First drive in BYD’s Atto3: Who’s BYD? It’s only overtaken Tesla as the world’s biggest EV maker

If you’ve not heard of BYD – and it seems likely that you haven’t yet – then rest assured that Warren Buffet has. The long-serving financial wizard of Berkshire Hathaway is an investor in BYD, the car making arm of which has just arrived in Ireland with its new Atto 3 electric crossover.

I say “car making arm” because BYD – while it was the brainchild of one man, engineer Wang Chuanfu (who, if you believe the legend, got this multibillion-dollar behemoth started with seed capital of just €300,000) is a massive engineering conglomerate. In fact, although you’ve probably not heard of BYD, you may well have already interacted with one of its products. Among other interests, it makes electric buses which are sold all over the world.

Cars? Oh yes, it makes cars too. So many, in fact, that BYD last year wrenched the title of world’s biggest EV maker from Tesla. And its chairman is not known for making rash pronouncements on any of the leading social media platforms, which is surely a relief to those of us who prefer to review the products, not the person.

Saying that, I realise that we’re into paragraph four and I’ve barely mentioned the Atto 3. That’s, perhaps, appropriate because even though it’s been designed by Wolfgang Egger – whose back catalogue includes the Alfa Romeo 8C supercar – it’s a quiet-looking thing. Not ugly, certainly. Quietly handsome? Maybe. Striking? Nope.

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Inside, it is much more so. The dashboard ebbs and flows like a spring tide, while the gear selector and over-sized air vents look more like Airbus components than car parts. The high-backed bucket front seats are soft and welcoming, and there’s a massive 15.6-inch rotating touchscreen in the centre of the dash. Rotating? Oh yes – at the touch of a button, it swivels from landscape to portrait layout and back again. Is this useful? Maybe not, but the software that’s running on it could show some Western rivals a thing or two about being easy and intuitive to use, while the small driver’s instrument display should be a reminder to Tesla that one screen is sometimes not enough.

The Atto 3 gets a clever battery, which BYD calls a ‘blade’ battery. Made by BYD, to its own design (told you this was a big company), it eschews the layout of most competitors, who assemble battery packs made of of conjoined individual modules, and instead is just one big continuous battery. It’s also cleaner than that of some rivals, using no hard-to-mine cobalt, and with its 60kWh capacity it promises a range of 420km.

The small driver’s instrument display should be a reminder to Tesla that one screen is sometimes not enough

The only downside is that it’s slow to charge. On AC power, it will only charge at 7kW. On fast DC power, it maxes out at 88kW so this is more of a car for charging at home than trying to do rapid charges en route.

Then again, that 420km range seems realistic. Tested in warm weather, with the air conditioning going, and some briskly driven mountain roads, the Atto 3 clung on to range with impressive steadfastness. With 204hp and 310Nm from its front-wheel drive electric motor, performance is pleasantly brisk rather than outright fast, but the handling and roadholding of our test car was limited by the fact that it was till on winter tyres.

Even so, it felt reasonably easy-going and sure-footed, with a well-controlled ride quality. There doesn’t seem to be much point in shifting between Sport, Normal, and Eco modes, though – they all felt exactly the same to drive, bar a slight reluctance to accelerate in Eco mode. Clearly, we’ll have to wait some months to try it out on a long motorway run in an Irish winter, but the omens are good.

The price is pretty good, too. The Atto 3 starts from €37,128 (including grants and VRT rebate) for the basic Active model, and even the top-spec Design version is a reasonable €38,964. And unlike many rivals, there is supply and stock in hand.

BYD’s ambition is as large as its industrial reach. By the autumn of this year, the Atto 3 will have been joined by two more models – the chunky looking Dolphin hatchback and the sleek, Tesla Model 3-rivalling Seal saloon (yes, the names. Maybe we’ll get used to them). In 2024, it’s expected – but far from confirmed – that a handsome BMW 5 Series rival called the Han will have arrived in right-hand drive.

BYD has far more than that in its armoury. Eventually, it will sell a nine-strong range in Ireland, starting with three dealers (two in Dublin, one in Cork for now, drawn from the Motor Services Limited, MSL, stable). In China, BYD has the YangWang brand, which already makes a sleek electric supercar, the U9, that seems set to take on McLaren, and a chunky SUV called the U8 that has four electric motors, fully active suspension, and 1,100hp . . .

BYD’s eight ships mean that it counts as a larger navy than Estonia

Even that is not a good enough illustration of BYD’s ambitions. Try this one instead. BYD will build factories in Europe (and that’s factories, plural). In the meantime, it must ship its cars from China. There’s a problem with that though. Global shipping is currently in short supply, and it’s horribly expensive. BYD’s solution? Buy its own massive roll-on, roll-off cargo ships. Three of them. And then buy five more when those were filled to capacity. Its eight ships mean that BYD counts as a larger navy than Estonia.

So, for now, you’ve not heard of BYD. You will, though. This is a massive company, employing 600,000 people worldwide. Its design team, under Eggers, currently numbers 650 people, with an expansion to 1,000 planned within the next year, all of them working on 45 separate projects at once.

Those are numbers and statistics calculated to make even the likes of mighty Volkswagen and Toyota weep with envy. The Atto 3 – straightforward, relatively simple, quiet, even – is merely the beginning of something very big.