BYD Atto 2: China’s Best Effort Yet?
[Music] So BYD, remarkable company. They’ve not been in this country for very long. They’ve been making cars for not very long. They’re about the same age as Tesla, but my goodness, they’re making a lot of them. And this is the latest one to come to the European market. This one is coming to the UK. This is the BYD at 2. And I’ve just started driving it. I’m not going to lie. It’s very, very nice. Anyway, that’s the BYD2. And this is the Everything Electric Cars Show. Our three free YouTube channels on EVs and clean tech are funded by our fun-packed test driveetastic events in Farra, London, the Southwest, the North, Melbourne, and Sydney, and next up, Everything Electric Farra. And new for UK viewers, you can now buy a battery EV and much more at everythingleelectric.store. Now, back to the episode. [Music] I think it’s safe to say that when you first see the BYD at 2, you don’t go, “Oh my god, what have they done with the design? It’s insane.” It’s very sane. It is very sane. But it is actually styled by a man called Wolf Gang Edgar, and he designed the Alfa Romeo 8C and the legendary Audi R8, which I do know that car, and that is pretty stylish car. So, it’s got some design chops in it, but I think it’s a very smoothlooking, very simple looking, unobtrusive car that just does the job that you want it to do, which is to be a car, isn’t it? That’s really the primary thing. One of the things I did find out, I thought it might have a frunk. It doesn’t. So, I’ve got used to having a charge point here. I was always a charge point at the back, man, but I’ve moved on. I want a charge point here. This is good. It’s on this side. I like that. That means you can use any chargers you like. Very good. Like that. I the the styling of it around here I quite like. It’s sort of rugged but without being too over the top. It’s not pretending it’s like a massive off-road beast, but it looks chunky and very stable. Getting in and out. Very easy. Nice big doors, nice high roof, very easy for an old man. Don’t have to bend and grunt. This is a grunt-free car. So, the boot, let’s have a look. Manual. No buttons. You have to lift it yourself. Well, you don’t have to. It does lift itself up. So, that’s 400 L with the seats up and it is 1,340 L with the seats down and they do fold down flat. It’s got no lip here. Very easy to load stuff in. It has another compartment underneath there so you could put all your cables or a lot of other stuff in there. It’s got plenty of storage basically. And then when you’ve put stuff in the back, you got to close it manually. Oh my god, that was exhausting. That arm is absolutely frayed. Now, I do like the rear lights cuz there’s so many cars that we’ve looked at in the last few years that have the big bar across the back and somehow similar. This is kind of got a weird knotted twisty thing which I quite like. I haven’t actually seen this before cuz I’ve been driving it so I’ve only looked out the front but that I really like and it does now feel smaller than the AT3 which I am quite used to and it feels like it’s next step up. It’s it’s kind of it’s the next generation. and it it’s a better looking car altogether, I think. So, the BYD at2 comes in two flavors. The Boost, which costs £30,850, has a 51 kWh uh battery and about a 200 220 mi range somewhere in that uh in that area. And then the Comfort costs £34,950 and has a 64 kWh battery, which gives it a 267 270 mile range or thereabouts. They all come with a six-year warranty on the car and an eightyear warranty on the battery. What does that tell us? That the company knows that the battery is going to long last longer than the car because they wouldn’t give it a warranty if it’s only going to last 3 years and then you throw the battery away as so many people like to pontificate. [Music] So, I’ve had a bit of experience with BYD cars because when I was in Australia earlier this year, I had access to my sister-in-law’s BYD at 3, uh, which I really love driving and we drove it a lot. Thank you, Margaret. It’s very kind of you. Um, really just such an easy car to drive and I’ve got to say this feels very, very familiar. Now, I’m assuming that if I actually had the ATO three to compare it with, this is smaller, but it doesn’t feel smaller inside. Okay, so I got a little bit distracted then and immediately on the dash an I appears and it says, “Keep your eyes on the road.” So, there’s quite a lot. I’ve only driven this car now maybe a couple of miles and there’s quite a lot of beeping, binging, bonging, and bunging. uh and all of them relevant, but I’m I could question whether they’re all genuinely helpful on