BYD Dolphin: affordable ID3 and MG 4 alternative: from less than €30,000

BYD is steadily expanding the weaponry with which it attacks the Dutch electric car market. The BYD adventure started with the Han and the Tang and the Atto 3 was added later. Not long ago BYD introduced the Seal and the Dolphin to the Dutch public. With the arrival of the BYD Dolphin, cars such as the Volkswagen ID3, MG 4 Electric and Renault Mégane E-Tech have a formidable competitor. The BYD Dolphin operates in the same class, but is available from less than €30,000. This immediately makes the BYD Dolphin the cheapest electric passenger car that is not an A-segmenter. It is even thousands of euros less expensive than the Peugeot e-208 and Opel Corsa Electric, electric success numbers that are also a size smaller.

Good news: with every variant of the BYD Dolphin you are eligible for SEPP purchase subsidies. In fact, the most expensive Dolphin costs ‘only’ €37,990. The BYD Dolphin Comfort and Design will be in the BYD showrooms from autumn. The Active and Boost with the smaller battery pack will follow in the first quarter of 2024.

BYD Dolphin

BYD Dolphin Active €29,990 and 340 km range

The BYD Dolphin is available in the Netherlands from €29,990. For that amount you get the BYD Dolphin Active. It has a 95 hp electric motor and, like any other Dolphin, it is front-wheel drive. In the bottom of the Dolphin Active is a 44.9 kWh LFP Blade Battery and that combination gives the electric ID3 competitor a range of up to 340 kilometers. Fast charging is possible with up to 60 kW. Its top speed: 150 km/h.

BYD Dolphin Boost: up to 310 kilometers range

The Dolphin Active has to acknowledge its superiority in two other engine versions. The Boost is one step above the BYD Dolphin Active. The Dolphin Boost has a more powerful and 177 hp electric motor on the front axle, but it has the same battery as the Active. The Dolphin Boost is not on 16-inch alloy like the Active, but has 17-inch wheels. The result is a smaller range. It comes up to 310 kilometers on a full battery. Fast charging is also possible with a maximum of 60 kW. However, its top speed of 160 km / h is slightly above that of the Dolphin in basic trim. The BYD Dolphin Boost is available from €32,990.

BYD Dolphin Comfort and Design

Is 177 hp not enough for you? No problem. The BYD Dolphin is also available as Comfort and Design. Those two versions both have a 204 hp electric motor with which the Dolphin buzzes from standstill to a speed of 100 km / h in just 7 seconds. The Dolphin Comfort and Design also have a larger capacity battery. The bottom of these versions contains a 60.4 kWh battery pack, good for a range of up to 427 kilometers. Fast charging is possible with the Dolphin Boost and Design with up to 88 kW. The BYD Dolphin Comfort costs €36,490. Top version Design is on the price list from €37,990.

BYD Dolphin: playful interior with rotating screen.

Prices BYD Dolphin

Equipment

Every BYD Dolphin has a heat pump as standard and passive safety systems such as Forward Collision Warning, Automatic Emergency Braking System, Rear Collision Warning, Rear Cross Traffic Alert, Rear Cross Traffic Brake and Active Lane Keeping Aid are all standard equipment. The same goes for intelligent adaptive cruise control and a 360-degree camera.

Entry-level version Active is on 16-inch light metal, artificial leather upholstery, electrically adjustable front seats, keyless entry, climate control and a rotatable 12.8-inch infotainment screen as you may already know from the BYD Atto 3.

Here you see the screen in vertical position.

The Boost version not only adds 17-inch light metal and a more powerful electric motor to the above, but also a different rear suspension (multilink). From the Comfort version, the Dolphin has the 204 hp electric motor and the 60 kWh battery. The Comfort has extra pampering in the form of electrically folding exterior mirrors, heated front seats, two USB-C ports and an audio system with six speakers.

Top version Design adds a two-tone color scheme, a large glass roof, privacy glass at the rear, an induction charger and a Vehicle to Load system (V2L) with which you can charge electrical devices.

The Dolphin’s luggage space is average.

Dimensions BYD Dolphin

The BYD Dolphin is 4.29 meters long and has a wheelbase of 2.7 meters. That makes it a few centimeters longer than the Volkswagen ID3, nine centimeters longer than the Renault Mégane E-Tech Electric and exactly as long as the MG 4 Electric. The Dolphin’s wheelbase is 7 centimeters shorter than the ID3 and more closely matches that of its Chinese and French counterparts.

You can store 345 liters in the luggage compartment. If you throw the back seat flat, you can carry 1,310 liters of stuff. Just like the Cupra Born, the Volkswagen ID3 likes 40 liters more. You can store 18 liters more in the MG 4 Electric. However, the luggage space of the Dolphin trumps that of the Mégane E-Tech Electric (440 litres).

Very interesting price

As is clear by now, the BYD Dolphin is a very interesting offer on paper. To illustrate, let’s take a look at a bunch of other electric hatchbacks. The basic version of the Dolphin is already more than €6,600 less expensive than the cheapest but operating in a smaller segment Peugeot e-208 (Style). In that little Frenchman you get – just like in the Opel Corsa Electric – a 135 hp and therefore more powerful electro heart. The range of the e-208 with a 50 kWh battery is 362 kilometers. If we bring the BYD Dolphin price-wise to the level of the Peugeot e-208 and Opel Corsa Electric, we end up with the Comfort and Design versions with 204 hp of electric power and a range of almost 430 kilometers…

The smaller Peugeot e-208 is more expensive, just like the Opel Corsa Electric.

The prices of the facelifted Volkswagen ID3 are not yet available, so we cannot compare them yet. The MG 4 Electric is available from €32,285. That electric hatchback is also more expensive than the BYD Dolphin. Please note: the cheapest MG 4 Electric does have a 170 hp electric motor right away. In its most affordable form, the MG 4 squeezes 350 kilometers from its 51 kWh battery. The Renault Mégane E-Tech Electric is available from €38,370 and in its least expensive form has a 130 hp electric motor and a 40 kWh battery pack, good for 300 kilometers of electric adventures. By the way, BYD also sells the even smaller Seagull in its home country of China. The EV named after an animal that camps around the sea could also become an interesting model for the Netherlands.