Why we’re running it: To find out if this quirky newcomer is a serious prospect or a flash in the pan
Month 3 - Month 2 - Month 1 - Specs
Life with a BYD Atto: Month 3
Automatic headlights are responsive, but poor on dipped beam - 21 November
The Atto’s headlights are something of a contradiction: excellent on full beam but bordering on inadequate on dipped beam. Perhaps I need to delve into the menus again to try to adjust their height. Fortunately, the automatic functionality is superresponsive, flicking them back to full as soon as oncoming traffic has passed. And the light bar that runs across the nose looks cool.
Mileage: 6672
The Atto 3 is pricy, but comes with some premium kit - 1 November
A few people have said that the BYD seems expensive for a newcomer, at a little under £40,000. But its features match far costlier cars’, not least the exceptional 360deg camera system, something that was once the preserve of seriously high-end cars. The range of views is remarkable and the accuracy is pinpoint, plus it appears on the touchscreen automatically to help you see out of tricky junctions
Mileage: 5231
Life with a BYD Atto: Month 2
Lock and load: our EV makes easy work of both those jobs - 25 October
A lot of my driving life seems to revolve around my cars’ load-carrying ability, to the extent that boot space has become a bit of an obsession: I’ve got two highly strung dogs who don’t like being too close together, I regularly carry huge loads when restocking the local food bank, I’m the school run taxi most days for four kids and, in the case of an EV, I’m often having to get the charging cable out.
With all that in mind, I was a little concerned about how the Atto 3 was going to work out in daily life, given its published capacities of 440 litres of boot space, rising to 550 litres when filling to the roof and 1338 litres with the rear seats folded.
In practice, however, I can’t help feeling that those numbers are a little pessimistic. I’m presuming they were measured with the two-level floor in its uppermost position – which leaves a huge space beneath to store the two very bulky charging cable bags – and further impacted by the weirdly low-set rear parcel shelf, which is a disappointingly flimsy item in comparison to the impressive quality of the rest of the interior.
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I don't understand. First Autocar writes:Lock and Load: our EV makes easy work of both thosr jobs. Then it writes: Love and loathe
Obviously auto car don't read posts on their own site. Month 3, 7000 miles and still no comment regarding V12's post below