This is the problem with CHEAP cars
This is the second cheapest electric car after the Dacia spring. It’s from BYD and in other markets it’s called the BYD Seagull, but because apparently us Brits don’t like seagulls, they’ve renamed it the Dolphin Surf. Now, in this video, watching Car W. First though, I’m going to tell you why you should care about this BYD. For starters, it’s one of the bestselling cars in China. Over 60,000 were registered in May alone, and it’s insanely cheap. In the Chinese market, the actual car only costs the equivalent of £6,000, but in the UK, it’s more expensive because there’s upgraded safety kits, plus obviously import duty that you have to add on. Anyway, it’s still one of the cheapest new cars you can buy. But is this car cheap for a reason, or is it an underrated bargain that’s flying under everyone’s radar? We’ll find out in this video. But straight away, I have spotted a problem. The BYD dolphin surf is a bit of an oddlooking thing. It’s not ugly, but it’s not pretty either. There’s something about it sort of reminds me of the old Chevy Bolt or Chevy Spark, and they weren’t great looking things. Bit topheavy, bit squary. Anyhow, this is the rangetopping version, but all versions basically have the same kit on them. Apart from this range topper has LED lights. Other ones have normal H hallogen lights, which feel a little bit cheap in this day and age. Now, this is the only standard color, right? If you want a different color, you have to pay for it. And there’s only three other colors, white, blue, and black. Moving out the side, you got some cladding there to just break up the yellowess of it all. Entry- level model has 15-in steel wheels. That’s how it’s achieved. Every other version has 16in alloys. So, you can see these door handles there. flush with the body to improve aerodynamics. You got quite a weird crease going on down there just to give it some shape. And this is the part that for me looks like the Chevy Spark or Bolt or whatever you want to call it. Bit of extra black going on there to make it look sporty. Quite a narrow rising window line at the back. How is that going to affect rear visibility at the side? We’re going to find out. Now, at the rear, we’ve got a full length light bar there, which sort of looks cool, but once again, there’s something slightly odd about it to my eyes. And then you got like this birthing its bumper, isn’t it? It’s like pushing it out. It’s crowning. Doesn’t look anywhere near as cool as a Highendai Insta, does it? If you want to see my said this car is called the Seagull in other markets. Well, here’s proof. Listen to the jingle when I turn the car on. Just listen. [Music] Can you hear the seagulls and the war? I’ll do it again. The seagull screech, but now you actually get them chirping as well when you turn it on. [Music] Anyway, the inside of this car, you can tell it’s built down to a very low price. So, the materials are pretty scratchy. There are some softy bits here, which is good where you put your arms. Yeah. And on the dash, though, have a look here. Looks like this has come away from the surface underneath like the glue has failed. The design is all right, I guess. I’m not convinced about this. Look, we have these little vents there which blow air to demiss the windows. But I think kids will poke stuff down there and you end up with a rattle in the dash. Another thing that sort of gives me that tripper phobia, you know, that kind of fear of things that look like they’ve got holes in them. Can’t look at it. Can’t look at it. Can’t fault the seats though. I do really like them. And they’re the same regardless of which trim you go for. The steering wheel feels all right on this topsp spec version. And you can control the screen here and the digital driver display using these buttons here. I have to say the speedo is a little bit small. That’s it. That’s That’s all you get for the Speedo. Now, the infotainment system itself, it’s all right. It’s a cheap car. One thing that’s annoying about it is the fact that you have these shortcut buttons here, but you can only choose from those ones. Whereas, actually, do you know what? I’d like some of the other features on the main screen, but no, I’m not allowed it. It’s sort of intuitive until you get into the real detail, like the settings to really bury down into certain menus to figure out what’s going on. And look at the size of the font. I’m quite old, so my eyesight isn’t great. That is a little bit too small. And when you’re trying to drive and press things, it’s impossible. Especially when you’re being monitored