BYD Dolphin Review

I recently borrowed the BYD Dolphin and took it on a trip to Cornwall, for my first-ever experience of driving an EV long distance. After spending the week using it, I thought I’d share my thoughts on all things Dolphin.

This is a really lovely car, and one that I’ve had my eye on ever since Octopus EV partnered with BYD last year. I normally go for something a little sportier, and I must say that when I initially just looked at pictures, I wasn’t 100% sure that it would be a car I’d find aesthetically pleasing as much as I found it financially viable.

But, after trying it out at an event earlier this year, I immediately loved it - it’s a lovely-looking hatchback on the outside, and has the most gorgeous interior. I’ve seen a few different colourways, from basic all-black to something a little more eye-catching. My friend who I offered taxi services while I was borrowing this car was really impressed by how stylish it feels, and especially enjoyed the look of the air vents, if that’s your kind of thing. My personal favourite is the pink and white, which you do have to custom order and some people have told me it is tacky (which I disagree with entirely). The point though, is that there’s definitely an option for everyone, depending on how flashy you do or don’t want your car to feel.

Also, this car is SO COMFY! The road feels extremely smooth, and the seats are really easy to adjust to a really nice driving position. It feels really roomy and super supportive - no notes.

For a long-distance road trip, this was a great car. My spec of the car had adaptive cruise control which made motorway driving a breeze. It also had a few different driving styles you can set the vehicle to based on your needs or preferences. I found it really intuitive and easy to use, and all the vehicle settings are in one place in the menu, so they’re easy to navigate.

A note on lane assist, as this is a constant forum topic for EVs - yes, I did find it annoying when it’s on, and as an EV novice, I definitely was a bit surprised the first time it tried to correct me. However, it takes less than 5 seconds to switch off on start-up once you know where to look (easily googled), and I knew the location of the settings well enough to do this while driving if I forgot.

I’ll admit I’m a bit of a boy racer (a safe one of course) in my own car, and I do have the need for speed and acceleration. This obviously is not a performance car, but take it out of economy mode and hit the accelerator* (safely) and you might honestly be pleasantly surprised!

*Remember this comment about my driving style for later when we talk about range, shhhh!

The car’s a hatchback that isn’t extremely dissimilar in size to a Ford Fiesta on the outside, but thanks to the EV magic and having no engine in the front, it definitely felt much more spacious than the old Fiesta I used to drive.

I took this car on a bit of a bumper camping trip, and I was worried that I might have to leave some stuff behind since this isn’t the biggest car out there. I was pleasantly surprised though when everything fit in really easily and I could still turn my head to see out of my blind spots and through my rearview mirror.

I managed to fit in the boot:

• A pretty large six-man tent
• Two paddle boards (plus all their kit)
• A double blow-up bed
• Duvet and pillows
• Two decent-sized bean bags
• A camping stove
• Hiking gear
• Clothes for two people for a week
• Three different charging cables for the car
• A gigantic retriever (not at the same time as the above)

With some creative packing all of this fit with space for a third person in the back too. While I put the seats down on the way there, it turned out I didn’t even need to do this as on the way back this all fit without much Tetris (or Jenga either thankfully).

The car is listed to have about 265 miles of range on a full charge. I didn’t quite get this out of the car, but a lot of that is due to the fact that I did push the limits on what you might call an economic driving style, and had an extremely full car too.

I found that the car was perfectly suitable for a long trip, and for me has a much longer range than I would need day-to-day since I’m a city driver most of the time, and if I go away my general weekend trips tend to consist of driving 100 miles or less.

Parking this car was a breeze - which for a city girl without a parking space is essential to me. The 360-degree camera actually tells you how close obstacles are in cm, and where the car has a short boot and bonnet it’s a really easy car to squeeze into any space, and I did have to get into some pretty tight spots in Brighton and Cornwall.

Charging was also really user-friendly - the car tells you how to do it, as do any public chargers if you’re using them. Without turning the car on, the driver’s screen shows an ambient display of how much charge the car has and how long it expects it to take to charge to full, which was super practical to glance at throughout the day while trickle charging.

I’m really into my music, so the sound system of the car I’m driving is very important to me. If nothing else I think the perfect way to listen to a new album is to put the whole thing on in your car on a long drive for the best listening experience.

I listened to a BUNCH of music, since I spent about 20 hours in this car overall, and I was really pleased with the quality. The equaliser is really versatile, and the quality is really quite decent across all pitches (as an aside - if you want a song recommendation and to test out a sound system across all frequencies, my favourite song for this is Tongue by Maribou State, absolutely brilliant song). It’s definitely not the Bose surround sound system that you get in a Porsche Taycan, but since I don’t exactly have Porsche money I wouldn’t think to compare.

All in all, I loved this car, and for the price that Octopus EVs salary sacrifice scheme offers, it’s a no-brainer that this is the car I’ll pick when I’m upgrading my current car to something more sustainable.