I drove the BYD Dolphin standard range - and was surprised!
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- Опубликовано: 2 июл 2024
- BYD's Dolphin is set to launch, and while most of the attention has been on the extended range model, we got our hands on the Standard Range for a quick drive!
For more, visit evsandbeyond.co.nz 
Авто/Мото
There is a Uber driver in Rio de Janeiro using a Dolphi (44.9 Kwh), first day out had AC on for 13 hours straight, did 327 km in town, arrived home with 20% charge, not bad in my view!
I got my Dolphin Extended range 1 week ago and I am quite happy with it.
Would love to hear more of your Dolphin experience. Still waiting for the Dolphin in Brisbane and can't wait for a test drive. Have you experienced any significant shortcomings?
@@kevindgillam After 1,000 km I can confirm what the reviews say. I am very happy with the car. There are some things I miss from our Mazda CX-5 and CX-8 but I won't go back to them for my daily use.
I could write a long review but this space is not made for that...
Good for commute for sure
@@Mariobrownio1989 Thanks!
A great video. Well done.
I’m glad you said it’s not a sports car, it seems every other reviewer wants to test cars like this and the Atto 3 as if they were sports cars and rag on them when they don’t perform like one.
A great review and a car reviewed for what it is. Nice work.
Thanks! 👍
Great review , cheers
Thanks 👍
The let down of the BYD entry level compared to the MG4 is the motor which is substantially more powerful, plus RWD. I do like the interior of the BYD. I personally got the MG4. If it's the next model above I would get the BYD.
In our mind the MG4 has sporty handling, power, charging speed, lower price. The Dolphin is more comfortable, more storage, arguably better range, build quality, free VTL. Choose what works for you :)
I’m 6”2 and the mg is a pain to get in and out of in the front,and the back forget about it. And it is low. I run around commuting in a Clio and it sits higher off the road.
Here in Thailand the standard version works out as only NZD$32,000. Not sure why there’s such a price difference.
Tax
Thanks Richard, love to have had you do a foot to the floor at the lights to compare to say an ICE car stopped next to you and see who crossed first. But a 0-100 test would be good as well somewhere. Great review and good lighting.
Another great vid an another well put together EV cheers Richard
Glad you enjoyed it
Far better than anything comparable
In some ways yes.
No MG4 SE EV ❤
Have to say, this looks far nicer on the interior than the MG4 along with standard heatpump that the MG4 lacks, BYD seem to update the software far more than MG and the base model Dolphin has the same equipment as the long range while the MG4 depends on each trim what you get.
Love the moon roof 2x rear usb, and rear interior lights as well as a pull down rear centre armrest, none of which are on the MG4
This is the difference. You need to decide how important performance be spec is to you. Great to have choices!
The MG doesn't have interior rear lights? That's like going back in time! I don't remember the last time I saw a car that didn't have interior rear lights!
@severnsea And it's a dark interior. Someone already tested the BYD Dolphin and achieved 0-100kph in 6.5 seconds so faster than any of the MG4 apart from the expensive 77kwh, which probably comes down to the Dolphin having 310nm vs just 250nm on the MG4. So it's most definitely not lacking in the performance area
@@gregb1599 For me it's all about whether these will still be good in 10 years' time, that's the point. I recently bought a low mileage 15 year old Jag for £5k. I honestly can't see an EV equivalent being around in 15 years' time for the same price.
In the UK there are that many cameras, speed-related laws and reduced speed limits going up I don't think the speed or acceleration will matter, you won't be able to use it. I suspect these are just going to be a stop gap for autonomous vehicles, but for me if we go down that road you might as well just get a taxi.
@severnsea Well, I did have a 2014 Nissan Leaf I brought in 2016, so before I killed it in an accident, it was 9 years old and was still going strong. It would have easily lasted another 6 years. Of course where I live petrol costs $3 per lt and electricity around 16 cents per kwh night rate. So, in the 7 years, I owned my first EV, probably looking at $40k in fuel savings alone. 2x gear reduction fluid changed a few cabin air filters, and tyres was the only service done on it. And that was a Nissan Leaf with what many regard as having one of the worst battery, newer batteries should last much longer, so 15 years will be minimal with 20 years plus more likely.
Something I haven't seen mentioned anywhere is whether you can get all over paint job in the Premium version or do you have to have that hideous 2 tone combo paint job?
Fleet was my call when I read the specs and price also, a handy review
BYD agrees with you :)
@@EVsBeyond Now a van to fill out the fleet offering please
Is that a white Atto 3 with black roof in the background at the start of the video?
Yeah it was a choice between atto 3 or mg4 for me . I chose the MG4 haven’t got it yet but end of month
very nice car
We agree!