by this little device here, which is making sure you got your eyes on the road and you know, one glance like and it’s the whole car’s screaming at you going, “No, you’re not paying attention.” Anyway, look, you can do this with the screen though. Press this button here. That is a massive horse fly. It wants to bite me, but it won’t get to look. Look at that. Look at that. I’ve saved horses from pain. Anyway, the screen. Do you want it in portrait or do you want it in landscape? Options, options, options. Well, that’s quite clever. BYD has missed a trick with these buttons here. Rather than just having buttons that you press, you actually rock them. And there’s certain things you can control here, like you can turn the air conditioning on and off. But that’s all you do. You rock it on and you rock it back for off. And then you have to alter the fan speed by pressing this tiny button yet again on the screen like that. Why didn’t you, considering you can rock the switch, just have rocket on to setting 1 2 3 4 5 and then back all the way to off? Just madness. They should have done that for all the buttons. Weird. And then there’s a drive selector, which is another rocker switch there, which is strange. And then they have the park just on the side like that. I suppose it’s quite neat and tidy. Just a bit of a missed opportunity. Another missed opportunity is this. A lot of cars I like to use just the voice commands when the menu for the climate is just so hard to work when you’re driving. But with this one, set temperature to 20°. I can set the temperature up to level 17. I’ll adjust it to that instead. Level 17. I just want 20°. What does that even mean? Temperature is already set to the maximum. Why don’t you have like climate control? I don’t understand. Anyway, I’m going to move on from that. Top versions also get wireless charging and wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. Though I do find it a little bit laggy. That’s so bad. But rather than enough of that, let’s um let’s just go back to the normal system. Right, storage. So, in here you have a glove box that’s average in size. Got some cup holders there. More on those later. We’ve got a place for your mobile phone. Down here you have USBC. You got normal USB and good old 12vt. So, every kind of connection you’d want. And this big storage area down here as well. The door bins, well, they are an okay size. You can fit big bottles in them. And that is pretty much all you need to know. Oh, let’s just check this. Vantir is good. And I’m looking very sweaty. And look, this is so new. It’s even got that little cover over the light. Should I do it? Should I peel it off? Satisfying. I’m quite impressed with the back seats on this BYD. So, head room, that’s good enough. Knee room is pretty decent. The seats aren’t too close to the floor like they are in many electric cars. So, you do have some under thigh support, and you can stretch out a little bit underneath the seat in front. That is good. And you got a completely flat floor, so there’s plenty of space for everyone’s feet. Say everyone. Only two people can sit back here. It’s a strict two-seater in the rear. When it comes to fitting a baby seat, the back doors open nice and wide. The IceFix anchor points are easy to get to and locate. And even if you’re using one of those big bulky rearfacing seats, you don’t have to move the front passenger seat forward at all cuz there’s plenty of space. So, it’s all good pretty much, but we’ve got some storage there. We’ve got some more storage here. The door bins here in the back are big as well. You don’t feel cheaped out in the back compared to the front. Like some cars, they get rid of all like the soft touch materials for the rear as passengers, but not here. It’s exactly the same as for the people in the front. There is something that’s not so good though. Minor complaint, rear windows don’t go all the way down, but actually where you’re going to put your arm, that doesn’t actually matter. One thing that is a bit odd is this. Look, the way the front seat belts are mounted, I guess it works and does the job, and it’s all about keeping the cost down, but that just looks a little bit cheap. The boot capacity of the Dolphin Ser is 308 L, which is slightly less than a Renault 5. 