BYD Atto

I've got an Atto 3, no real complaints it does a solid job. Hard to judge those destinations tbh I don't think we've done them ourselves, but we did Wellington to Turoa with a single charge stop at Bulls comfortably, that's about 300km. I'm not sure how it'll handle later as the battery ages though, we've had ours a couple of years. In terms of hidden costs, I can't really think of any but it is worth noting that EVs tend to be a bit harder on tyres so your lifetime spend on those will probably go up. If you haven't owned an EV before, there are some costs associated with decent charging infra at home, electrician time and the charging units etc which you should keep in mind. We're very happy with ours, it pairs nicely with some solar, the electronics are probably the stand-out for me , the console is fast, great features and lots of cameras that support things like parking. If you do a test drive, try doing a slow park and check the proximity alerts tho, sometimes they have a bit of lag to them which depending on your parking style might be quite irritating.

Servicing costs vary depending on the dealer, some are an absolute rort but my experience at Automarque lower hutt has been very reasonable (I can't remember exactly but it was like $200-$300ish for the 2 year service, closer to $200 I think). You can absolutely make it to Palmerston North return with one charge, and there are faster chargers in Levin (Z &BP), Palmerson North (Tesla), and Paraparaumu (Chargenet). Wellington to Napier can be done on one or two short charges, have also done that a few times the charging situation is pretty good these days, not as good as SH1 but still just fine. No real hidden costs I can think of. We've had one for about 2 years now, did a road trip to Palmy about a month ago. The mobile charger it comes with is a bit shit, has a tiny cord so you will need something better than that. You don't want to be using an extension cord for long term charging. We use a 16A caravan plug with a charger from OEM Audio (who are the most highly recommended suppliers of chargers in NZ). If you want to see what some trips look like, check out [ABetterRoutePlanner.com](http://ABetterRoutePlanner.com), you tell it your car and your destination and it plans optimal route and charging for you, I've found it very accurate if not a bit conservative for the Atto 3. You can't really specify day-to-day range because it depends how many hills you are driving on.

Atto 3 owner. Drive Feilding to Wellington quiet regularly. We get to welly with around 50% left most times. We stop at the pac n save paraparaumu (fast charge) on the way back or Foxton (50kw charger) grab a coffee or quick shop gets enough charge to get back and charge at home. Invest in a home charger as you will using that more than anything else. Charging off a 13 amp plug is not worth it for me. Wait untill the atto3 evo is out (last quarter this year) if you are buying new better range may get there and back in one charge. We never go lower than 10% and always charge to 100% when we can, forget this only to 80% bull thats for ncm batteries lfp batteries in byds are fine to do that. The batteries can take 3000 cycles before any degridation i have had mine 3 years and charged it around 300 times plenty of life in it yet. Home charging look at the ev plans from the main players. I use Genisis and get half price power between 9pm and 7am suits us. Other plans may be better for you depending on location or if you have solar. We got a servicing plan $300 bucks over 3 years. Rucs cost around $700 for 10k so factor that in. Genisis are in with chargnet , we got a fob from genesis so if you charge at a chargnet charger you only pay what you pay at home for a kw. So a charge up that says its $46 will be billed at around $22 ish on your bill. V2l is great as mentioned in another comment when we get power outages i plug in and start doing outside stuff like hovering the car out. 😁 I stuck with the batman tyres and got 50k out them before chainging them up to better ones from Steves in Palmy. Range is very subjective to atto 3 owners. Max i get is 320k driving main between feilding and palmy. I have seen other comments saying they get substantially more it depends on so many factors.

Cant speak to the 2, but 70K km and 3 years deep into an Atto 3, best daily driver I've had in 35 years on the roads. Mrs loves it, the dog loves it As observed they are a bit tyre thirsty, I've migrated to SUV tyres vs EV tyres so we'll see how that goes. 3 year service was $400 ish, $150 of that was new wiper blades and pollen filter You could probably get to Taupo with a light foot and tail winds, I do not have a light foot so we stop for refreshments and a charge in Waiouru Threw a Tesla wall box on the house ($700 plus $600 for the sparky and supplies) gets 6+ kWh of electron flow, plenty to charge it over night when power is half price A 60kWh battery will make 1000 long blacks, or run the freezer for three months etc. via V2L when the apocalypse comes

I don't have one but my parents do and are very happy with it - it's been reliable and cheap to run. My impression is that it's quiet and comfortable but somewhat lacking in the handling department - it has very, very soft suspension even for a small crossover. I also don't like the lack of different drive modes - no one pedal or even strong passive regen settings available. Excellent camera system though, miles ahead of anything else I've driven (that includes Tesla and Polestar)

If it’s possible, wait for the Atto 3 Evo coming in about 6 months. Otherwise Atto 2 is a bargain.

Have we got any idea on pricing yet?

I love my Atto 3 but I wouldn’t buy the current gen one now. Other rivals are better (zeekr, geely). The new Atto 3 Evo is coming in a few months. Even the up-spec Atto 2 (64.8 kWh battery) is kind of better (charges at up to 155 kW) Edit: not available in NZ

The general consensus is that it’ll be the exact same price as the current Atto 3. So you can either see if they’re doing clearance bargains on the old model or pay the same for the new one.

Thanks! Decision’s decisions! Hopefully they offer an anthracite interior. The blue and “white” seats really put me off. We’ve got them as part of our work fleet and I think kids wouldn’t work out too well!

One pedal is being regulated in China so don’t expect it to be a great option for their EVs. I think they now require it to be explicitly turned onto one pedal mode every time you start the car.

That's how it works on Hyundai/Kia already. Kind of annoying but better than not having it at all.

\+1 atto 3 - coming up 3 years 60K kms. Handles better than i expected (it replaced a WRX) its fun, the electronics are good. Installed google maps (not waze) early on and use that every day. Free internet stopped working a few times (car has a sim and dataplan) but now just use phone data with no issues. Batmans work for me. I love the big wheels and high ground clearance - great for less smooth places. complaints - rear visibility is not great, i've learnt to trust the rear radar for approaching vehicles - its excellent which is good, because ... poor rear vision. would recommend, but as someone else said, lots more on the market now than 3yrs ago. 2nd hand atto's are much better value, but no clean car discount...

I agree with this post as a Tesla owner. The Atto 3 is very soft (comfortable) but also very soft (sloppy handling). But the camera system is in fact fantastic. The lack of OPD is a huge bummer if you're used to it already (such as from a Tesla), but is probably less of an issue if you're not (like it's gonna be your first EV).

How about the Jaecoo J5 BEV and the leapmotor B10? Both are around the same price and size

Just purchased the atto 2 upspec version in Aus. Waiting for it to be delivered. But the demo model I had for a day was great. I didn't want something too large as I will be using it in a city, but didn't want it too small for when travelling on the freeways. Ed. The Atto 3 was a little too large for easy/tight parking.

I saw a B10 review online this morning. They look good. But I'm a little unsure about the new brands. Not that BYD is that old itself. But it does have a track record in New Zealand along with enough sales that service department staff will be well trained in fixing any issues. And there are service departments in several main centre. Jaecoo/Omoda is Chery and that's a brand that came and limped along in NZ and went. Their track records not great. Leapmotor seems to have a bit more oomph but .....

I’m test driving the B10 tomorrow, and I wouldn’t worry too much about the history of cherry. If you compared China as a whole back when cherry was bad compared to today, it’s no contest. They have advanced so much.