once you really got used to this car, you may find yourself turning some of those off. So, we’re driving through we’re basically driving around uh Pinewood Studios in the UK, but this is a big park next to Pinewood Studios. So, we’re in a fairly rural area here, and they’ve advertised this car as an urban car, and which is fine. I mean, it’s better to have an urban car like this than to have an urban car with a diesel engine, let’s be honest. But it doesn’t feel that compact. And I’ve I’ve been recently driving the Renault 5, which just feels much smaller than this. Now, I’m not sure how much smaller. Obviously, a little bit, but probably not that much, but it feels smaller. This feels like quite a big car. I feel like quite high up. It’s a compact SUV. The most popular segment. What did people buy in 2024? 33% of all new car sales were large SUVs. So there is a market for them. We can argue against it till we’re blew in the face, but that’s what people are buying. So you can’t really blame a company like BYD for making at least a compact BY uh compact SUV uh for the for this market. So, as you know, I’m really good at delivering really indepth complex uh appraisals of the driving style of the handling of the vehicle. Not I’m not going to push this car in terms of its road holding and go around corners really fast because why would you? And you’ve probably got two kids in the back and a load of shopping. You know, you’ll spill your Waitro’s oat milk. So, you know, that’s not what this car is for. But it’s so confident and easy on the on the on the nerves, you know. It’s just really really comfy, easy car to drive. Really good visibility, really good brakes, adequate acceleration, really comfortable. You know, it’s I all those things. It’s more, you know, it’s unusual to find a car that doesn’t have them, but some of them have them, but they’re quite awkward. This one has them, and it’s really, really easy to use. So that is, you know, very hard to be critical of that. [Music] I’ve got to say, I sat in this car, it is so simple. It is so clear, and the components that you need to do the basic driving are just really intuitively in the right place. You got a button here that tells you immediately all the different uh uh aspects of the vehicle, the tire pressures, how many kilowatt hours you’re using to 100 miles, all those sort of thing. Your average speed, it’s daredevil speed. My average speed’s been 9 miles an hour in the last hour of driving. So, not that fast. Phone charger instantly. It’s obviously there. It’s 50 W. Uh it’s got cooling, so it blows cold air over the phone so it doesn’t get too hot. It works really, really well. I’ve only had it my phone’s only been there for an hour and it’s actually gone up to it went from 50 to 75%. That is amazing. Um the materials I don’t I mean Jack would be wonderful with this but they’re they’re really nice. I mean they’re soft. This I think is all plastic. I don’t even know that there is the camera that is looking at my eyes all the time to make sure I’m looking at the road. And I think that I did start to find a little bit intrusive. um how much information is being sent from that camera back to China, which is what people like to worry about. I don’t think it is. I I think they’ve got better things to do. But in case you get very angry with the car, you can just swear and be really abusive to that little camera and it will get through to the people required. Don’t do that. That’s not pleasant. All this stuff comes as standard with this car. This isn’t extra bits. It’s amazing. It’s got other buttons here. That’s the drive selector. uh all those things uh volumes is there. So very very manual um controls are the really important things. It’s all buttons and and and scroll wheels which are really once you know where those are, you wouldn’t even think about it when you’re driving. You go turn the volume down, turn the volume up. Other one I really like is the three fingers on the screen. So you go three fingers down and you set your temperature for higher or lower. That is amazing because that means you don’t have to look. You just go like that. It was a bit too hot. I’ll turn it down a bit. That’s incredible. Works so well. Doesn’t matter what screen setting it’s on. If it’s on the map, if it’s on anything, doesn’t matter. Always always works. Genius. Now, the back that is very roomy, that back. And that is a an older gentleman getting in the back of a car without grunting. Very important points. Gruntfree access. This has lovely big chunky handles. I like that little door pocket there when you’re in the back. USB 2 chargers there. pockets in the backs of the