Arguably the biggest recent disruptor in the already disruptive electric vehicle (EV) segment, the BYD Atto 3 SUV has quickly established itself as one of Australia’s most popular EVs.

Launched in late 2022 the Atto 3 briefly usurped the MG ZS EV as Australia’s most affordable electric vehicle, and the brand’s soon to be released Dolphin electric hatchback is more affordable again.

While still relatively unknown here, BYD is a powerhouse in its Chinese home market where it has been building cars since 2003 and is now that country’s biggest automaker.

The initials stand for Build Your Dreams, as emblazoned in letter script across the tailgate of the five-door SUV.

The title might sound naff to Aussie ears, but it hasn’t prevented BYD establishing a firm foothold here, with August year-to-date sales of just over 8,000 units meaning it trails only the best-selling Tesla Model 3 and Model Y twins in the EV segment.

Sharp pricing, decent range and a comprehensive list of standard equipment are among the Atto 3’s obvious attractions.

There are only two versions available – one with a 50kWh battery and the other with a 60kWh battery.

The 50kWh or ‘Standard Range’ car costs $48,011 (MRLP) and has a claimed WLTP range (Worldwide Harmonised Light-Duty Test Procedure) of 345km.

The Extended Range model, which we’re reviewing here, gets a larger 60kWh battery, costs $51,011 (MRLP) and can travel a claimed 420km on the WLTP standard.

Both the Standard Range and the Extended Range are identically specified, with the $3,000 price difference essentially buying you the convenience and peace of mind of that extra 75km of claimed range.

At this price both BYD models are also eligible for the Queensland State Government’s Zero Emissions Vehicle Rebate Scheme at the time of writing, which could shave either $3,000 or $6,000 off the price, depending on your household income.

Among the long list of standard features common to both variants are 18-inch alloy wheels, proximity key fob, power-folding mirrors, panoramic sunroof, powered tailgate, roof rails, LED lights, synthetic leather seats, heated and powered front seats, one-touch windows, single-zone climate control, wireless phone charger, voice assistant, Bluetooth phone and media, 12.8-inch touchscreen, 360-degree camera system, drive recorder and an eight-speaker Dirac HD sound system.

Stylistically, there’s nothing particularly revolutionary about the Atto 3’s exterior design but its well-proportioned and distinctive enough with clean and attractive styling that includes some interesting touches, like a textured aluminium-like section on the C-Pillar, and full-width LED lighting treatment across the bonnet.

That strip creates an instantly recognisable night-time signature, while the LED headlights themselves offer excellent illumination.

The Atto 3 becomes a lot more interesting when you step inside the cabin, where it seems the interior designers have been given free rein to create something quite distinctive.

One of the first things that catches the eye is a textured, soft-touch wetsuit like material on the dash and doors, which along with the curves and scalloped sections of the dash creates a softer and more inviting look than the hard-edged plastics more commonly used.

There are also cylindrical air vents, a gear lever shaped like an aircraft thrust lever, and taut red strings on the doors which act as restraints to hold water bottles.
Chunky industrial-like door grips and an innovative door-opening mechanism integrated with a door-mounted speaker all add to the sense of occasion.

The driver and passenger front seats are electrically operated and nicely shaped and supportive.

They’re heated, too, and trimmed in an attractive perforated synthetic leather, in a two-tone colour scheme, with attractive red contrast stitching.

The centre console area includes a large and deep console-bin-cum armrest, two cupholders, shift lever, start button and an array of shortcut switches for different functions.

The two console switches likely to see most use are one which accesses the two regenerative braking settings and another which selects each of the car’s three drive modes – Eco, Normal and Sport.

There’s also a wireless phone charging pad with standard wireless Android Auto but wired Apple Car, plus additional storage down under the centre console where a pair of USB-C plugs are located.

The small 5.0-inch digital screen mounted atop the steering wheel looks a bit dinky but it’s functional and well positioned to be in your line of sight when driving.

The main info you’ll want to see here is your speed, which is clearly displayed, although some of the other items, including remaining range, are on the small side.

