeling plastics tucked away
The CarGurus verdict
The BYD Dolphin isn’t a car that’s going to really grab at your heartstrings, but it is a good value electric car that’s roomy, generously equipped and offers a very usable real-world range, particularly if you’re buying on PCP finance. We’d still say that the MG4 is the better electric family car – more fun, better looking and with a broader model range to choose from – but the BYD Dolphin is a temptingly affordable prospect that will do a decent job as a small family car – even more so once BYD has improved the accuracy and operation of the car's active safety systems.
What is the BYD Dolphin?
The new BYD Dolphin is a small electric hatchback, and it’s the second model to arrive in the UK from Chinese electric car- and battery-making giant, Build Your Dreams, after the BYD Atto 3 SUV that launched the brand over here in 2023. At the moment it’s offered with a 60kWh battery that’s good for 265 miles of range according to WLTP figures, which is a touch more than you get from the Peugeot e-208, Vauxhall Corsa Electric, Nissan Leaf, Hyundai Kona and Renault Zoe. It’s very nearly on par with the MG4 Long Range.
A smaller, 45kWh battery is said to be on the way in the BYD Dolphin Active and Boost models, and will bring a range of 211 miles, although these also get less power output, with a measly 94bhp electric motor compared with the 201bhp motor of the 60kWh Dolphin that we’ve driven. If it does materialise with the rumoured prices of around £26,000, it’ll be one of very few budget electric cars, including the Citroen e-C3 and Dacia Spring.
The 60kWh BYD Dolphin will rapid charge at up to 88kW, which is a bit slower than most rivals and is good enough for a 10-80% charge in 40 minutes (most alternatives will do the same in more like 30 minutes). The 45kWh BYD Dolphin has slower charging of 65kWh, but will still manage an 80% charge in 40 minutes due to its smaller battery capacity. Put another way, a 100-mile top-up will take around 25 minutes in the big battery Dolphin, while the smaller battery car will need 35 minutes for the same top-up.
We’d say that the 4.3-metre long BYD Dolphin is a touch less appealing in the style department than most of its rivals, though. It’s not bad to look at, but it is rather bland and somehow looks a bit dated compared with the sharper styling of the MG4 and Peugeot e-208. You can get it with a contrast bonnet and roof if you go for the top-spec Design specification, which adds some interest.
How practical is it?
The Dolphin isn’t at all bad for practicality, but it’s also not class-leading. The boot offers 345 litres of capacity, and while it’s a fairly shallow boot space, there is a useful amount of underfloor storage that’s ideal for storing your cables. You can also fold down the rear seats in a 60/40 split, although it does leave a bit of a step up in the extended boot (and reveals some very cheap-feeling plastics around the edges of the boot and seat backs). You can also get a rubber boot liner, which is always a welcome feature if you’ve got dogs.
Interior space in the back is good, with loads of legroom and enough headroom to accommodate even six-footers. There’s also a centre armrest with a couple of cupholders.
Up front, the 12.8-inch colour touchscreen dominates the dashboard, which swoops and curves around the car, and has blue trim – and even blue vegan leather upholstery in top-spec Design trim – to emphasis the marine theme. As if the Dolphin name weren’t emphasis enough…
The single-piece front seats are comfy and look cool, too, although there’s no lumbar adjustment. Visibility is worth mentioning, too, as it’s one of the better cars for an all-round view out. Even the small ‘quarter lights’ in the front help your view out at junctions. So much glass does make the Dolphin does feel light and airy, too, especially if you’ve got the panoramic roof.
What’s it like to drive?
The BYD Dolphin can be quite rapid if you want it to be: with a 0-62mph of 7.0 seconds it can be a giggle if you want to surprise other road users off a red light, and you never feel short of acceleration. More importantly, the suspension helps to soak up the worst of the road imperfections, making the Dolphin a fairly comfy drive, even if there’s also a lot of body lean in corners. It’s worth noting that the small battery Dolphin will get a different rear suspension set-up, with a simpler torsion beam rather than the multi-link suspension that the bigger battery Comfort and Design cars have, and that will likely change the way it drives.
As it is, the BYD Dolphin is very fit for purpose. Slow steering response can make it feel like you're flailing your arms around a lot in town, and there’s the occasional bit of wheel spin if you want to make a quick getaway out of a junction (the Dolphin is front-wheel drive), but generally it feels confidence-inspiring and pleasant to drive, although we do wish visibility was a bit better, particularly around the chunky windscreen pillars. Sport mode seems unnecessary, but it is there to weight the steering wheel up a bit if you wish. If it is a sportier, fun drive that you’re after, the MG4 and Peugeot e-208 both win over the BYD Dolphin for that, as they have zingier, more incisive cornering that makes them genuinely entertaining on a good road.