seats. Very nice, actually. And that would be very good for phones. Good visibility over the shoulder of the driver or passenger cuz that can be a problem in a back of a modern cars with a big headrest and everything. Little coat hook. Cute. Uh little reading light up there. Little handle for some people less able-bodied. That always helps to be able to pull yourself out of a car. Beautiful sunroof. Amazing. Big big sunroof. That’s lovely. All standard. Keep saying it. All standard. That’s what this car comes with. Um, and really comfortable seats. Now, one thing I’m slightly embarrassed about is I’ve got muddy paw marks all over my trousers now. Well, we met a gentleman taking his dog for a walk in the park where we’re stopped in and it was such a cute dog and it kept jumping up and doing and then it walked away and that was the end of it. And then I looked down at my trousers which were spotless this morning. They’re now filthy. Part of the joy of filming cars in parks. [Music] Oh, keep eyes on road. That’s when it gets me. What you can’t do when you’re driving this car, I’ve discovered, is drive past a film set where they’re filming Marvel Adventures, have a little stare up at all the lights and all the action going on, and then it tells you off for not looking at where you’re going, which is right. It should do, but I am driving very slowly. But I think this one’s going to make a big impact because it’s smaller and slightly cheaper and the technology in it once people have experienced it’ll go all right. So the range is amazing. The batteries LFP, so uh lithium ion phosphate batteries, no cobalt, no nickel, hugely easily recyclable, much longer lasting than any other battery chemistry we’ve got so far. So more charge and discharge cycles. Here’s a really important thing that you might not think about if you haven’t driven uh an electric vehicle. New electric cars still have lead acid batteries because all the electronics work from that. So all the everything that’s electric that isn’t the the the force that drives you along is coming from your 12vt battery and they they stop working. They run out. They go flat and you can’t start the car. An electric car can have a full uh, you know, a full drive battery, but you still can’t use it. I’ve had to jump start a Nissan Leaf from a diesel Land Rover. That’s how absurd it is. Well, this car and now all BYD cars have exactly the same battery chemistry in their 12vt battery that recharges from the big drive battery will last, you know, like 25 years longer than a lead acid battery. You won’t need to replace it. you won’t need to charge it. You won’t need to jumpst start your electric car from a diesel car. And I think that is a very good starting point. Uh you know to for goodness sake that is a bit of old technology that’s that’s hung on to uh to electric cars and the sooner we don’t have any lead acid batteries the better. [Music] What I’ve decided is it’s very hard to not like the BYD at2. It just does it just does the job that you want it to do. I think it’s really good. I mean, I would have one without at the drop. It’s like it’s such a good car. Why not? Fantastic thing just to get around in. Um, that’s all really. I really like it. I want to have another go in one for longer. I’ll talk to BYD, see what I can get. Anyway, I’ll shut up. That’s all. Please tell your mates about everything electric cars. We’re going to be doing a lot more cars. There’s some amazing cars coming out in the next few months. I can’t believe it. The range of sizes, prices, all those things is extraordinary. Um, uh, please do subscribe if you haven’t done already. Please let us know what you think in the comments. And as always, if you have been, thank you for listening, watching [Laughter]
Robert takes a first look at the brand-new BYD Atto 2, the latest EV to join BYD’s rapidly expanding lineup. While BYD is still relatively new to car manufacturing, they’ve become one of the world’s biggest EV producers, and they’re showing no signs of slowing down.
The Atto 2 is a compact electric hatchback designed for urban driving, affordability, and efficiency. It’s built on BYD’s e-Platform 3.0, features the company’s in-house Blade Battery technology, and offers an impressive mix of tech, range, and value.
It’s just landed in Europe and is making its way to the UK soon. Could this be a real challenger in the EV market? Let’s find out.
01:00 Design
01:40 Charging
02:10 Boot
02:45 Rear Lights
03:15 Cost, Battery & Range
04:00 Test Drive
07:15 Tech, Software and Hardware
09:20 Touch-screen
09:40 Rear seats
10:15 Sunroof
11:15 Battery
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