The flat-bottom multifunction steering wheel is leather-trimmed and adjustable for rake and reach, so it’s easy to find a comfortable driving position.

The central display screen is a 12.8-inch unit which houses a lot of everyday functions including temperate settings, seat heating, phone connectivity, radio and so forth.

The user interface is reasonably straightforward so getting to know the basics is relatively easy.

As with many such systems, there’s a lot of detail you can go into, including changing the colour of the interior ambient lighting scheme and setting up the time you want your Atto 3 to start charging.

A couple of notable inclusions are Spotify music integration, which means you can stream your own music selections, a forward-facing driving recorder, voice control for a range of functions such as opening the windows and Sunroof, and an excellent 360-degree surround-view camera system.

The screen offers a nice, clear resolution and the Android-backed operating system processes inputs quickly.

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Something else the screen does – and this is a real party trick – is change from landscape to portrait orientation at the touch of a button on the steering wheel, or a screen icon.

The Atto 3 also has an embedded modem, which means it can download new features via over-the-air updates, just like a Tesla.

Since its launch last year, new features including sat-nav, Apple Car Play and Android Auto have all become available for the Atto 3 in this way.

The rear-seat accommodation is among the roomier offerings you’ll find in the medium SUV segment with plenty of foot, leg and head room, and the added advantage of a flat floor thanks to the Atto 3 being built on a dedicated EV platform.

Rear-seat amenities include a fold-down centre armrest with cupholders, air vents, USB-A and USB-C points, seat back map pockets and bottle holders in the doors. There’s also ISOFIX child seat anchorage points on each of the outboard seats.

Regarding safety, the Atto 3 comes comprehensively equipped and achieved a five-star ANCAP safety rating in November 2022.

Standard safety features include seven airbags, adaptive cruise control (with stop and go), autonomous emergency braking, blind-spot monitoring, lane departure and assist, rear cross-traffic alert, hill descent control, tyre pressure monitor, and front and rear parking sensors.

The Atto 3 doesn’t have a frunk, or front trunk, for additional storage like the Tesla Model Y, but the boot opens electrically to reveal a decent 400 litres of storage with the seats in position and a two-level floor set up that maximises storage and creates a flat load space when the seats are folded.

The rear seats feature a 70/30 spilt-fold function and provide a maximum cargo 1,340 litres of cargo capacity when folded.

The boot floor is on the high side so there’s a bit of a lift to floor height and very large suitcases may prevent the solid cargo cover from closing, unless you remove it.

Under the boot floor is a tyre repair kit but no spare wheel, which is disappointing.

Also back tere are the supplied charging plugs which includes a three-pin AC trickle charger which plugs into a household power point with a Type 2 plug on the other end for connecting to the car’s charging port.

There’s also a four-plug power board supplied which can be plugged into the charging port to utilise the Atto 3’s vehicle-to-load capacity, which enables the traction battery to power electrical appliances like laptops.

The charging port is located on the driver’s side front guard and BYD claims the Extended Range Atto 3 will charge from flat to full in about 50 minutes on a 70kW DC fast charger.

For drivers charging at home, an AC trickle charge from a household power point will take around 33 hours, while a 12-hour overnight charge will add about 140km of range.

That’s about the same time a 7kW home wall box charger will take to fully charge the battery.

Out on the road, the Atto 3 has the typically quiet and refined driving characteristics common to most EVs, due to the absence of engine and exhaust noise.

What you do hear is an artificial spaceship-like drone, also projected outside the vehicle as a pedestrian warning alert, which cuts out at about 30km/h.

By the standards of some other EVs we’ve driven the Atto 3’s initial acceleration or ‘step-off’ is quite leisurely.

In fact, it even feels a little sluggish when you first press the accelerator and you need to be in Sport mode and give it a good prod if you really want to accelerate quickly.

Once up and moving the acceleration feels quite brisk, so it could be the case that the Atto 3 is deliberately tuned this way to avoid spinning the front wheels every time you take off.

Like other EVs, the BYD has a lot of instantly available torque and being a front-wheel drive car, if you do press too hard on the accelerator, such as when leaving an intersection, it will spin up the front tyres momentarily until the traction control intervenes.