5, I managed to fit four airplane size carry-on suitcases. Let’s see how many we can fit in this. I should point out that this does not have a low cover. So, I don’t need one because of the angle of these seats. Keeps things hidden behind them. So, let’s see what can we do. They fit like that. This last one is going to be problematic. Maybe like that. That ain’t going to work. No, it’s got to keep it below the seats. That ain’t shutting. That’s not shutting. No, it’s a score of three. Slightly awkward shaped boot this, isn’t it? Quite a big load lip as well. I don’t see if it’ll shut with three. Come on, you got to do three. Yes, just you can of course fold the rear seats down like that. But because it’s a budget car, you don’t have an adjustable boot floor. Oh, you also have seat belts that snag. You just saw that. There is definitely no sliding thing straight to the front cuz look at that big lip. It’s more of a flip to the front. There are a few tie down points there though. Tie down point. Tie down point. Tie down point. There is some storage under here and that’s where you keep your battery leads. So I suppose you could take this out and maybe you fit some more stuff in there. But then where are you going to keep all this? Anyhow, that brings me to five annoying things about the BYD dolphin stuff. These rear doors are actually quite long. Look at this. So it makes them harder to open in tight spaces, but when you actually open the door, you do realize a lot of it’s just body panels. So this is the opening required for the actual door to get in. And it goes all the way back here. Kids are just going to be like squeezing out there and bashing into other cars, aren’t they in the car park, and it’s going to be all your fault as a parent for choosing this car over something else. With a lot of cars, if you want people to be able to do things like operate the windows, but not actually drive the car, you turn the ignition on by pressing the button. Well, on this car, it doesn’t let you. It says, “Put your foot on the brake and turn the ignition on.” And so now I have there we go. The ignition is on. I can operate the windows. But let’s say you then want to leave the kids in the car. Well, you go off and do something like in a shop or something, but they still need to be able to open the windows and stuff. Get out of the car. And this is what happens. So if you wouldn’t mind just jumping in, Jack, and showing us. You see, if you have one thing on, then everything’s on, including the ability to drive away. Not ideal. And like with other many electric cars, there is no front boot. You can see the space where you could actually make one if they just move some of these things around. But obviously being a cheap car, they couldn’t be asked spending the cash to do that. The cup holders don’t have any grippers in them, and they are quite wide. Obviously designed for massive vats of coffee. So when you have a normal size bottle in them, if you break suddenly, that’s going to topple over. Or if you accelerate suddenly, that’s going to topple over and your drink’s going to go everywhere. Despite being a brand new car and electric for that matter, there doesn’t seem to be any USB connections here in the back. However, it’s not all bad news because you can charge some pretty heavy duty items in the front. The car’s USB ports output 60 W of power, which means you can run your laptop off it. Listen. There we go. Charging. Also, all models get vehicle to load. So, you get an adapter, you can plug it into the charging port, and then you can plug into that any household appliance and it will run it. Even something like a microwave or a fridge, which I had with us today cuz it is like 30 odd degrees and I’m sweating. Electric cars by law have to make a noise when they’re reversing to warn pedestrians. And normally that noise is just a generic. This one though sounds like wind chimes. It’s quite nice. Have a listen. All models, even the entry level car, gets adaptive cruise control, which will keep you a safe distance from the car in front lock. You can alter the distance and it’ll automatically steer to keep you in lane. They also all get a reversing camera as standard. So if you go to this range comfort model, you then get a surround view camera like this. And if I press 3D, there we go. Look, that’s a really, really, really good image. And if I open my door, it shows it on there. And open the rear right door. Left, but it’s not not a problem. Lewis doesn’t know his right from his left, but the car does. Look. Cool. There’s iceix angle points here on the front passenger seat. So it means there’s room for three baby seats in the car. Done. Oh, you can’t do it that way cuz the um airbag need to turn the airbug off. How do we turn the airbag off? Oh, we have to do it through the screen. I’ll do that later. But anyway, oh, I didn’t think that was fixed. Be very good in an accident that I’m supposed to be a father. This budget car actually comes with a 6year warranty. That’s one of the best warranties out there. The Dolphin Surf is available with two battery sizes. A 30 kW, which gives you a claimed range of 137 mi, which isn’t that much, or a 43 kW, which will give you a claimed range of about 200 mi, which also isn’t that much. And then there’s three different trim levels to choose from and two power outputs. 