BYD Atto 2 review

There’s very little feedback to the light steering, and it wanders around a bit on motorways. The EV brakes are reasonably progressive. The DM-i pedal has little feedback, and then comes in with quite a vigorous deceleration. Lift your foot and the release is slightly delayed. Typical hybrid behaviour. Even uninterested drivers will find themselves driving less well in a car with this sort of poor calibration.

What they might appreciate more is the 10.5-metre turning circle, which is pretty good for the class and particularly useful around town.

In corners the steering is at least pretty accurate and your path isn't deflected by bumps. There's little body roll and even when the tyres are howling on a roundabout the understeer isn't bad. These of course are issues most Atto drivers won’t care about but it's our job to tell you.

What’s the ride like?

This is where things start to fall apart for the entry-level EV. That gets a torsion beam rear suspension setup, and it has clearly been tuned to be on the softer side. Even at lower speeds it’s quite jittery, yet on faster country roads the lack of damper control shows up and it wallows. 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.

Thankfully the step up to the bigger battery also includes a multi-link setup at the rear, and this improves the Atto 2 markedly. The ride is more composed, it corners competently and is just generally fine to drive. Nothing special, but it doesn’t need to be.

The DM-i cars have the torsion beam axle, and their ride too is distinctly turbulent, with taut springing and a high-frequency twangy bounce that never properly settles. And yet it also suffers the float at high speed.

At motorway speeds there’s some road roar, and it suffers quite badly from wind noise around the mirrors. Turn the radio up.

Does the EV accelerate like a sling?

This is no Brabus Smart. Both accelerate smoothly, with a certain spring in their step at town speed, and 0-62mph takes 7.9 seconds in both versions. The extra power of the Comfort's motor balances out the additional weight of its bigger battery.

Hmm. Is it efficient at least?

Somewhat. In mild temperatures we saw 3.8 mi/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 2.9 mi/kWh at motorway speeds (148 miles). In the Comfort version that motorway range would stretch to a more useful 190 miles or so. You do at least get a heat pump as standard in both models, which should help efficiency/range in colder months.

Also worth noting is the difference in charging speeds between the two cars. Boost models only get up to 65kW DC charging, while Comfort models can manage 155kW. That means a 10 to 80 per cent charge in 37 minutes versus 25 minutes respectively.

On a three-phase 11kW AC home charger, you’re looking at approximately five and a half hours versus seven hours from completely flat to full. But you've probably got only single-phase at home so add another 50 per cent to those times.

Tell me about the plug-in hybrid powertrain…

We’ve driven the DM-i only in its full fat Boost trim, which means a bigger 18kWh battery connected to the 1.5-litre engine. It also means a total system output of 209bhp and a 0-62mph time of 7.5 seconds.

You won't notice it switching between the various power sources and pathways. Your only choice is EV mode or hybrid mode, and anyway if you start in EV mode it'll switch to hybrid when the battery is near flat.

When the engine is just supplying electricity it’s quiet and refined, and blends into the background well. You get a bit of a flare of revs and noise under full acceleration, but even in Sport mode (yes, it has one, though chances are you'll never use it) it’ll quickly quieten down again and get back to work on the battery as you lift off the throttle.

A bigger problem is the delay. From say 40mph when you want to overtake, you mash the accelerator and the electric motor does its best immediately. But that's none too vigorous. For the petrol engine to wake up and redirect its output takes nearly another two seconds until you get the full system power and a noticeable extra shove.

But this is an efficiency system not a performance system, and it's good. On an hour long drive starting with a full battery we saw an impressive 76mpg without draining the battery entirely. That fell to 56mpg after another hour.

How are the warnings and driver assist?

The driver monitor alert is absurdly annoying. 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.

Naturally, it proved tricky to turn off too, though we at least figured out how to turn off the speed limit bong and lane keep assist using a swipe down from the top of the screen shortcut. Buttons would be better.

If you were being driven by a human whose inputs matched the 'intelligent cruise' you'd send them back to driving school. Its steering inputs are nibbly and its speed control jerky.