You’ll also want to make sure that the lane-keep assist is switched off on country roads, as it can be very intrusive. In fact, the Dolphin's active safety systems in general are in need of refinement. As things stand we experienced endless erroneous readings from the traffic sign recognition system, which in turn leads to the car beeping warnings at you for being over the speed limit, when in fact you are within it. None of this would be such a chore if the systems themselves were easier to disable, but the Dolphin requires that you prod through several fiddly menus on the touchscreen in order to do so.
Technology, equipment & infotainment
The touchscreen infotainment system is the main event in the BYD Dolphin. It rotates from portrait to landscape at the push of a button, which is a neat trick, but more importantly it has good graphics and responds quickly. It’s got satnav, Bluetooth, Apple CarPlay, and Android Auto, but it is annoying that some basic functions – like turning the heated seats on – are hidden a few layers down into the system.
Equipment is very generous on the BYD Dolphin, which is offered in two trim levels: Comfort and Design. Even the entry-level BYD Dolphin Comfort gets LED headlights, heated side mirrors, leatherette upholstery, 360-degree parking camera, rear parking sensors, keyless entry, blind spot warning, adaptive cruise control with a semi-autonomous drive mode and vehicle-to-load (V2L) for charging your electrical devices from the car’s high voltage battery. You even get a heat pump as standard, which helps with efficiency in winter conditions, and is sometimes a pricey option even on electric vehicles.
Design trim ups the kit list with bigger alloy wheels, contrast roof and bonnet, rear privacy glass, front parking sensors and wireless phone charging.
BYD Dolphin running costs
The BYD Dolphin is sold alongside its stablemates – the BYD Atto 3 and BYD Seal – through a variety of well-established dealers across the UK, so you can go and speak to a salesperson, see the car in person and go for a test drive. You can also go for traditional PCP finance, which is incredibly affordable on the Dolphin. At the time of writing, there’s a deal that gets you this capable electric car for £269 per month with a negligible deposit of a few hundred pounds, and you get two years free servicing thrown in for free, as well.
While the list price isn’t as low as you might imagine, and likely won’t drag you away from the MG4 that’s become a very popular and affordable electric car, the finance costs really are very persuasive.
A full charge in the 60kWh BYD Dolphin will cost around £27 on a standard UK domestic electricity tariff, when you charge at home, but you could cut that cost by almost two thirds if you use off-peak charging tariffs. Unless you charge regularly at public rapid chargers, which are a lot more expensive than charging at home, it will cost as little as 3p per mile to ‘fuel’ the Dolphin, or 8p if you haven’t got the benefit of a cheap overnight tariff.
BYD Dolphin reliability
It’s really too early to tell regards the BYD Dolphin’s reliability, as the vehicle is too new. However, the Blade battery technology has been around for a while and has been just as extensively tested as any electric car battery. BYD even states that it’s designed to last for 30 years.
The Dolphin is backed by an eight-year, 125,000-mile battery warranty, while the vehicle is covered for six years or 93,750 miles.
- Real-world range in the BYD Dolphin isn’t too bad. In cold conditions and on a solid motorway run, you may well see it drop to 150 miles to a charge, but that’s the worst-case scenario. Warmer weather will see the real-world driving range creep up to 200- to 230 miles, even if you’re spending a lot of time on faster roads.
- You can have a pretty eye-catching car with the BYD Dolphin; even if you don’t go for the Design trim with its contrasting paint job, the cheaper Comfort model still comes as standard with some striking metallic colours including Coral Pink and Amethyst Purple.
- BYD is one of the world’s largest battery manufacturers, and has pioneered its own lithium-iron phosphate (LFP) batteries, which are packaged in a different way to most batteries in that they run in long ‘blades’ along the length of the pack, rather than being stacked or layered. There are a few benefits to the BYD Blade battery, including impressive safety credentials. BYD even hammered a nail through one of its battery packs at a global press conference to demonstrate its resistance to fire when the battery pack is compromised. Nothing burned down at the press conference so (while we haven’t attempted to stick a nail through a BYD battery pack ourselves) we’re willing to believe the company’s claims. Another great aspect of the BYD Blade battery is that it is cobalt-free, which is good news as cobalt is hard to source, and environmentally damaging.
- If you want the best value: At the time of writing, the cheaper 45kWh BYD Dolphin still isn’t available, and for the small price jump we’d likely go for the 60kWh model, anyway. Comfort trim is more than well-enough equipped, so you don’t need to add any options.
- If you want the best company car: Company car Benefit-in-Kind (BiK) tax is extremely low on electric cars, and it should remain very cheap for a few years yet, so you may as well go for the higher-spec Design. Despite being a bit pricier, it’ll still cost only £253 per year in company car tax, for a 40% tax payer.
- If you want the most stylish option: Again, stick with the Design model as it gets the dual-tone finish, and you could always go for one of the brighter paint tones: pink with a grey roof and bonnet is hard to miss.
- If you want the best family car: It could be worth going for the Design model if you value the privacy glass in the back, but even Comfort trim includes handy family features such as keyless entry and wipe-clean leatherette upholstery.
