BYD Dolphin - Real World Range Test

Derek Reilly from Nevo.ie takes the BYD Dolphin out for a rel world range test between Castlebar in Co. Mayo and Dun Laoghaire in Co. Dublin. Approximately 250km. I
f you'd like to book a test drive with your local BYD dealer, click the link below.
www.nevo.ie/vehicles/byd
Register for your free tickets for the Nevo Electric Vehicle Show in partnership with Bank of Ireland on the link below
www.nevo.ie/electric-vehicle-...
Please subscribe to my channel, hit the like button and leave a comment. I review all types of electric vehicles and remember, if you think an EV is for you, leave it to me and I'll review. Thanks for watching.
Nevo's Website - www.nevo.ie/
Nevo's Twitter - / nevoireland
Nevo's Instagram - / nevoireland
Nevo's LinkedIn - / nevo-co
Derek's Twitter / derekreilly
Derek's Instagram - / reilly.derek
Derek's LinkedIn - / derekreilly
#electriccars #byd #byddolphin

I am driving a Dolphin (150 kW, 60 kWh) in Thailand. My average consumption after 12,000 km is 14 kW/h per 100 km. My daily drive is about 120 km with 50% city and 50% highway (110 km/h). I charge daily to 100% SoC. Two times I drove under 10% SoC. My practical range is about 380-390 km.

[@NevoEVReviewIreland]

Thanks for the comment! Great to hear from real owners and how their driving is going.

[@cluaineois0]

Just got a Dolphin 2 weeks ago. Did our first road trip last Sunday from Co Monaghan to Dublin. Starting with a full battery on Sunday morning I covered approx 230kms. This included country roads , the M50 and motorways. Left Monaghan at approximately 8pm on Sunday evening with temp between 2 and 5 degrees. Arrived at my destination showing 82kms and 25% battery still available, Probably looking at a real range of 320kms. Given that a trip I will do on a regular basis, happy enough with that 👍

[@user-je7co5bt8b]

Just bought one, Blue Design, beautiful car, so far no issues on the range. Just stop by Eddie Rockets for a burger and charge for 30min, 100% batery again. So far brilliant experience.

[@NevoEVReviewIreland]

Enjoy it

[@knudjepsen420]

Hello from Denmark, thanks for a great and very useful video😊

[@NevoEVReviewIreland]

Glad it was helpful!

[@rolandoespina7444]

Got mine a week ago and mostly driving in urban roads in Dub on economy and highest regenerative braking and the advertised range is spot on. Currently consumption rate is 14.7 kw/100km. Great, comfy, roomy and plenty of spec car for it's size and price.

[@NevoEVReviewIreland]

Congrats. Great to hear from and owner. Nice consumption figures too

[@catherinegrimes2308]

Thanks for doing this practical test and around the worst time of year for car's range. The conditions would be similar to England so it is a very useful test for me.

[@NevoEVReviewIreland]

Glad you found it useful

[@glimpseireland2005]

Good video, were you using the HVAC much for heating the cabin? The car has a great battery compared to the 33kWh in my 2017 BMW I3. The 2 cars look quite similar, BYD may even be roomier in the back. Minus 6 at times in Donegal today, so that would definitely reduce my range, luckily I only had a quick spin in to the town to do. Love the heated seats, but sometimes you do need to use the blower a bit when it's this cold. What sort of money is the Dolphin coming in at I wonder?

[@NevoEVReviewIreland]

Yes I did. Heating on at 23 degrees. Prices for the current bigger battery starting just over 29k. A smaller battery will come soon starting around 25k

[@johncrosbarry]

Nice video Derek, I reckon these are useful alright. Good to see more cars coming on the market not a fan of the looks of the Dolphin but seems to be good value. Is the BYD Seagull going to make it to Ireland that looks really good value and a nice looking car.

[@kevinb7058]

I think they have plans to make the seagull in right hand drive and might make it's way to Ireland 🤞 Looks like a cracking little car 👍

[@johncrosbarry]

@@kevinb7058 that would be great it looks like a winner alright

[@NevoEVReviewIreland]

Coming late this year for 251 plate.

[@mrmawson2438]

Evening mate

[@BillDavis-nn4py]

Wish they could sell it here in the USA.

[@NevoEVReviewIreland]

Someday maybe

[@WoolooMu1235]

Hi Derek. With the MG4 facelift due out late this year. Would you advise waiting on a purchase as I wouldn't like to see the value of my car plummet if I decided to buy an MG4 now. Reference the case of the ID3 owner you did the radio interview with who's car lost great value when the face lift ID3 released.

[@NevoEVReviewIreland]

There's always going to be a newer version but looks at timelines for that manufacturer and you can get a feeling for refresh dates. I've not heard about MG4 update so it will be later 2025 in my opinion. A great value car with the recent price changes and trade-in offers.

[@WoolooMu1235]

@@NevoEVReviewIreland Thanks for the reply!

[@backwoodsbungalow9674]

Trip stats at 5:50 seem OK but disappointing compared to classic Ioniq. Can you estimate what the energy consumption would be on the same trip in the larger Atto 3 crossover?

