Mel.b and the BYD Atto 3 (Australia)

Hey everyone,

I thought you all might like to hear about another EV option, especially as I imagine the BYD range will be available in Ireland & the UK at some stage

I used to post on here a bit back when I had my leaf (2017-2018). This is a thread I had about importing my leaf from the UK back to Co.Clare - https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2057755979/bringing-my-leaf-back-from-the-uk-a-500km-trip#latest. Sadly, I left Ireland in mid 2018 and moved back to Australia, where I've been waiting to get another EV ever since. Australia is a bit of a EV wasteland due to a horrendous lack of political will from the current federal liberal government (hopefully that will change in a few weeks with our election). All of the available EV options were too expensive (leaf 40kwh version starts at 50K (all prices in aud), standard range Kona 60K) or essentially unavailable - we only get 500 units of both the EV6 and Ionic5 per year and there is a 3year waiting list for them. Grants for EVs are currently minimal - in VIC where I live a $3000 rebate is available, and to add insult to injury there is an EV users road tax of 2.5c per km😮

If you're interested, this is the list of all EVs available in Australia at the moment - it's pretty small https://myelectriccar.com.au/evs-in-australia/

Despite all of that I wanted to get back into an EV. I didn't want a leaf as I have concerns about the battery degradation long term in the warmer weather we have here and the MG was out as I wanted something with 350km real world range. There had been lots of talk about the BYD brand from China and that Australia would be their first place to release their RHD EV's. Initially it was meant to be the Dolphin, which is a hatch back and there was talk of it being 'well under 35K'. The BYD brand is being distributed in Australia by a company called EVdirect. EVdirect then announced that instead of bringing the Dolphin to Australia first they were switching to the Yuan Plus, which is now called the Atto 3. (It has been said that all BYD cars in Australia will be an ATTO with a number, so the Dolphin when it comes will be the ATTO 2 (or 1)). The information and expectation was that the price would be around 40K so I was pretty excited.

The Atto 3 was launched in Feb and there were a lot of upset people (me included😅) when the price was revealed to be almost 45K + onroad costs of about $3000 in VIC for the standard version (50kwh version) and $47K + onroads for the extended range (60kwh). White, grey and blue were only available for order on launch, so the price, combined with the lack of red colour meant I didn't place an order. First cars are expected to be delivered in July.

Here is the link to the EVdirect website with all the info about the Atto 3 - https://evdirect.com.au/atto-3

There currently aren't any Atto 3's available for test drive in Australia (they should be ready in June), however there is a LHD available in the showroom in Sydney to have a look at. I had a trip to Sydney planned, so the showroom was visit was a must. The interior of the Atto 3 has been very polarising, however the more I looked at photos of it, the more i actually liked it and thought other cars looked bland and boring when I looked at them. Two of the most polarising things I think are the guitar strings for the door pocket holders and the door arm rest that reminds me of a wrench for some reason. I found that when I was in the car I didn't even notice these things as they are mostly hidden, although my nephew had a great time with the guitar strings when I pointed them out to him. If i had kids I think I'd be finding a way to remove them 😂

The showroom also had a Dolphin available to look at. The dolphin had been my first preference due to it's size (currently driving a Jazz and while I'd like a SUV I don't need one, or one the size of the Atto 3). However it was a lot less comfortable than the Atto 3 and the rear seats don't have 60:40 fold (although spec for Australia haven't been confirmed for the dolphin) so that put me off it, as did the fact it was likely to only come with a 44kwh battery pack (although apparently it is very efficient). So showroom visit was good, but still no red available to order and I was still reluctant to part with that much money.

I started looking at other cars (ICE and hybrid) and discovered that I was now looking at at least 35K for what I wanted in terms of spec as a lot of the cars had gone up considerably in price in the past 12months. This lead me back to thinking about the Atto 3 as spending another 10k was really just pre-paying my petrol for a few years. I have a 13.3kw solar system installed on my roof at home, so I anticipate that I should be able to do most (all) of my charging for free.

That brings me to this week when EVdirect announced that red Atto 3s were going to be available to order starting today, for (anticipated) delivery in Oct. So after much debating again, I have put in my order😊 I'm still a little hesitant, but the deposit (1K) is fully refundable right up until you sign the contract. My hesitations are around price (it's still a lot of money!), range still somewhat unknown (they say 420km WLTP, so if I can get 350km I'll be happy) and the size of the car. I really like the look of the cupra born and the hatch suits me, but it looks like it is going to be delayed to 2023 for Australia now and I expect it will be 60K+ so that's out of my price range.

Anyway, I'll keep this updated with progress, such as when I take a test drive, reviews etc. Feel free to ask me any questions and I'll do my best to answer them!

Here are some pics of the Atto 3