The single electric motor driving the Atto 3’s front wheels delivers 150kW/310Nm, which is a decent amount by the standards of similarly sized ICE-powered rivals; a Mazda CX-5 with 2.5-litre four-cylinder petrol engine produces 140kW/252Nm, for instance.

Put the foot down from standstill and the Atto 3 will accelerate from 0–100km/h in a claimed 7.3 seconds, which is about 1.5 seconds quicker than the Mazda, and slightly quicker even than the sporty turbocharged version of that car.

A centre console-mounted drive mode switch adjusts the response of the car, with Eco, Normal and Sport modes available.

As the name suggests, Eco is designed to maximise battery range, and that can also be improved via the adjacent regenerative braking switch.

Regenerative braking gives the traction battery a small top up of electricity each time you lift off the accelerator and explains why EVs give their best range in stop-start urban driving, which is the opposite of ICE cars.

While some EVs offer steering-wheel-mounted paddles to adjust the level of braking, and up to five different brake settings, the Atto 3 offers just Standard and High braking modes, neither of which are especially strong and there’s no one-pedal driving.

Dynamically, the Atto 3 feels polished and pleasant to drive.

The suspension is calibrated to prioritise ride over handling and the wheels and tyre combination is a sensible size to smooth over most road imperfections.

The 215/55R18 tyres are not top quality, though, and can break traction easily on wet or slippery conditions if you’re over-zealous with the accelerator.

The chassis tune is quite soft and compliant and the steering is on the light side, so it’s never going to deliver hot hatch-like handling thrills, but that’s hardly the point of a family-oriented SUV like this.

The advanced driver assistance features work well for the most part, without being overly intrusive.

The lane departure system gives a gentle nibble at the wheel when you drift over a line marking and among other safety features the Atto 3 can mirror the speed of the car ahead of you, steer between road lines and alert you when there’s a car in your blind spots.

Something buyers need to know about BYD is that it’s available via an online sales model only.

This isn’t unprecedented as Tesla has been doing it since day one and other manufacturers including Genesis and Polestar have followed suit, but it may not be to everyone’s liking.

On the plus side, the fact that everything is standard apart from the paint colour makes ordering a BYD simple.

Being a relatively new brand in Australia, BYD also doesn’t yet have the typical bricks and mortar dealerships you’ll find with the likes of Mazda or Toyota .

Instead, delivery of BYD vehicles is via a BYD Experience Centre, of which there are currently four in Queensland, all located in Brisbane, or a personal delivery service which adds an extra fee.

Servicing is carried out at dedicated BYD Service Centres or via BYD’s official Australian Service partner MyCar, with a total of eight service centres in Queensland at the time of writing – mostly in the Brisbane metro and Gold Coast area.

Regional buyers should research this aspect further if interested in purchasing a BYD.

The standard manufacturer’s warranty is a competitive six years or 150,000km on the vehicle and eight years or 160,000km on the battery.

There’s also a fixed-price service model with BYD claiming the average service cost for the Atto 3 is just under $300 per year.

In summary, the BYD Atto 3’s combination of affordable pricing, generous equipment levels, good refinement, roomy interior, excellent technology, reasonable range and pleasant all-round driving dynamics make it stand out as one of the better-value EVs on the market today.

Questions remain over access to access to service and repairs in regional areas, but if you’re comfortable with that and the available range, it’s well worth adding the BYD Atto 3 to your EV shortlist.

BYD Atto 3 Extended Range key info

• PRICE: $51,011
• POWERTRAIN: 60.48kWh lithium iron-phosphate battery, front mounted electric motor (150kW/310Nm), single-speed reduction gear.
• RANGE: 420km (WLTP)
• ANCAP CRASH RATING: 5 stars 2022
• ENERGY CONSUMPTION: 16kWh/100km (WLTP)
• FOR: Quiet, comfortable, roomy, affordably priced for an EV, generously equipped, excellent technology, strong safety rating.
• AGAINST: No spare wheel, tyres lack grip, dynamics favour ride over handling, lack of servicing outlets may not suit all buyers.