BYD Dolphin Review

Welcome everyone to my full review of the BYD Dolphin.

Up until recently, we hadn’t heard of BYD but their sudden appearance in the UK has certainly gained interest and traction.
Their affordable EV’s with decent range and strong technology and safety.

After the ATTO 3 and Seal, the Dolphin arrived. Their smallest and most affordable EV currently.

The Dolphin takes on the likes of the MG4, e208, Corsa, ID3 and so on.

Starting at just over £26k, the Dolphin is perfectly priced to be an affordable urban EV.
Great for those daily short journeys or occasional long on.
Packed with a huge amount of standard equipment, even in the Active trim you will not really be left wanting. Safety is very high too as the Dolphin is a Euro NCAP 5 Star rated car.

The Dolphin takes 2 battery sizes. A 44.9 (Active & Boost) and a 60.4 (Comfort & Design).
Range varies from 193 B, 211 A, then 265 miles for Comfort & Design.

Power ranges 93 to 202 bhp. 0-62 ranges from 7.0 to 12.3.

Inside you have a 12’8 rotating infotainment screen. You have Apple CarPlay and android auto.

Please enjoy.

[paristaxco]

Hello from Malaysia. Good review 👌🏻 . I have been using the same dolphin since April and I have no regret. I am extremely happy with it.

[James-BB]

Hi, a great, comprehensive and practical review. I have now had my BYD Dolphin in Comfort trim for a month and really enjoy driving it. I selected it via my companies salary sacrifice scheme (I had 3 cars in mind for my 1st EV, the MG4, Dolphin or Megane), after thorough research, test drives, etc I preferred the Dolphin over the MG4 due to its level of tech, specification, build quality and reliability records, sadly the Megane was out of my price range as it was an additional £100 per month (over 5 years, its quite a lot right now). I agree with your overall view of the car. Even the 'scratchy' plastics are textured which make it look and feel better quality. The 'niggles' I have found during my time with the car are as follows; the rear view mirror is not auto dimming (my last 4 or so cars have all had this) and I do feel a little dazzled by the cars behind me in these dark winter months, OK, it has the manual adjustment but the rear view is then a little odd and not as good. No auto-wipers, again, for a brand new car with all this tech and not to have this is odd but at least is on when I want it and not waiting for the auto-wipers to kick in or slow down. The 'A' pillar is quite a blind spot, not seen a couple of pedestrians because of this. The rear blind spot warnings are excellent though and use them all the time. I have found the adaptive cruise control to be a bit unpredictable especially on bends, it will both brake hard going into a bend for no reason and also accelerate too much coming out of the bend or roundabout (maybe something all cars do a bit?). Also, this is the only vehicle I have driven that does not have an internal courtesy light that comes on when you open the doors. Overall though, I am loving my 1st EV and makes going on any drive worthwhile.

Hi from Thailand. I own a BYD Dolphin (150 kW, 60 kWh) and I am very happy after 16 months and 38, 000 km. I also tested the MG4 but the Dolphin is more spacious and comfortable. I quite like the interior. The quality is very good. Even the LingLong tires are not too bad. I will change them at the 40, 000 km service interval. I will try the Thailand-made Westlake tires. EV tires of other brands are not yet available in this size.
The weak points are the driver assistance system (ADAS) and the headlights. The infotainment system has improved through several updates. The last update was a firmware update and we got Gbox, which let install all Android apps.

[josuitlauwe]

A good review, looking forward for your review on the Atto 3 2025.

[peterarmstrong]

I've had my dolphin since October last year. I have the comfort spec and I believe I was the first in the UK to have one. I absolutely love mine, I've had the mg4 (broke down after 400 mile and mg couldn't care less! I've also had the cupra born and niro and covered 35k in all 3 and 18k in the dolphin. Please ensure the long long tyres are swapped out!! Also you can get 6.2 to 60

[catherinegrimes]

Very good review.
It is good to hear that the bing-bongs have been subdued.
I have been following the Dolphin for several years and was planning on buying one next years but will probably wait for the facelifted model in case it has the Blade 2 battery.

[TheNaishproductions-tnyb]

These seem like great wee cars. A friend has the BYD Atto 3,
Ugly interior, but nice and fun to drive. Charges it on his solar panels so it basically cost him nothing to run.

[Ambienfinity]

I've been waiting for this one, Dave. Excellent review -- I really like the design of these BYD cars. The Seal is the one I have my eye on.

[CampGareth]

It's worth mentioning that the USB C ports on the top spec are powerful. Front and back each get an 18W and a 60W port meaning you can run laptops or handheld games consoles easily.

[DaveDVideoMaker]

BYD could finally start selling cars in Slovakia. I asked BYD if they can start selling cars on Slovak territory, and they said ‘soon’.

I would expect Slovakia to receive the Dolphin, which is on sale in neighbouring Austria, Poland and Hungary.

[CampGareth]

On the range estimate, out of the box the car will always display the WLTP range when fully charged. You can change the estimate to dynamic mode which will vary depending on your driving style. 260 miles is optimistic, check EVDB for a better estimate

[Dailyroach]

Had our dolphin for 6500km so far its been brilliant 😉

[londonerwalks]

Great review! I'm considering this car as I'm more or less sold on the battery and being able to charge to 100%, but a few questions...
You said you wouldn't recommend this as a long range cruiser. How about for mainly urban use, but the odd 250 mile round trip from London to Bournemouth?
And does the panoramic roof make the car really hot in summer?

[MohammadElayyan-kk]

I have the BYD Dolphin 2022 but I'm not sure how the Apple carplay works can you please help me with this ?

[davidtaylorbfd]

Next year we might be downsizing from two to one cars, this car is at the top of the list along with a Toyota Yaris.

[kadiryildiz]

If you really say you would choose this over the MG4 then I definitely trust you. You know one thing for sure..