88 horsepower or 156, which is what this rangetopping car has. Now, if you get the most expensive model with the biggest battery, it can charge at up to 85 kW on DC charging, which once again isn’t that fast, is it? But which lease for this BYD cost from £255 per month. For that money, you could get an MG4 or for £8 less each month, you could have a Renault 5. That car has more range, a better interior, and a way more stylish design. And this is one of the issues that I have with the Dolphin Surf. It looks cheap on paper, but there are fantastic deals out there on some better cars. Essentially, what this means is that you really need to do your research to find out exactly how much this car is going to cost you. be it to buy outright the reality the deal that you’re going to get from a dealer or on lease and compare it to a Renault 5, compare it to an MG4 cuz you might actually work out that those cars can sometimes be cheaper or at least not that big of a stretch to upgrade and they do actually feel like proper upgrades over this car. I don’t know though. You need to check it out for yourself. Do the maths. Head on to car. It’s dead simple to do. Okay. But maybe this car can, you know, pull something back by being absolutely mega and awesome to drive. Let’s find out if it is. Right. All right, let’s time this car from naugh to 60 mph. Going to use my specialist timing gear. We’re in sport mode. ESC off. Let’s go. Decent pickup. Didn’t spin its wheels at all. And 60 mph is done. It’s supposed to do in 9.1 seconds. It did in 7.76. That’s quite punchy really. That N 60 time really surprised me. And this car has actually surprised me a bit. When I first drove it, I really didn’t like it at all. just thought an MG4, which is rear wheel drive, it handles better. It’s more fun. A Renault 5, it’s just more comfy and more luxurious. And the steering and the throttle pedal just feel more natural. And a Highendai Insta has better brakes. And it’s also got a cooler vibe to it. What’s the point of this? But I have spent more time with it. And I started to think rather than like a motoring journalist when I’m having to be hyper critical, I’m thinking more like just a normal person who probably doesn’t backtoback cars every day like I do. And I’ve just viewed this car in isolation and I’ve changed my mind. I’ve started to warm to it a bit. You see, I’ve learned that you need to drive this car in sport mode because in the other modes just the steering and the throttle just feel horrid to tell you the truth. Just unresponsive. But in sport though, much better. Then there’s the suspension. It’s kind of like a bit bouncy and bobbly. It’s always moving around beneath you, but it’s not uncomfortable. sort of reminds me, you know, of those nodding dog toys that people have in the back of their cars where their necks are spring and they’re just constantly going like that. It’s a bit what this car is like to drive. I don’t hate it, though. It’s okay. I can put up with that. And anyway, what I found is that while it may seem a little bit shaky and unstable, it’s not. Think of it a bit like a chameleon. You know how a chameleon like moves and it’s like a bit shaky, but it’s always certain in what it’s doing. I think that’s what this car is like. You see, I’ve actually just driven this thing down some twisty roads quite quickly. And it handled surprisingly well. And cameraman Lewis, who sat there next to me, he was like, “Matt, no one is going to drive this car like you just have,” which is kind of proof that it’s more than up to the task in the handling department. And anyway, most people who drive this car are just going to really appreciate how easy it is to drive in town. So, you got good visibility all around and an incredibly small turning circle. It’s like a London taxi. You can just go round and round and round and round and round. I love it for that. What I don’t love though is the fact that you don’t have one pedal drive like you do in some other electric cars. So, you always have to press the brakes to slow down and you can’t even alter the amount of regen you have like you can in pretty much every other electric car. I also