Lethe
Captain
I had the opportunity to check out a BYD Atto 3 and MG 4 today, alongside a bunch of other EVs from other manufacturers. There was meant to be a BYD Dolphin present too but it was a no-show, as was the BMW-GWM next-generation Mini EV.
The Atto 3 is a more expensive vehicle than MG 4 (really, Dolphin is the more appropriate comparison point) and feels it. The interior styling of Atto 3 is a little too "loud" for my tastes, and I think that is a fairly common view here, but we can break that impression down a little. I quite liked the blue and cream contrast throughout the cabin, the seats were stylish and comfortable. The seat perforations gave me hope that I had somehow missed the inclusion of ventilated seats in the package, but alas no. Are these offered in other markets? The organic contours of the dash and some of the seat material didn't bother me. Everything felt quite solidly put together. The circular speaker-slash-door handle combination was borderline for me aesthetically, though it seemed perfectly functional. The main items I didn't like were the chunky red-accented vent controls, also the red "guitar strings" that serve as the bottle holders. Something about the shape and styling of the steering wheel itself felt a bit off also. A further negative, was limited visibility through the rear window, a weakness shared with the MG4. If the interior of the Atto 3 is a little too "loud" in places, MG4's interior is almost aggressively bland, lacking in any colour or sense of design. Clearly, one can go too far in both directions...
My impressions of the Atto 3's infotainment system were quite positive. Of course I would've preferred some physical dials or buttons to control fan speed and set temperature, but in the world of mainstream EVs these battles seem to have been mostly lost. The voice command system seemed to recognise and handle vehicle functions well enough, but it didn't take long to trip it up when entering local navigation destinations: "jetty" is one word that I could not get it to process correctly despite several attempts. Given that BYD's voice models have probably had very little training on Australian-accent English specifically, I was actually impressed that it worked as well as it did.
I was also intrigued by the BYD reps' suggestion that customers have found that the "slim" spare tyres from other ICE vehicles fit in the space below the boot floor. In Australia, almost every vehicle that is not a Ferrari, PHEV, or EV comes with at least a slim spare tyre. The lack of a spare tyre on the vast majority of PHEVs and EVs is one of those things that I think does sway undecided buyers back to familiar ICE territory. If a spare tyre can fit below the boot floor, then BYD should offer that as an official option, at additional cost of course.
Going by the CAAM-sourced data for China sales listed , across January to August, BEVs made up "only" 21% of all new vehicles sold. If China EV Inc. has indeed achieved cost parity with ICE, why is the proportion not significantly greater than this?
The Atto 3 is a more expensive vehicle than MG 4 (really, Dolphin is the more appropriate comparison point) and feels it. The interior styling of Atto 3 is a little too "loud" for my tastes, and I think that is a fairly common view here, but we can break that impression down a little. I quite liked the blue and cream contrast throughout the cabin, the seats were stylish and comfortable. The seat perforations gave me hope that I had somehow missed the inclusion of ventilated seats in the package, but alas no. Are these offered in other markets? The organic contours of the dash and some of the seat material didn't bother me. Everything felt quite solidly put together. The circular speaker-slash-door handle combination was borderline for me aesthetically, though it seemed perfectly functional. The main items I didn't like were the chunky red-accented vent controls, also the red "guitar strings" that serve as the bottle holders. Something about the shape and styling of the steering wheel itself felt a bit off also. A further negative, was limited visibility through the rear window, a weakness shared with the MG4. If the interior of the Atto 3 is a little too "loud" in places, MG4's interior is almost aggressively bland, lacking in any colour or sense of design. Clearly, one can go too far in both directions...
My impressions of the Atto 3's infotainment system were quite positive. Of course I would've preferred some physical dials or buttons to control fan speed and set temperature, but in the world of mainstream EVs these battles seem to have been mostly lost. The voice command system seemed to recognise and handle vehicle functions well enough, but it didn't take long to trip it up when entering local navigation destinations: "jetty" is one word that I could not get it to process correctly despite several attempts. Given that BYD's voice models have probably had very little training on Australian-accent English specifically, I was actually impressed that it worked as well as it did.
I was also intrigued by the BYD reps' suggestion that customers have found that the "slim" spare tyres from other ICE vehicles fit in the space below the boot floor. In Australia, almost every vehicle that is not a Ferrari, PHEV, or EV comes with at least a slim spare tyre. The lack of a spare tyre on the vast majority of PHEVs and EVs is one of those things that I think does sway undecided buyers back to familiar ICE territory. If a spare tyre can fit below the boot floor, then BYD should offer that as an official option, at additional cost of course.
Going by the CAAM-sourced data for China sales listed , across January to August, BEVs made up "only" 21% of all new vehicles sold. If China EV Inc. has indeed achieved cost parity with ICE, why is the proportion not significantly greater than this?
