BYD Atto 2 review

First thing that might trip you up is the start/stop button and the drive selector stalk. The former is in the middle of the centre console, the latter is to the right of the steering wheel, where you might traditionally find the stalk for the wipers.

Once you’ve mastered that it’s all pretty straightforward. It accelerates smoothly and the brakes are similarly progressive and well judged; 0-62mph takes 7.9 seconds whatever version you go for, with the extra power of the bigger motor presumably balancing out the extra weight of bigger battery in Comfort versions.

There’s very little feedback to the light steering, but presumably most Atto drivers won’t care – what they might appreciate more is the 10.5-metre turning circle, which is pretty good for the class and particularly useful around town.

WHAT'S THE RIDE LIKE?

This is where things start to fall apart. The suspension has clearly been tailored to be on the softer side, and on the smooth, straight roads of its homeland that we can only dream of, we imagine it fares rather well. Not so here.

Even at lower speeds it’s quite jittery but on faster country roads it’s simply too wallowy and there’s seemingly little to no body control. It’s almost comical how much occupants are thrown around, and while it’s bearable in small doses, it’s far less so if you have any children prone to car sickness. 

It copes better at faster motorway speeds, largely because there are no corners involved, though while there’s minimal road roar it does suffer quite badly from wind noise around the mirrors. Turn the radio up, we’d suggest.

If only to drown out the sound of the driver monitor alert, because by God, is it annoying. Seriously, has anyone even attempted to calibrate this thing? Checking your mirrors, checking for traffic at a roundabout, hell, checking what speed you’re doing, it’s constantly telling you to keep your eyes on the road. SHUT UP!

Naturally, it proved impossible to turn off too, though we at least figured out how to turn off the speed limit and lane keep assist, which was a three deep dive into the touchscreen. A shortcut button would have been nice.

HMM. IS IT EFFICIENT AT LEAST?

Not particularly. In mild temperatures we saw 3.8mi/kWh heading out of town and on a few faster B-roads, which works out at 194 miles in the Boost with its 51.1kWh battery, and 2.9mi/kWh at motorway speeds (148 miles). You do at least get a heat pump as standard in both models, which should help efficiency/range in colder months. Worth noting.

As is the difference in charging speeds between the two cars. Boost models only get up to 82kW DC charging, while Comfort models can manage 155kW. That means a 10 to 80 per cent charge in 38 minutes versus 25 minutes respectively.

On a home charger, you’re looking at approximately five and a half hours versus seven hours from completely flat to full on a three-phase 11kW AC charger.