BYD Dolphin review

Driving position 

Get behind the wheel of the BYD Dolphin and it’s like nothing we’ve ever driven before. It all looks rather different, from the driver’s display in front of you to the large rotating screen in the middle. 

The driving position is as good as it gets in a small electric city car. Its steering wheel is nice and chunky and creates a sizeable window through to the Sony PSP-looking digital driver’s display that shows your speed, range, battery etc. 

Despite being small and low, visibility is great thanks to its big windows and door mirrors.  

Don’t get us wrong, it doesn’t feel completely like a go-kart – the batteries boost you up a bit like in many electric cars. But overall, it’s not too bad and can be likened to the MG4. 

Tech and features 

Just by looking at the exterior of the Dolphin, you can tell it’s packing a serious tech punch. The futuristic design has an air of Eve from WALL-E, with less of an attitude, when it’s finished in ‘Skiing White’. 

The stand-out feature inside is its rotating 12.8-inch central touchscreen, which controls almost all the car’s functions.  

While it’s easy to use and has crisp graphics, one thing we noticed was that when it’s swivelling to portrait mode, it’ll catch and get stuck on any wallets or phones sitting in the tray underneath – one to watch out for. 

While everything happens on this screen, your phones aren’t forgotten about with a pair of USB-C ports and a wireless charging pad up front to keep you and your passengers juiced up. 

Then there’s the part of the cabin we’re not fully convinced by. Below the screen is a row of physical switches (which we love to see on a modern car) but they’re a bit of a double-edged sword... 

On the one hand, they’re useful for quick changes like the air-con, but they’re also strange in that you twist them instead of pressing them. You also can’t do it by feel as they’re all flush, which makes it a little awkward while driving. 

Electric motors and power 

There are three different battery and motor combinations available on the BYD Dolphin, giving you plenty of choice. 

The entry-level Active model is powered by a 44.9kWh battery with a 211-mile range and 95hp. 

The next level up ‘Boost’ model gets the same battery but with a big bump in power to 174hp, although it falls to 196 miles of range. 

Design, the top-spec trim we tested, gets a claimed 265-mile range from a 60.4kWh battery, with an efficiency of 4.4 miles per kWh. It also boasts a rather impressive 201hp. 

This makes the Dolphin more than capable around town but when it comes to motorway driving, you’ll see a larger loss of range – nothing out of the ordinary for an electric city car.  

Handling and ride comfort 

Out on the open road, this small electric car does exactly what you expect it to do. 

It’s definitely not as rapid as the MG4 but it handles nicely and is nippy enough for our tight British B-roads.  

It sits on BYD’s e-Platform 3.0 which is more intelligent by making its software and hardware tech more adaptable and therefore smarter to suit a wide range of models it sits under. Handling is also competent thanks to a low centre of gravity. 

When you get up to speed, it feels more wallowy than some of its well-planted rivals. There’s a bit more roll around sharper corners and roundabouts.  

This does mean that it has a comfortable ride, and it still never feels out of control.  

The only slight pain is the road noise at motorway speeds, but that’s usually the case with cars of this size. At least there’s no droning engine sound getting in the way of your driving tunes. 

Boot space 

Being such a small car, you can’t expect there to be SUV-like levels of boot space. 

It's still plenty capable of carrying a large suitcase and a couple of smaller bags in the boot, as we found out after a weekend away during our test. 

Coming in at 345 litres, the boot is a bit smaller than similar electric cars such as the MG4 (363 litres) and ID.3 (385 litres), but it’s plenty for a city car. 

What we like about its boot is the split floor design which hides extra storage below – ideal for charging cables and other loose items. 

However, unlike many other electric cars, you don’t get a frunk (or froot) because that’s where the car’s electric motor sits. 

Rear seats 

At first glance, it doesn’t look like there’s much space in the back, but even taller passengers will be pleasantly surprised by what they find. 

Middle passengers also shouldn’t complain about legroom because there’s no transmission tunnel, making the floor completely flat. 

Plus, the addition of easily accessible ISOFIX points makes it easy to clip a car seat in and out. 

Storage solutions 

As we touched on above, the lack of a transmission tunnel running the length of the cabin means there’s more available space to play with, and BYD has done wonders with the centre console. 

Not only is the flying armrest at a comfortable height, but the storage underneath is perfect for bottles, snacks, and even jumpers. Thankfully it’s just low enough so your passenger can’t poke their hands through it and annoy you. 

Other storage options throughout the cabin are easily accessible, and door pockets are deep enough, too. And we like the slight bump in front of the wireless phone charger that stops your phone from going flying under heavy braking or cornering. 

Safety 

Being such a new car, safety is of utmost importance. As such, it got five stars in its 2023 Euro NCAP safety test. 

This is thanks to its onboard safety features such as an autonomous emergency braking system, lane-keep assist and the excellent torsional rigidity of its body underside impacts, aided by the clever e-Platform. 

While safety systems are important and do save lives, we found the incessant speed check warning noise to be a bit too sensitive and very repetitive – especially on roads with variable speed limits that the car hasn’t learned yet, so it’ll beep you for speeding when you’re in fact not. 

Range and charging 

For a small electric car that starts at the £30,000 mark, you don't expect loads of range and lightning-fast charging. 

But we were pleasantly surprised by what it offers. 

Okay, a 265-mile range isn’t amazing in 2024, but it’s better than some more expensive rivals. Range does slowly get worse at higher motorway speeds, but this is to be expected. 

This is if you opt for the larger battery, of course. Go for the smaller one and your real-world range will be less than 200 miles. 

When it comes to charging, it’s as easy as every other EV, and BYD’s clever cobalt-free Blade Battery is one of the most efficient and safest on the market. 

It can’t charge as quickly as some rivals (topping out at 88kW to reduce overheating the battery) but it’ll charge from 10-80% in around 40 minutes. 

Reliability 

Because the Dolphin is such a new car, it’s hard to say what reliability will be like, but if its predecessors and distant relatives (BYD makes batteries for Tesla) are anything to go by, it’ll be just fine. 

Plus, as we know, electric cars tend to be more reliable than traditional combustion engines because they have fewer moving parts and are therefore less likely to go wrong. 

Insurance groups 

Insurance groups will vary depending on the model you have, with the Dolphin sitting between groups 23 and 33. 

The exact cost will vary too depending on your driving history, where you live, your occupation etc.