I never understand why reviews look at the boot with that stupid false floor and then say theres not much boot space? No shit, remove the thing and now theres more! A lip like that is only an issue if your loading in washing machines etc. Most times if im moving things like that or going to the recycling centre, i will have the back seats folded flat anyways so now theres a huge boot.
No offense meant personally by the way, thank you for the review of the dolphin.
We did lift the floor. A lip like that is actually a bastard when hauling prams/pushchairs, heavy shopping, etc in and out too. It may not be an issue to you.
Agree, they always go on about a small lip as though you have to open an extra door or something. 99.9% of owners never put that much in the boot anyway, never understood why they make such a fuss over it and never mention more about the cabin and the features included.
@@EVsBeyond cars sold have no spare tyre
Do u think it possible to fit a smaller spare tyre e.g. One can only drive max 80km/hr may be thiner then normal Dolphin tyres in there
Sometime one may drive a much longer distance like for holiday
I think audience will certainly be interested to see if there are compatible old tyre or new spare tyre acting as spare of other cars to be able to place into boot of these new cars.
Many ICE car also do not offer spare tyre
It's a good well priced , shopping trolley, commuter car, urban runabout. Its build quality is better than the MG4 and performance is adequate for normal purposes. If comparisons are made, the second power unit in the MG extended range used the much more hazardous NCM battery chemistry. That may change but checking is important.
I wouldn't call modern NCM hazardous. Perhaps not as durable.
I hope that you are right but given the recent marine fire on the Freemantle Highway and the numerous runaway fires associated with NCM batteries in Hybrids, caution and questioning at least is warranted.@@EVsBeyond
If you think 50k is well priced for that, you have more money than sense.
As the standard Dolphin starts at $38,890 not $50,000, your attribution of 'sense' may warrant further consideration.@@severnsea
@@colddiesel Not at all. Who ever pays the base price? It also depends where it's being sold, I can guarantee you it will cost a lot more in the UK and Europe. Everything else does. The point is it's still silly money for what it is.
You could sit behind your driving position in the competition. Have you forgotten your review of the GWM Ora!!! Ora also has wireless charging and electric seats. BYD ambassador?
The Ora is great. We have another one coming as the last one we drove we didn't feel was ready for prime time due to software issues. We specifically mention in the introduction the MG4 is the car we are referring to when we say that.
The new Ora Ultra and GT specs look very impressive! Front seats with heated ventilated and even massage is crazy! Also, face recognition drivers' memory seats make electric seats worth having! Still lacks V2L, though sadly
We are currently cross shopping the Ora ultra, MG4 and BYD dolphin. Haven’t been able to test drive the dolphin yet (stupid Australia can’t even give us a firm date)
MG was very zippy, felt more sporting but agree the back seat was uninspiring, build quality was good but a bit boring in the dash.
ORA quality felt the best, also felt the roomiest front and back, boot is small but I own a mini cabriolet so huge in comparison to what I’m used too.
Dolphin fit and finish was as good as the ORA except in the paint, lots of orange peel and looked like it was applied with a hose.
Dolphin was very impressive, but I felt cramped in it compared to the ORA
the models we were comparing are within about $200 of each other
But remember, electric seats means you're using your precious power. And do that many people have wireless charging phones? I don't think that many people are that bothered, especially bearing in mind most people are only doing short journeys. I recently did a 200 mile trip with Spotify playing from my phone via the car speakers (using a BT transmitter) and never bothered plugging the phone in to charge. Still had over 65% phone battery left when I got to the other end.
@@gregb1599 Just more gimmicks to go wrong and use up the power. Face recognition for the driver's seat sounds pointless to me. A one-touch button puts my seats back in place if they've been moved by another driver, but for most people it's rare that a second driver uses the car anyway.
8.6km per kwh and my leaf manages 7.4km/kwh around town.
This one is being fanged by people test driving it. I wouldn't rely on those numbers until we get to do a proper test.
BUILD YOUR DREAMS
DREAM YOUR BUILD
Meanwhile over here the dolphin is 37000, but doesn't have a sunroof, heated anything, or upgraded motor
Different prices and specifications for different markets makes sense.
I got to be honest the MG 4 looked way more spacious with you in it than you do in the Dolphin, It will be interesting but I just can’t see this competing with the MG4.
MG4 feels a smidge more spacious in the front, but it is very much at the cost of rear seat space. You are more upright and forward in the Dolphin.
Just checked out the dolphin at a BYD experience centre and did a test drive in a MG4 at the beginning of this week. The dolphin was a lot more spacious in the back. I heard it is the downside of RWD.
The MG4 was definitely very zippy and one pedal driving was great, but we need a large back seat space.
