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<\/h2>\n<\/h2>\nI recently took a BYD Atto 3 for a test drive – the first EV I’ve ever driven. Here’s what happened on this momentous occasion.
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But before I launch into this BYD Atto review, a little background on my motoring history and reasoning for a shift to an EV. Fast forward if you want to skip this.<\/p>\n
My first car was a Holden JD Camira.<\/p>\n
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That was followed by a procession of mainly cheap second hand vehicles – sedans and vans (I miss vans!). The next stop for these vehicles was always going to be the wreckers given their ages and condition when I bought them. Then I bought a brand-spanking new Great Wall V240 4WD ute kitted out with a Flexiglass canopy, chunky bullbar, custom bash plates and a few other necessary trinkets.<\/p>\n
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No, it was actually a good vehicle for my purposes. I needed a 4WD at the time as I was spending much of it on my own out in the bush. As soon as I wasn’t any more, I got rid of it. The ute never let me down and I figured out that if it lasted at least 5 years I could put a match to it and still wind up ahead of those who had shelled out for what were much pricier 4WDs (and it lasted longer than that).<\/p>\n
Next in line was my current vehicle, a new Mitsubishi ASX purchased in 2018. I’m told it’s a girls car. I’m ok with that and it has been a good, comfortable, economical and problem-free vehicle.<\/p>\n
So, when reading this BYD Atto 3 test drive review, bear in mind.<\/p>\n
The up-front cost of an electric car is frightening. I never thought I’d consider purchasing a vehicle costing much more than what my ASX did.<\/p>\n
But it turns out at the moment I can sell the 4-year-old very-low-k’s and very-well-cared-for vehicle for not much less than what I paid for it. There’s also an EV subsidy in South Australia<\/a>, which I’m hoping will be around long enough for me to benefit from.<\/p>\n Assuming stars align, switchover to the Atto 3 will work out to cost me around the same as the changeover to the ASX did.<\/p>\n The sticker shock of an electric car (mostly) out of the way, there will be quite a bit to look forward to – such as avoiding the petrol pump and charging an electric vehicle<\/a> using the 10kW solar system<\/a> above my head and a dedicated EV charger<\/a> (undecided on which at this point).<\/p>\n Our solar panels are currently sending a lot of output to the grid for just 10c a kilowatt hour feed-in tariff, and I also have a 5kW export limit. Self-consumption is the name of the game when going solar<\/a>, and an EV will certainly help take care of that. Working from a home office means plenty of time for day-time charging.<\/p>\n Then there’s the comparative quietness and other little bonuses such as free rego for the first few years; and my lifestyle pumping less emissions into our already carbon-dioxide-soaked atmosphere.<\/p>\n There should also be some savings on servicing; although with the Atto 3 it won’t be as much as some other electric vehicles. BYD has a pretty strict servicing schedule, whereas it appears Elon Musk has sort of said “eh, whatever – do this, don’t do it” for Tesla vehicles and the warranty remains in place.<\/p>\n I had heard some scary things about insurance costs, but on checking with my insurer it only works out to be around $90 more a year for a comprehensive policy.<\/p>\n Another reason for heading down the EV path is my partner’s car – a Kia Cerato – is getting on. She covers far more kilometres than me; but we wouldn’t get as much for her car and it has some useful years left in it. The idea is we’ll share the Atto for a couple of years, then we’ll ditch the Cerato for another EV. Whatever that will be, it must feature V2H instead of V2L, which is what the Atto offers. But more on that in a bit.<\/p>\n We still don’t have a great range of electric vehicles to choose from in Australia thanks in part to a lack of fuel efficiency standards<\/a>, which will hopefully be rectified soon<\/a>.<\/p>\n As the Atto was at the extreme upper end of what I was prepared to pay, that left even less choice. The only other candidate in terms of what I was after was the MG ZS EV.<\/p>\n I also looked at options such as The Good Car Company<\/a>, which offers second-hand electric vehicles brought in from overseas; some of which have reasonably low kilometres. I still haven’t totally discounted that possibility.<\/p>\n The Atto 3 is “COOL AND FUN, SMOOTH AND SAFE” – thus states the brochure<\/a>.<\/p>\n Its dimensions are 4.45m (L), 1.875m (W) and 1.615m (H). It has a laden ground clearance of 150mm and weighs in at 1,680kg for the standard and 1,750kg for the extended range.<\/p>\n It’s a front-wheel drive with single electric motor generating 150kW of power and 310Nm of torque.\u00a0BYD claims a 0 – 100kmh acceleration time of 7.3 seconds.<\/p>\n The Atto 3’s battery – which boasts BYD’s Blade Battery tech<\/a> – has 49.92 kWh capacity for the standard model and 60.48 kWh for the extended. The battery chemistry is lithium iron phosphate; widely regarded as the most stable and safe common lithium-ion chemistry.<\/p>\n BYD claims a WLTP combined driving range of 345 km for the standard and 420 km for the extended. I expect that would be optimistic under real-world conditions.<\/p>\n Other features of the Atto, to name a few, well, a lot – but not all:<\/p>\n …and the list goes on. There’s a dizzying array of features and a bunch of acronyms I needed to look up. Some of these whizz-bang features are why the Atto 3 has a 5-star ANCAP safety score.<\/p>\n While some of the non-safety bling and bits are a bit gimmicky, a feature I find attractive is V2L, which stands for Vehicle-To-Load. The car is capable of powering appliances via a special cable with a plug on one end that connects to the Atto’s charging port, and a powerboard at the other end you can plug appliances into.<\/p>\n This setup offers up to 3.3kW peak output and continuous output of 2.2kW.<\/p>\n It’s not the most elegant of home backup energy storage solutions. But we’d be able to power some critical appliances (e.g. fridge, lighting, notebook) in an extended blackout for days.<\/p>\n Assuming we started out with a full battery, there would still be enough juice in the Atto to (maybe) escape the suburbs if said extended blackout is the result of four horsemen of the apocalypse rocking up to Adelaide. Actually, things were looking a bit that way on the weekend<\/a>.<\/p>\n I heard BYD is also coming out with some Vehicle-To-Home (V2H) capable vehicles soon – and that’s where things will get really interesting. In our situation, it would do away with the need\/desire for a home battery.<\/p>\nSettling On The BYD Atto 3 (For Now)<\/h2>\n
Atto 3 Specs ‘N Such<\/h2>\n
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V2L And The Apocalypse<\/h2>\n
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