BYD Dolphin Surf test drive

Make and model: BYD Dolphin Surf
Description: Electric supermini
Price range: £18,650 to £23,950

BYD says: “BYD’s most accessible model yet combines sporty looks and a fun-loving personality with a spacious, practical cabin that’s packed with trademark useful high-tech features.”

We say: The BYD Dolphin Surf is a good value small EV that is likely to encourage more buyers to go electric.

Additional reporting by Stuart Masson.

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Introduction

The ever-growing presence of BYD on the UK market is now extending to the supermini sector with the launch of the Dolphin Surf, the Chinese brand’s fifth model and a car designed to extend the electric switch to small cars thanks to its price – even without any additional grants this car can be had for under £19,000, making it one of the cheapest electric vehicles (EVs) on the market and its creators describe it as the brand’s most accessible model yet.

BYD is confident in the prospects for the Dolphin Surf, as it’s already been on sale for some time in other markets but under the name of the Seagull – the renaming for the UK market fits it into the brand’s so-called ‘Ocean Series’, pitching the car as a smaller sister to the already on sale Dolphin.

What is the BYD Dolphin Surf?

If you’re already familiar with the BYD Dolphin, you’d be forgiven for thinking that the Dolphin Surf is a trim variation of that model. However, it’s a completely separate vehicle, smaller and cheaper than the Dolphin. In automotive jargon, the Dolphin is a supermini and similar in size to a Volkswagen Polo or Vauxhall Corsa, while the Dolphin Surf is a city car, roughly similar in size to a Kia Picanto or Hyundai i10.

In China and other Asian countries, this car is called the BYD Seagull. However, the company decided that European customers don’t really hold the humble seagull in quite the same esteem as its Asian customers presumably do, so the name here in the UK is therefore Dolphin Surf.

The Dolphin Surf is one of a growing number of electric city cars, competing with rivals like the Dacia Spring and Leapmotor T03, that are bringing the starting price for a new EV down to rival (or even beat) the cheapest new petrol cars on sale.

There are three trim levels, dubbed Active, Boost and Comfort, and differentiated by battery size (and therefore range) and the power of the motor, as well as equipment levels. 

Powered by a single electric motor driving the front wheels, the official range stretches up to 200 miles with the top-spec, largest battery version. That’s typical for smaller electric cars aimed more at urban commuting rather than long journeys across the country.   

First impressions

The BYD Dolphin Surf is certainly not a supermini with bland looks. Tall and narrow proportions mark out this car with very strong exterior lines, especially in the lower door area and with a beltline swooping upwards and resulting in quite small rear windows.

The ‘lime green’ paintwork of our test car (which looks more yellow than green) certainly served to emphasise these looks. Some buyers will no doubt be pleased to hear there are alternatives to this particular colour – the car also be had in black, white or blue.

Both outside and in, the BYD Dolphin Surf follows the company’s established image of being well put together with quality surfaces.

A glance at the specification and comparisons with the price asked marks this car out as a potential major player in bringing electric motoring to a much wider audience. Although it’s more expensive than the similar Leapmotor T03 and Dacia Spring, the standard kit list is better and the car has an overall feeling of being much better built.

Having said that, the less than 140-mile range offered by the entry-level model is disappointing, so most buyers will likely be factoring in the extra expense of the larger battery.

We like: Value for money package
We don’t like: Paltry battery range of entry-level model

What do you get for your money?

BYD argues that pitching a car as affordable does not mean offering a lack of equipment. Even the entry-level Active (£18.6K) comes with rear-parking sensors and a reversing camera, vehicle-to-load (V2L) capability enabling the powering of external equipment from the car’s battery, and in the cabin a pair of digital displays – seven inches for the driver and a ten-inch centrally mounted touchscreen.

Boost trim costs £2,300 more than Active. Alongside the bigger battery, it offers alloy wheels, electric front seats (six-way adjustment for the driver, four for the passenger) and electrically folding mirrors.

The top-level Comfort, another £2,000 price walk, adds a more powerful electric motor, heated front seats, wireless phone charging, rear privacy glass, 360-degree surround view cameras, and LED headlights.

At the time of writing the Dolphin Surf is yet to be crash-tested by Euro NCAP. All three cars include an identical and extensive safety specification topped by a number of ADAS electronic aids, including adaptive and intelligent cruise control, lane departure warning and prevention and traffic sign recognition.   

One particularly useful gain resulting from the government’s electric car grant and the threat to exclude BYD from it, is that in addition to the six-year vehicle warranty, the brand has increased the maximum mileage of its eight-year battery warranty from 125,000 to 155,342 miles (200,000km), and added a five-year free servicing package on cars bought before the end of 2025.

Also worth noting is that all BYD’s models, including the Dolphin Surf, use the company’s much-publicised ‘Blade’ units that are claimed to be significantly safer than typical EV batteries.

