Back to Page 1: Introduction

The Driving Experience

The BYD Atto 3’s power output of 201 horsepower puts it squarely into the Category B COE segment, even under the new electric vehicle rules. It was never going to be a ‘cheap’ car, even in relative terms. 

The single motor driving the front wheels does a pretty good job of moving the whole package, and the 0 to 100km/h sprint time of 7.3 seconds is more than enough for urban Singapore. Power delivery is instant so overtaking and increasing speed feels quite effortless. It’s not as brutally quick in a straight line as a Tesla Model Y, but it is punchier than most other mainstream petrol-engined cars.  

Yet, like every other EV, the Atto 3 is a very heavy car for its size. Tipping the scales at 1,750kg, it’s about 500kg (or two and a half David Khoos) heavier than a Kia Sonet, and the extra weight shows itself when you attempt to take corners fast and over very bumpy roads where the suspension dampers have to cope with the mass of the lithium ion batteries. 

It’s a tidy handler and definitely above average in the way it rides, but it’s no sports car even if it does have the torque to spin up its front tyres with a hard launch. The steering also exhibits torque steer when accelerating with full beans, where the steering wheel wiggles in your hands as the car tugs slightly to the side. Interestingly, even the BMW i4 M50 exhibits a bit of the same characteristic under hard acceleration. 

It’s also stuffed with a full suite of active safety features including front collision warning, lane keeping assist, and adaptive cruise control. There’s also an onboard video logger that records into the car’s harddrive, so you don’t need to fit an aftermarket camera. 

The car’s stats claim a power economy of 14.9kWh/100km, but we pulled off a quite incredible average of 11.3kWh/100km over four days of continuous driving. More than half of the mileage was on the highway, but this still means that the car can cover 500km per battery charge, and more than 400km is practically guaranteed. 

Why is Nissan’s Qashqai so expensive in Singapore?

Competition and Conclusion  

If you’re still of the mindset that “I’ll never ever buy a poor-quality Chinese car”, even after seeing the Atto 3 in person, then it’s likely that nothing is going to change your viewpoint anyway because this car is very well screwed together. It’s a properly competent appliance car that is faster and more efficient than its main competitor, the similarly competent MG ZS EV. 

The Hyundai Ioniq 5 has been quoted by some as a competitor, and at time of writing it’s only available in Singapore through car sharing platform GetGo. Still, based on our estimates the Ioniq 5 is likely to be a S$200k car if it went on sale in Singapore today.

Even the Hyundai Kona EV can’t match the Atto 3’s range and power output, and right now to get the Kona EV with a similar sized battery pack will cost more than S$200k inclusive of COE. If you still want to stick with a tried-and-true, petrol-electric hybrid formula, the Hyundai Tuscson Hybrid is also a credible alternative.

EV road taxes are still a bugbear in Singapore, but the Atto 3’s efficiency is one of the best we’ve seen in a current-gen EV. We thought the BMW iX3 was madly efficient, but this BYD just upped the stakes.

BYD Asia-Pac general manager Liu Xueliang tells us more about the brand’s plans for Singapore here

BYD Atto 3

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