Usually, we hear rumblings that a company is planning a certain new model. Then, a few months later, we might see a concept, or some spy shots will surface that show it testing in heavy camouflage. Some way down the line, after what seems like an eternity, it will be officially unwrapped, and if we’re really lucky, we're invited to drive it within around half a year - first on a carefully curated scenic launch route in foreign lands and then, some months later, on UK roads shortly before it finally starts making its way to customers’ driveways.
That’s not what’s happened with the BYD Atto 3. Our hands gripped the steering wheel for the first time about 14 hours after we saw it in the metal for the first time and about 13 hours after we got official confirmation it was coming to the UK. And by ‘coming to the UK’, we mean it’s probably on the boat already. In line with its rapid-fire and hugely ambitious global growth ambitions, BYD – which you might know for its UK-built electric buses, or perhaps for being the world’s biggest EV seller in the first half of this year (seriously) – will introduce three cars simultaneously to Europe by the end of this year: the premium-oriented Han saloon and Tang SUV, with four-wheel drive and up to 510bhp, and this much more mainstream and lower-powered compact crossover, the Atto 3.
Not that the Atto feels for one second like the runt of the litter. Climb aboard and marvel at how BYD has achieved what so few established brands have managed in recent years: conceived a cabin that feels at once exciting and liveable. The large, 12.8in touchscreen rotates as you please (which sounds like a gimmick, but actually it’s natural to set it to landscape for sat-nav and portrait for Spotify, for example), the door handles are sculpted hand grips atop the in-door speakers and there are actual guitar strings – on which you can play actual songs – in the door pockets. Don’t show the kids.