We like: Safety kit standard across all three models
We don’t like: Steel wheels on entry model

What’s the BYD Dolphin Surf like inside?

The Dolphin Surf is a small but quite tall car, being less than four metres long but with a long wheelbase. This translates to supermini levels of space in a city car. 

Certainly, four adults (there are only seats for four) will be comfortable in it, which you can’t usually say about a petrol-powered city car. Head and legroom in the rear seats are particularly impressive. The seats themselves are not especially comfortable, feeling fairly shapeless and firm, so probably not ideal for longer journeys. Boot space compares favourably with rivals too – 308 litres with the rear seats up, and 1,037 litres with them folded. The rear seats split 50/50 for folding, so you can still have one rear-seat passenger and some longer luggage, which is better than the Leapmotor T03 whose rear seat folds in a single piece.

The driver gets a seven-inch digital display mounted directly atop the steering column, while the centre of the car is dominated by BYD’s signature ten-inch touchscreen, which rotates from horizontal to vertical format at the touch of a button.

The driver’s screen feels small, not helped by small fonts that can be difficult to read on the move. You have to squint and look hard to readf key information, which then triggers the EU-mandated disraction warning to remind you to look at where you’re going. One other point to note is that, while Apple CarPlay and Android Auto smartphone integration is standard, apps such as Google Maps will not change with the screen orientation.

BYD does include a row of buttons along the base of the touchscreen but the Dolphin Surf does suffer from the industry-wide obsession to put everything possible on the screen. You can’t, for example, change the direction or intensity of the air conditioning without making swipe movements across the screen. In fact, trying to operate any car functions on the screen while CarPlay was running appeared to be a bit of a pain, which is not what you want when you’re driving.

BYD has already earned plaudits for the general fit and finish of its larger, more expensive cars and it is good to see the same levels being applied to this more affordable model.

We like: Rear cabin space good for sector
We don’t like: Too many controls on the touchscreen

What’s under the bonnet?

The supplied test car was a top-spec Comfort model, which combines the largest battery capacity, 43kWh, with a 115kW motor, equivalent to 156hp. This gives the car a 0-62mph time of about nine seconds, and an official range between charges of 193 miles.

This is not quite the furthest the Dolphin Surf will go. The mid-range Boost spec also employs the higher capacity battery but with a smaller 65kW/88hp motor. Two seconds slower reaching 62mph is compensated for by the official range just cracking 200 miles.

The entry-level Active variant matches the smaller motor to a 30kWh battery. The Active takes 11.1 seconds to reach 62mph, quicker than the Boost due to the lower weight of its hardware, but it only has a range of 137 miles which is definitely at the lower end of today’s EV expectations. 

The different capacities also mean variations in recharging. All versions offer DC fast-charging but the Active only at 65kW, whereas the other two can charge at 85kW, going from 10 to 80% capacity in half an hour. Using a three-phase 11kW AC wallbox the Active takes 3.5 hours for a full recharge, the Boost and Comfort five hours.

What’s the BYD Dolphin Surf like to drive?

The BYD Dolphin Surf offers all the ease of driving that comes with an EV, especially on more urban streets where it is very much at home. The steering is not over-light like can be the case with too many superminis, while one of the more impressive aspects of the car is its turning circle, which is great for negotiating narrow streets.

Acceleration is smooth, with the power level matched well to this type of car – often, EVs can feel overpowered in day-to-day driving, but the Dolphin Surf is dead simple for ducking and weaving through urban traffic.

General ride quality of the Surf is competent, though more significant road imperfections will be felt at higher speeds. Generally, however it cruises happily, even on the motorway. It’s not a car to excite the enthusiastic driver, the steering fairly lifeless through more challenging bends.

One disappointment is the brake regeneration, which is controlled entirely by the touchscreen and therefore cannot really be adjusted on the move. There are just two levels and the more severe does not offer significantly noticeable retardation, so the typical EV trait of energy-generating ‘one-pedal driving’ is not an option on this car. A steering wheel paddle to adjust brake regeneration would be preferable, particularly on a machine designed for stop-start traffic.  

One positive aspect is that the battery seems to hold up well – during a long-distance run conducted as part of the test and varying from single-track roads to motorways, we found the car’s range coming impressively close to the quoted government lab test figure. 

We like: General ride quality
We don’t like: Lack of regen options

Verdict

The BYD Dolphin Surf fulfils everything one would expect from an electric runabout, with no major issues to put off the potential buyer. The brand’s first serious push into the most affordable end of the market has come with no obvious compromises, and it is easy to see this car becoming a popular option for many people who want to go electric on a budget. 

Similar cars

Citroën e-C3 | Dacia Spring | Fiat Grande Panda Electric | Hyundai Inster | Leapmotor T03 | Renault 5 E-Tech | Vauxhall Corsa Electric

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