I agree, MG seem to have worked the VW Golf-Polo optical illusion with the internal layout of the 4, giving an impression of more space; even though the cars share remarkably similar external dimensions. The MG drives very nicely, however the Dolphin is better finished, has a higher level of 'extras' and i think their infotainment system is ahead of the MG product.
He literally said in the video the Dolphin has more space.
@@Sam_BS_Electric if you read his comment, he said the front was slightly bigger in the MG4 , I couldn’t care less about the back seats as I won’t be sitting in them.
standard range should be no more than $37k
So less than Australia?
Well Australia should be cheaper too! the fact that it's still $20,000 more than the equivalent petrol car is what's not right. This car was meant to tighten that price gap. maybe another 5 years..@@EVsBeyond
Thanks for the review. But one thing that I found distracting: The "competition" is four syllables. The "MG4" is three syllables. So you're not saving any effort saying "the competition" a million times instead of MG4. It also just sounds like you're censoring yourself. If it was due to BYD's insistence - then just say that.
It was not at BYD's insistence. If it was there wouldn't be a link to our MG4 video in the intro... It was mine. This video is about the Dolphin. At some point we will do a comparison.
This is just too expensive for what you get. I was going to buy one but was shaking my head when i saw the price come out. And the price is too high compared to what they are selling it for in Aus. Drop the price to the NZ dollar coversion rate and I will be interested. Unfortunately this is price gouging. Oh and also, I don't fall for the sellers counting the Govt subsidy. That is not a cost to the dealer and should not be pocketed by the dealer by bumping up the asking price.
Do not disagree. Account for tax and exchange rate and it is a $5500 difference. Cars are usually more expensive in NZ due to economies of scale. Compared to an MG4 and its a little harder to clarify. Range wise it is the same or better than an Excite, which is $4k cheaper, but specification is superior to an Essence. At basically the same price the Essence 64kW to Dolphin 60kW is the trickier argument. The Dolphin is better specified, has more performance, with only a 0.7kWh difference in usable capacity.
even when the "affordable " evs come out, they're still expensive. I want petrol cars to be more expensive than evs
It is a little odd as so many claim the LFP batteries are much cheaper than other chemistries, and yet the 60.4kwh Dolphin with its LFP Blade battery is $1000 more than 61.7kwh MG4 Essence. I guess BYD NZ did not get the memo that LFP is a cheaper battery.
@@gregb1599 overpriced
They're just having you over. These do not cost more than an ICE car to build, when you consider that you have to pay for an engine and gearbox and everything that goes with it to make it work. They keep telling us they're easy to make and simple to service yet they're charging a huge amount extra for them and blaming it on the cost of the batteries. How do you think Musk has made so much money (notwithstanding the fact that he's had billions in loans and grants)? There are many people who have done DIY conversions for a fraction of the price so obviously a manufacturer would be able to build them even cheaper. A lot of money goes into running dealerships too, but they're cutting those out.
It's my belief that if these are as reliable as they make out they are going to lose billions in the spare parts market, so they're adding on upfront what they would lose later on. Just another con from an industry that has scammed us from day one.
Anybody else think these EVs are all starting to look like each other?
Don't all cars?
@@EVsBeyond Absolutely, to a point anyway, but at least Porsche made their Taycan look like a Porsche. I think most other look like if you swapped the badges nobody would notice, more so than with the ICE models. That said, anything Chinese is probably copied from whatever else they fancied copying it from.
@@severnsea Chinese basher? Like or not, they are ahead of the pack...no wonder Tesla is going to use BYD's batteries on their Model Y.
MG4 seems a better deal
In many cases, yes. Will depend on your priorities.
MG4 is so cheap looking materials inside! The back seat area is terrible with no lights, only 1 usb no centre armrest! The Dolphin gets a full-length glass roof that lets natural light in. I drove both the MG4 and Dolphin, and in my opinion, the Dolphin is the easier to live with EV. However, only the extended range model
The long range version of the MG 4 uses NCM batteries while all BYD uses the LFP blade battery..LFP last a lot longer, can be charge to 100% and run it down to 0 % without doing much damage to the long term life of the battery, while the NCM batteries are recommended you charge to 80% and only run it down to 20 to protect to battery long term…the LFP battery are also safer, in an accident when the battery is damaged you will not turn into charcoal while in the NCM battery 🔥
@airrodgers7277 Your argument is so amusing on LFP, while the BYD Blade battery has been involved in a number of fires in China. That the so-called LFP lasts longer yet still gets the exact same 8-year limited km warranty! While the cycle life of an LFP may be longer, they age just the same as all chemistries. It is amusing that the much lower density LFP can be charged to 100%. However, the 77kwh MG4 charged to 80% is the same capacity as the 60kwh BYD charged to 100%, and another negative of LFP is the slow charging just 80kw with the battery overheating drops to 50kw, while the MG4 can get an easy 140kw and stay above 100kw right up to 90% in any temperature as they do not suffer from the cold unlike LFP. So are you telling me that the only good thing about the Blade battery is that it can do 4000 cycles? Because everything else including being cheaper is a lie.
