In case you missed it, there has been an EV pricing war over the past year between BYD, MG, and GWM. This year, GWM dropped the price of its cheap EV well below that of its rivals, and both MG and BYD followed with their electric hatchbacks and SUVs (the cheapest model is now the MG ZS EV Excite). A year after release, it’s absolutely worthwhile considering the options. Cue: the BYD Dolphin.
The BYD Dolphin honestly surprised me – I liked it way more than I thought possible. The specs are underwhelming on paper – FWD, with an underwhelming charging capacity and a limiting range estimation on the lower-end model, capped off by quirks BYD had at the time when it was still fresh to the market (it still very much is, but things feel a little bit better now).
This isn’t a Tesla killer, not so much as its much more competitive rival, the MG4, nor its younger brother the BYD Seal, but despite disappointing specs on paper, it’s a very nice car to drive, packed with a bunch of great features that make it absolutely worth considering. Just be prepared for it to be a tight fit.
Here’s what I thought of the BYD Dolphin Premium.
BYD Dolphin review
First impressions
Aesthetically, I can’t get heads or tails on the BYD Dolphin. I love how the front of the car looks, and its side profile is gorgeous. The back of the car is plagued with BYD’s hated ‘Build Your Dreams’ lettering, which they should honestly hurry up and remove from the Dolphin with the tipped refresh (they just did this with the Atto 3). The model I had is grey, but I would feel bad if I didn’t at least mention that the Dolphin has some of the most fun colours you can buy on a car in Australia – including pink and purple, with the higher-end model going two-tone with a black top half.
The interior is less imposing than in photos online, though there isn’t a lot of adjustment you can make with the steering wheel. There’s a great sunshade that passes over the moonroof in case you don’t want the cabin to heat up, and the seats are comfortable. In lieu of buttons, the Dolphin for the most part has circular switches that don’t feel bad to use, and make the car quite unique. It’s a nice departure from capacitive touch buttons and touchscreen-exclusive features.
The instrument cluster is a letdown, though. I found it passable in the BYD Atto 3 when it first came to Australia, but in the Dolphin, perhaps because I’d just gotten out of the Seal (which has a much better cluster) it felt too small.
The greatest sin of the interior is probably the door handles. They feel flimsy and easily broken, and I’d be worried about having a kid in the back with them. There’s also quite a cliff in the boot, but we can forgive it for not having much space as it’s a hatchback (though the MG4 is quite practical with its space).
If you read my review of the BYD Seal, you’ll remember that I raved about the Android-based operating system. The very same operating system is back in the Dolphin, with obvious adjustments made for being a different model. It’s brilliant. I don’t have anything new to say about it with this review, but to rehash my Seal review, it’s such a competent operating system that at no point did I feel that I needed to activate Android Auto (the phone-based car OS launched from Android phones).
The Navigation app can be quite annoying, getting basic things wrong like where school zones begin and end, what the speed limit of the road is, and where congestion may be, but these are features that can be toggled off – though I’d rather they just worked better. The built-in Spotify app works a treat, and again, I wish there was a Phone app on the main screen.
It still has the spinning screen gimmick though, and I’d say it actually works worse in this Dolphin than in the Seal. The Dolphin has a smaller centre display with what appears to be a lower maximum brightness. The combination of these things leads to difficulty seeing the display in sunlight, and especially when wearing sunglasses. On top of this, a small motor for spinning an infotainment system just adds an extra point of failure that’s not necessary.
Finally, the driver assistance tech in the Dolphin was sound, but not adequately reliable, as it’d feel much less competent on poorly marked roads or those covered in tree shadows. Adaptive cruise control worked well, but the best-included feature was absolutely the surround camera system.
At the press of a button on the steering wheel, you can pull up a surround camera view of the car, including a 3D model of the car if your spatial awareness so wishes. It’s the kind of feature that much older carmakers will typically shave off lower-end EVs, but here the Dolphin is with it on the base model. It makes parking and navigating tight spaces so much easier. There are also 6-way electric seat adjustments in the front seats. Nice.
Let’s Dolphin dive into some more technical detail.
Specifications
Note that a limited-edition sports model was available briefly on the BYD Australia website, though it is no longer listed.
| Model | WLTP range | 0-100km/h speed | Charging capacity | Power/Torque | Price (NSW driveaway) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| BYD Dolphin Dynamic | 340km (44.9kWh battery) | 12.3 seconds (RWD) | 7kW AC/60kW DC | 70kW/180Nm | $39,241 |
| BYD Dolphin Premium | 427km (60kWh battery) | 7 seconds (RWD) | 7kW AC/80kW DC | 150kW/310Nm | $45,421 |
The BYD Dolphin Premium also adds 17-inch wheels (16-inch on the Dynamic) and upgraded rear suspension.
Performance
I can’t gloss the BYD Dolphin up too much on the performance front. If you’re after an EV that goes like a rocket, charges quickly, and feels great on the road, then look elsewhere.
The BYD Dolphin feels fine, but being a FWD is a significant bugbear, when one of its closest competitors, the MG4, is such a satisfying-feeling RWD car. At full acceleration from a stop, you’ll absolutely feel some tyre skipping and traction loss. Things would no doubt have been more disappointing in the Dynamic, with its much less powerful motor and slower 0-110km/h speed, but in the context of a ‘budget’ EV intended for city use, I can get over this.
Taking it outside of the city, the Dolphin’s public (DC) charging capacity is quite low – 80kW on the Premium, and a hugely disappointing 60kW on the Dynamic. These numbers essentially mean that you’ll be spending much more time waiting to charge at big public chargers when on trips. Probably close to 45 minutes if you’re topping your car up from a low percentage of 15 per cent to 80 per cent.
I relied entirely on home charging at my house, my Dad’s house, and my brother’s house during my week with the BYD Dolphin (I did my normal trip from Sydney’s Inner West to Newcastle and back), which I was thankfully able to do, with the Dolphin including an Australian wall socket charger (plus a type 2 to type 2 charger).
Competitively, the DC charging speeds of both models are letdowns. For the Premium, the closely priced MG4 Excite charges up to 150kW, while for the Dynamic, the charging speed is bested by the cheaper GWM Ora at 80kW (though this car has an incredibly disappointing charging curve).
Moving on to range, the Dynamic has a WLTP-rated range of 340km, against the Premium’s price-competitive 427km WLTP. Those ranges are estimations and would drop off during highway driving, but would be at their best in constant stopping environments like cities. My drive from Sydney’s Inner West to Newcastle saw the battery drop from 100 per cent to 42 per cent.
The Premium’s range estimation falls just short of that in the MG4 Excite (at 435km), and the Dynamic falls short of the cheaper GWM Ora’s 350km, albeit by such small values. 427km is more than enough if you’re going to take this car out of the city for a weekend, but you’ll likely need to charge up in public – and you’ll be there for a while, if so.
Who is the BYD Dolphin for?
The BYD Dolphin is for drivers who are looking to pick up an EV at a cheap price. At that price, the features included are very impressive, though those craving performance may want to look elsewhere. For inner-city or suburban living, coupled with some out-of-town treks to the nearest satellite cities, the Dolphin seems ideal, but EV buyers after a car that will charge quickly and go the distance may want to look toward the MG4.
Nevertheless, the BYD Dolphin impressed me so much during my review. Of the cheaper trim models, including the GWM Ora Standard Range, the MG ZS EV Excite (the new cheapest EV in Australia), and the MG4 Excite 51, the BYD Dolphin Dynamic is probably my favourite.
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