[@NevoEVReviewIreland]

I have done a video with the Atto 3. kzbin.info/www/bejne/e4HchoOIaptjftksi=QUKg9ZjGP11wmXkV

[@ViktorMito2099]

We picked up our new dolphin in Dublin 6 weeks ago, so we have been driving in winter at average temps of 3-10 C. We did 2000 Km to date. Average consumption is 18.7 kWh per 100 Km. I'm 90 km from Dublin City centre and when we go there and return we are left with 33% battery left. The drive is mostly motorway with the last 20%city driving. I generally drive in normal mode but never aggressively, always fairly relaxed. I'm concerned the car can only do 285-300km max realistically with my driving style. Does eco mode really give you more range? Heating in the cabin is around 23-24C on average as that's needed to keep the cabin defogged. Any suggestions or other knowledge from dolphin owners that could help me to understand if there are any issues with the car (low range) or if I'm doing something wrong? Thanks 🙏

[@catherinegrimes2308]

I don't have a Dolphin but may be able to help. I have a Nissan Note and had trouble on the motorway with the windows steaming up and it turned out that the heating system was in recirculation mode. Some reviewers have commented that the BYD Atto 3 and Dolphin can steam up. Somebody on KZbin, I think that it may have been Bjorn Nyland, said that the Atto 3 like other Chinese cars tend to default to recirculation mode. You may find that changing to fresh air mode could mean that you could have the heating set to a lower temperature. The KZbin video called "How far can electric cars REALLY go?? - we drive 12 until they DIE! Tesla, BYD & more | What Car?" included a Dolphin and it did 188 miles on horrible rainy winter's day with temperature 10 - 11 degrees in England on a test circuit with different driving profiles and the heating temperature set to 21 degrees. That is just a bit more than your maximum 300km estimate. Reviewers in Australia and New Zealand seem to get quite good range and that maybe because of the ambient temperature. LFP batteries don't like cold weather.

[@davidmonaghan]

Hi Derek, another great EV video! I had planned to go to the EV event in the RDS with my son in February, but given 'Axa' insurance are now also sponsoring the event (with BOI), and given their continued financial investments in Israel, we won't now be attending the event if AXA remain sponsors of the event.

[@NevoEVReviewIreland]

Understood David. Thanks for letting me know

[@chriss4949]

Out of interest, which tyres were fitted? The Ling-Long “early fit” were supposed to be “poor”

[@NevoEVReviewIreland]

I didn't check 😔

[@Id3fornow...]

Does it beat id3 though?

[@Clove_Parma]

Yes, the battery is LFP so should last 2-3x as long

[@NevoEVReviewIreland]

Newer tech for sure

[@Kilmoveebee]

What is the Dolphin like compared to the Citroen eC4 both performance wise and size. I was thinking of buying one for the range and the fact that the trade in allowance has dropped so low. Mine is a 2021 with 24200 k I think the you can buy this now for around €26-27000 so god knows what the trade in price would be.

[@NevoEVReviewIreland]

eC4 would be a size/class up so Atto3 size. Citroen is a very comfortable car but a smaller battery and range. The new eC4 has a bigger battery but still smaller and with it being a heavier car less range.

[@Kilmoveebee]

I enquired about the Citroen with the 54kWh battery but was told it was not available in Ireland yet, I think it has a range around 400k. The dealer I bought my eC4 from seems very reluctant to take my car as a trade in keeps avoiding me when I go into the showrooms.

[@glimpseireland2005]

BYD for SAM.....

[@NevoEVReviewIreland]

I wonder would they do a special two-tone just for me....💚❤️

[@mrmawson2438]

Could you do a review on Zeekr Electric Cars are coming to Australia in 2024 The Electric Viking

[@NevoEVReviewIreland]

Not in Ireland yet

[@alanmulcahy7749]

Ah now, are you trying to confuse people & make EV ownership seem difficult? You could try: "EV database says winter range is between x & y, A Better Route Planner says I should arrive with Z percent, let's see what I get on a real world trip..." Also referring to the guessometer as if it should be relied on (in any way) for planning trips is just wrong.

[@NevoEVReviewIreland]

Some good points for sure. I feel some guessometers are much better than others.

[@stated10000]

Never looked at estimated km range in out atto3 for trip planning, only ever use % and use ABRP for assistance, once you figure out your range then travelling distance, terrain and weather conditions are what you should look at just in case, looking at km range have left too many newbys stuck at 0% soc, if you want to help others my advise is to let them focus on %, we get mid 340-380km range while our car shows us 460-480km range, so why trust something that is consistently wrong?

[@alanmulcahy7749]

@@NevoEVReviewIreland Our Niro GOM is good...at telling the range based on recent driving. But the car can't mind read - it doesn't know I am driving to Galway with a planned speed of 120km on the motorway. A quick journey plan on ABRP can do this. People are making mistakes in purchasing the wrong EV. If they check ev database & ABRP first, they can avoid a very expensive mistake. BTW, I do use the GOM: for motorway driving, I multiply the value by 0.7. And on the journey, I divide the distance to go by the GOM value and make sure it is decreasing (towards 0.5) and not increasing to 1...but not everyone is an engineer...

[@mrmawson2438]

Cheers mate MG4 is better

[@sharonec5419]

It depends on what you want really. They are both good cars. The MG is the better car to drive but the BYD Dolphin in more spacious and has a more stylish dash.

[@pj310101]

@@sharonec5419 BYD also has the better battery. 64 kwh battery on MG4 is a NMC battery, BYD has the much better LFP Blade battery. For me that was the reason I chose BYD.

[@johncrosbarry]

The BYD has a terrible front it has a squinted face looks awful while the MG4 looks great. The BYD interior looks very good alright.

[@sharonec5419]

@@johncrosbarry I don't think its terrible a bit bland maybe but not terrible. The MG4 is not perfect either. It's rear and side views could be a lot better.

[@peterarmstrong3853]

I've had both mg4 and now I own the dolphin and covered 4k in 2 months. Much prefer the byd, quicker, better efficiency, dealer back up is perfect, better resale value, has character and doesn't look like a brick also spec As standard is much better. As you can see I prefer my byd 😂