@@gregb1599 Math 77x .80= 61.6 kWh 66 x 1.0= 66 kWh 66>61.6 🤭
Since NCM are recommended to be discharged to about 20% to protect to long term life of the battery the real world range is only 46.2 kWh
Math Taking off 20% from the top and another 20% from the bottom a 77 kWh battery leave you with only 46.2 kWh of real world range..
GI JOE “Knowing is half the battle “ 🤣
Low spec model.. BYD NZ ripping us off with this one 🤮
Gotta love how reviewers will make it sound "ok"..
Low power. Rest of the spec is pretty impressive.
@EVsBeyond MG4 LFP battery is much cheaper than the 45kwh Dolphin with its underwhelming 70kw 190nm. Remember, the battery is by far the most expensive part of an EV, so the base model MG4 with its 50.8kwh useable battery is far better value than the 44.9kwh useable! The features that the MG4 lacks are not expensive compared to the extra 5kwh battery, which is just MG being stupid with mostly software lock out.
which ev isn't ripping u off?😅 lack of options is the cause.
@@qilu2004 $38,890 AUD - Dolphin AU
$38,990 AUD - MG4 AU
$49,990 - Dolphin NZ
$46,990 - MG4 NZ
*If you ignore everything else and just focus on the 'price difference' between the two within the same market... Yeah, NZ is a rip-off. $100 AUD vs $3,000 NZD
Many including channel EVsBeyond said
NZ shipping due to lower volume population
The cost factor
Atto 3 the cost may be bear by BYD
But likely other models later will be costlier
Shipping and volume likely
Perhaps when competition heats up.
More EV option
BYD will be forced to drop the price.
I took the car for a test drive, and I even put a deposit on the long-range model, subject to a test drive. However, no one in their right mind will buy this gutless version! As usual, the Chinese also release the car before the software is even working! Our dealer had to turn off the lane keeping as she said it's not calibrated to NZ roads, and it will try and kill you! Lol, I do hope that by the time the long-range models are released next month, they have updated the software so that things actually work! MG are just as bad they are all just crap at doing software for English market cars! I was also told no Android auto at launch. You do realise the 70kw and just 180nm of torque does not mean it will use less power, sure at 50kph it may, but at 100kph the motor will have to work harder to do 100kph making it possibly less economical.
I believe the lane keep was waiting for a visit by engineers and that has happened.
You're all crazy buying these things. They can change the software at will. If they get it wrong you could pay a very heavy price. Apart from that I know of one guy who had keyless entry deleted because he didn't specify it on the extras list, which is fair enough, but with a "normal" car they would have probably let you keep that because the alternative would have meant taking it in to have it removed at their expense. Besides, if it was the dealer's error then technically the option would be yours to keep anyway.
What will happen in the future is all these extras will be available on subscription and you'll have to pay a monthly fee for them. That's the way things are going. Don't believe me? Well look at RUclips - you have to pay for a monthly subscription NOT to watch ads! That's how absurd it now is. How long before they start putting stuff like that on your infotainment system unless you pay to have it deleted?
I think given time. Atto 3 already have these update and they are same plateform e-plateform 3.0 so it will not take long for similar vehicle softwares to be thoroughly tested & updated
IMHO it is prudent to wait until others have purchase & tested out these before one buys
IMHO only reason BEV is useful is Geopolitics is pushing into military conflict very quickly especially after 2024 Nov US election. And so 2025 is a bad year for 2 great powers and world...
Otherwise if everything is normal BEV is good but it is even wiser to wait till these BEV price drop, range & charging option be much more efficient and battery chemistries absolutely safe. i.e. Wait around for Sodium battery etc. even safer then LMFP LFO, M3P
Unfortunately there will not be time for that.
Oil price, diesel price, will be squeezed and ICE car petroleum will surely be sky high once war starts
On top of scarcity and many will line up for fuel station and Not get any waiting in line for 2 to 3 days... (Sri Lanka, recent years Japan did too in Corvid and the 70s oil issue USA also experienced this)
That is the scary but real reality of tomorrow in ~ 2 years 2025
And will surely happen
The lane keep is not an an important feature. Even without the feature, BYD Dolphin is still a decent car. When we talk about EVs, the most important concerns are battery, motor and price, not lane keeping.
@raybing912 Until someone falls asleep or has a medical incident and the car crosses the centre line and kills you and your family driving the other direction. Some are better than others like Tesla that should you not touch the steering wheel for a certain amount of time, the car will automatically brake while turning on the hazard lights and come to a complete stop.