don’t love that the safety system is so sensitive. It always thinks you’re going to sleep when you’re quite clearly wide awake. Believe me, I’ve had three coffees today. I ain’t about to drop off. Anyway, the brakes. I really don’t like the brakes. They just feel awful. Unnatural. And if you so much as press them slightly firmly, the hazard lights come on. But don’t panic because the performance on this car is easily adequate and up to the job. You know, you can get up to motorway speeds easily enough and even overtake people. And actually, when you’re traveling at higher speeds, it’s quite comfy. It’s reasonably quiet. Actually, I’m surprised how quiet it is. All that I can really notice is a bit of road noise and some wind flutter from around those big door mirrors. In terms of efficiency, I’m averaging 4 m per kowatt hour. When I multiply that out by the battery capacity, we’re looking at a real world range of 173 mi, which isn’t loads, but it’s still 89% of what the manufacturer claims. And I guess that’s okay. And that pretty much sums up what this car is like to drive. It’s okay. It’s just that an MG4, Renault 5, and a Highendai Insta are better. However, that efficiency figure I mentioned is really important because 4 m per kowatt hour is better than I managed in the MG4, the Hyundai Insta, and the Citroen EC3. That’s one good thing about small electric cars like this BYD with small batteries. They have less weight to carry around, so they tend to be more efficient. This means they cost less to run and it helps keep the purchase price down. But if you’re looking for the most efficient small EV, you might be better off with a Renault 5. That averaged 4.2 2 m per kowatt hour when I tested it earlier this year. And there’s something else about this BYD which isn’t quite up to the Renault standard. Brake test from 60 m an hour. Let’s do it. If we could get to about 35 m, that’ll be good. 3 2 1 Oh, that is That is sketch under braking. Didn’t like that at all. And 41 m. It was like all over the place. That is not great. So then what’s my final verdict on the new BYD dolphin surf? Should you avoid it, consider it, shortlist it, or just go right ahead and buy it? Well, I reckon you should consider it.
Save up to £3750 on an EV with the Electric Car Grant: https://bit.ly/Electric-Car-Grant-2025
This is the all-new BYD Dolphin Surf!
It’s the second cheapest electric car you can buy in the UK, with the Dacia Spring still holding the crown for the cheapest electric car on sale. The question is, with a starting price of just £18,650, should you choose the BYD over its nearest & dearest rivals? Let’s take a closer look.
In terms of the exterior design, it’s certainly a bit of an eye-catcher, especially in this luminous yellow paint! There’s quite a bit of black cladding to be found across the car to help break up the colours, although the front end still has an overall strange design. Along the side, you’ll find flush door handles to help with aerodynamics, while at the back, there’s a relatively large boot lid spoiler as well as a full-length light bar – not bad for a car at such a low price point!
On the inside, the BYD Dolphin Surf comes with a number of qualities you would expect from a car at such a low price point. Bar a couple of areas on the doors and the dash, there are scratchy plastics throughout. Thankfully, the steering wheel is of a good size and comes with several functionality buttons. There is also a digital dial and infotainment screens, but the dials are relatively small and include a very small speedometer, while the infotainment system can be a bit laggy. There are a couple of physical buttons, but there are more rocker-style buttons rather than clickable ones.
There are two battery options available for the Dolphin Surf – a 30kW with 137 miles of range, or a 43kW with up to 200 miles of range. There are three trim levels and two motor options available: the entry-level 88hp, or a 156hp one.
So does the Dolphin Surf sound appealing to you? Or would you rather splash out on something a bit pricier? Let us know in the comments!
Change your car with Carwow: https://bit.ly/Change-Your-Car-0708
Mat’s BYD Dolphin Surf choice: https://bit.ly/Mats-BYD-Choice-0708
Hyundai Inster review: https://bit.ly/Hyundai-Inster-Review-0708
Renault 5 review: https://bit.ly/Renault-5-Review-0708
Chapters
00:00 Intro
00:35 Price
00:58 Design
02:28 Interior
06:35 Back Seats
07:39 Boot
09:06 Annoying Features
10:37 Good Features
12:21 Batteries, Range & Motors
13:45 Buying vs Leasing
14:42 0-60mph
15:04 Driving Impressions
18:44 Brake Test
19:01 Verdict
