BYD Dolphin SURF review
The BYD Dolphin SURF (known as the Seagull in other markets) is the latest model from the Chinese brand, and it’s the smallest and cheapest available in the UK. With a very competitive starting price of less than £20,000 and up to 200 miles of range, BYD’s new city car is going to be hard to beat. But is it any good to drive? Read our full BYD Dolphin SURF review now.
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Pros
- Sub-£20k starting price
- Great rear-seat space
- Up to 200 miles of range
Cons
- Poor regenerative braking
- No front boot
- Spongey brakes
Interior
Our rating: 8/10
Driving position
As is the case with almost all electric cars, due to their underfloor battery placement, the BYD Dolphin SURF has quite a high seating position, meaning if you’re taller, you may find yourself scraping your knees on the steering wheel.
But for average-sized drivers, it gives you a wide view of the road ahead, and speaking of which, the windows are big enough to see all around the car, not that you need to, as it’s such a dinky vehicle anyway.
The controls fall to hand very easily, with the gear selector neatly blending into the air-con and volume controls.
Tech and features
Like all BYDs, the Dolphin SURF comes really well-equipped, with three different trims to choose from.
Even the most basic Active (£18,650) comes with a 7.2-inch digital driver’s display and a 10-inch central infotainment screen, and can rotate 90 degrees like in every other BYD model.
This comes with an impressive and smooth-operating BYD infotainment system with wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto smartphone connectivity.
Step up to the Boost (£21,950) and you get electrically folding door mirrors, rain-sensing wipers and electrically adjustable front seats.
But the one you really want – and the car we drove – is the Comfort (£23,950), with smartphone wireless charging, a 360-degree parking camera (it’s seriously good), tinted rear windows and heated front seats.
While there are no proper physical temperature controls, which is a major gripe we have with many modern cars, BYD has listened to feedback and provided a solution to this.
Simply swipe down on the infotainment screen with three fingers and you can adjust the temperature, slide to the side and you can adjust the fan speed.
Performance
Our rating: 9/10
Electric motors and power
This is where the BYD comes into its own, thanks to BYD’s industry-leading Blade battery technology.
All models get the same front-wheel drive single-motor setup, but with two different power outputs. The Active and Boost get 87hp while the top-spec Comfort gets 154hp.
This may not sound like a lot of poke, but you don’t need much more than this from a city car, and with a 0-62mph time of 9.1 seconds with the Comfort, it’s plenty nippy enough for city traffic.
Handling and ride comfort
Okay, the Dolphin SURF is no hot hatch, but it’s very well composed around tight bends and roundabouts. There’s minimal body roll and the steering, while light, is direct and confidence-inspiring.
Around town, it’s perfect, but we were most impressed by its suspension and ability to soak up bumps in the road. Even on harsh speed bumps, the car holds its own, and even rear-seat passengers won’t be banging their heads against the ceiling.
However, our only gripe is with the brakes. They feel quite spongey and weak when applied, and the regenerative braking has two levels – neither of which are particularly strong. The Hyundai INSTER is far better in this department.
Practicality
Our rating: 7/10
Boot space
For such a dinky car, the Dolphin SURF has a decent amount of boot space, at 308 litres.
This puts it above the VW e-up! and Lepamotor T03, but on the same level as the Dacia Spring.
The space itself is fairly wide, but very deep, with an extra storage compartment below to store a range of cables and the like.
Unfortunately, there’s no front boot/froot despite there being space to have one. Instead, you just get all the battery and electric motor gubbins under the bonnet.
The seats also fold in a 50:50 split, making longer items easy to load into the back.
Rear seats
Unlike the Renault 5, the BYD Dolphin SURF has some seriously impressive rear-seat space, albeit with only two seats back there.
Even for folks over six foot, there’s going to be plenty of foot, leg and headroom. Okay, headroom may be slightly compromised, but it’s far better than almost all its rivals, in our experience.
There’s not much in the way of creature comforts, but you do get electric window switches, ISOFIX and two small hooks for coats.
Storage solutions
It’s a small car, so there isn’t much in the way of excess storage space, but what you do get is ideal for what you’d need.
Door bins aren’t the biggest, but there’s enough room for small bottles, and the same goes for the glovebox.
Between the two front seats, there’s a number of storage compartments for bags, water bottles and so on, and this extends into the rear seats, giving you a tad more space for whatever detritus back-seat passengers have.
Safety
The Dolphin SURF hasn’t yet been independently tested by Euro NCAP, but judging by BYD’s stellar form of five out of five stars so far, we have no doubts about this car’s credentials.
Onboard safety features include six airbags, adaptive cruise control, automatic emergency braking, lane keep assist, blind spot monitoring, rear cross-traffic alert and driver fatigue monitoring.
They’re also easy to turn off if you’d like, with a simple wipe down to the control centre within the central screen.
Running costs
Our rating: 8/10
Range and charging times
Now for the part you’ve all been waiting for.
Being a BYD, the Dolphin SURF has to perform in the battery and range department for it to be considered by any prospective buyers, and luckily, it doesn’t disappoint.
The entry-level Active gets a 30kWh battery with 137 miles of range, whereas the Boost and Comfort trims get the larger 43.2kWh battery with 200 miles and 193 miles respectively.
This puts it miles above (quite literally) the Dacia Spring’s 140 miles and Leapmotor T03’s 165 miles.
Them when it comes to charging, the Dolphin Surf Active has a maximum charging speed of 65kW, which isn’t very fast by today’s 400kW standards, but because the battery is small, you can get a 10-80% top up in 30 minutes – a ballpark figure given to bigger cars with bigger batteries, so you won’t be waiting any longer at the charger.
Step up to the two upper trims, though, and the speeds increase to 85kW, which is still slow but helps preserve the battery in the long run.
Reliability
Because the Dolphin SURF has just come out, it’s hard to say whether it’s a reliable car or not, but judging by BYD’s past experience, we have complete faith that it’ll be a trustworthy car.
We’ve spent time with other BYD models, including the SEAL, SEAL U DM-i, Dolphin, SEALION 7 and Atto 3, and think they’re all very reliable electric car options.
The verdict
Interior
8/10
Performance
9/10
Practicality
7/10
Running costs
8/10
When BYD announced it was going to make a smaller electric car, we joined the naysayers and were sceptical for its range, price and equipment, but we’ve been seriously impressed by what the Dolphin SURF has to offer.
It’s priced from less than £20,000, has up to 200 miles of range, all the tech you really need, plenty of space inside, and it’s nippy – what more could you possibly want?
Sure, it charges slowly, but being a city car, it’s not designed to cover massive motorway distances all of the time, and you cannot argue with the value for money.
And for that, we think this might be the most attractive small electric car offering yet.