BYD Atto 3 Evo review

We’ve only driven the RWD one so far. But even that launches smoothly, without any self-conscious electric jolt. After that, acceleration is useful up to motorway speeds, so main road overtaking isn't an issue. Power is 309bhp (up on the just over 200bhp of old), weight is 1,880kg, and it’s now noticeably quicker than its predecessor with 0-62mph taken care of in 5.5 seconds. Yeesh.

Some more numbers: the AWD one gets 443bhp and knocks the 0-62mph time down to 3.9s. Double yeesh, that’s old school supercar quick. Oh, and that extra motor adds an extra 110kg. Lardy.

Slowing down is less intuitive. The brake pedal is ineffective at the top, and soggy all the way down. Not saying it won't stop you, just that you don't feel entirely in control of the rate. A button on the console switches between two degrees of regeneration. We’d have liked some paddles behind the wheel, but better than nothing at all. Anyway, both are milder than in rivals – no one-pedal mode here.

Talk to me about the ride.

Around town it’s usefully supple over potholes and speedbumps. Which is a roundabout way of saying it's mostly comfortable; there’s nothing to upset the applecart here. Your kids will like it, which in turn will mean you’ll like it.

However, once out onto a country things become slightly unstuck. It’s quite unsettled over bigger bumps, which causes plenty of jostling and head toss in the cabin, and there’s a fair bit of body roll when cornering too. That’s the payoff for having a softer ride in the city. But rival cars manage the balance better.

Still, once up to cruising speed it settles back down, probably because it’s here that most replicates the highways of its home country. As you can tell from the driver’s display, which constantly thinks you’re on a motorway. Ah.

Is it at all engaging?

Well, it gets Eco, Normal, Sport and… Snow modes, which you can toggle through the centre console. It always defaults in Eco mode, which limits power in favour of better efficiency. Normal and Sport result in noticeably more responsiveness to the accelerator pedal, though we found we left it in Eco mode for the majority of the time, as will you. Probably.

All versions get a full driver assist suite including a driver attention monitor, which is annoying and still doesn’t work if you wear sunglasses, but not a dealbreaker to the extent it is in the BYD Seal 6 saloon. It’s the same system, but our best guess is it prefers the higher driving position here. The mandatory speed limit assist is present and correct too – and turning it all off requires a deepdive into the screen.

And the efficiency?

In reasonable spring temperatures we managed 3.7 mi/kWh on a run taking in town, B-road and motorway running. That consumption figure equates to 275 miles range. Not bad going.

You can set the range guessometer to standard or dynamic display. Standard is based on WLTP results, whereas dynamic estimates your mileage based on current average energy consumption. More realistic, in other words.

For overnight charging, it'll accept 11kW AC. So a full charge time takes eight hours. On a DC charger, peak charging power is now 220kW, up from 88kW, meaning a 10-80 per cent charge takes 25 minutes.