BYD Atto 3 Evo Review & Prices

The BYD Atto 3 Evo is the new version of the Chinese brand’s oldest model in the UK: the Atto 3. It’s a family SUV with a practical cabin, fast charging and powerful electric motors, but it’s not good to drive and it doesn’t offer as much range as its alternatives.

It also looks identical to its forebear, even though the Atto 3 Evo is pretty much all-new under the skin. Think of it as Coca-Cola introducing the ‘New Coke’ back in 1985. There’s a new, on-paper improved recipe - with the same recognisable design on the outside.

But with alternatives such as the excellent Skoda Enyaq, Tesla Model Y and Nissan Ariya to consider, the Atto 3 Evo needs to be a step up from its predecessor to make a name for itself in a far busier market than when the original was launched. Electric SUVs are ten-a-penny now, and other Chinese offerings such as the MG S5 EV and XPeng G6 offer better value for money.

It’s a shame that BYD hasn’t given it a styling refresh, save for some more intricate bumpers, a sharp crease down its sides and a pair of little brake lights integrated into the roof spoiler. The Atto 3 Evo isn’t an ugly car, but it looks a touch dated compared to sleeker alternatives such as the Tesla Model Y and Kia EV6.

BYD Atto 3 Evo: electric range, battery and charging data

Range: 292 - 316 miles
Efficiency: 3.9 - 4.2mi/kwh
Battery size: 74.8kWh
Max charge speed: 220kW
Charge time AC: 8hrs, 0-100%, 11kW
Charge time DC: 25mins, 10-80%, 220kW
Charge port location: Right side, rear
Power outputs: 313hp, 449hp

The interior has undergone a similarly subtle change, mostly for the better. The piddly little driver display has been replaced with a much larger, clearer 8.8-inch item while the pointless rotating infotainment screen is gone, in favour of a 15.6-inch fixed item with lightning-quick response time and built-in Google Maps and Play Store. BYD has sensibly moved the gear selector to the steering column, freeing up space in the centre for a wireless phone charging pad.

Gone too are the ribbed surfaces on the dashboard and door cards, now replaced by less divisive but questionably-trimmed neoprene-esque panels instead. Material quality is generally poor, with the steering wheel horn now made from scratchy plastic while the leatherette doesn’t feel very premium.

Interior space, however, is rather good. The front seats are highly adjustable (but not very comfortable), while there’s lots of storage space on and underneath the centre console. The door bins are large, and retain the funky 'guitar string' netting that debuted on the first Atto 3. Rear headspace could be better, but the combined 585 litres of storage space (95 litres in the new front boot) is a big improvement.

A single battery option powers the Atto 3 Evo, a 74.8kWh unit that powers a single rear motor in the Design model, or dual motors in all-wheel drive Excellence trim. You’ll be able to travel up to 316 miles or 292 miles, respectively.

They won’t be the most pleasant of miles, however. Around town the Atto 3 Evo does a fine job dispatching big, rounded speed bumps, but drive it anywhere near a pothole or broken road and the whole cabin judders. The steering wheel feels rather heavy, while the brake pedal is overly sharp too.

It gets up to motorway speeds easily, but once you’re there there’s a pronounced vibration through the seats and steering wheel, with noticeable wind noise. It’s not a very pleasant car on a country lane, with plenty of body lean during quick direction changes.

Verdict

BYD has put a lot of effort into addressing the earlier Atto 3’s foibles, and the Atto 3 Evo really is more practical and easier to live with as a family car than it used to be. It’s just a shame they’ve made it rather bad to drive in the process, miles behind the Skoda Enyaq or even the cheaper Citroen e-C5 Aircross.

Still, if the powerful, well-equipped BYD Atto 3 Evo is up your street, check out the latest deals on Carwow, as well as Atto 3 Evo lease offers and other BYDs for sale. There are used BYDs available through our trusted dealer network, and Carwow can even help you sell your current car when it’s time to switch.

The BYD Atto 3 Evo starts at just under £39,000 in rear-wheel drive Design trim, jumping up to around £42,700 in all-wheel drive Excellence guise. That’s not very cheap, priced in line with European offerings such as the Volkswagen ID4, while the Excellence is nipping on the heels of the Tesla Model Y for price.

It’s hard to justify the BYD for the money, even if it’s well equipped as standard with a plethora of safety assistance systems, heated and cooled front seats, adaptive cruise control, lashings of leatherette and a heat pump. The Excellence adds a panoramic glass roof, head-up display and heated rear seats.

Big speed bumps are well-absorbed, but the Atto 3 Evo thumps its way over bad roads

In town

Around town the Atto 3 Evo is a mixed bag. The suspension does a fine job over big bumps at low speed and the motor is smooth when accelerating from a standstill. Its 10.8-metre turning circle is quite good, just ahead of a Renault Scenic (a Skoda Elroq can about-face in just 9.2 metres) - but that’s about it for pros in urban environments.

The Atto 3 Evo is noisy and jittery over potholes and broken roads. The brake pedal feels super sharp, too, making it hard to come to a smooth stop. Visibility all-round isn’t great either, with chunky front pillars and a small rear window.

Fortunately a slew of parking sensors and cameras help when manoeuvring the Atto 3 Evo around town bends and into small parking spaces.

On the motorway

Things aren’t much better on the motorway. Getting up to the national speed limit is a piece of cake in both trim levels, though the all-wheel drive Excellence is comically fast for such a sensible car. Once you reach 60mph, however, you’ll notice an abundance of wind noise and an unsettling vibration through the cabin.

Tyre noise is well insulated, at least, but the active cruise control is far from confidence inspiring. It brakes a bit too aggressively when someone pulls out in front of you.

On a twisty road

The Atto 3 Evo is best driven at a steady pace on a country lane, with a fair amount of body lean around tight bends and quick direction changes. It isn’t very composed around bumpy corners - really wallowing about - and you’re never sure how much grip the front tyres have.

You’d think the all-wheel drive model is more sure-footed, and you’d be right, but its extra power does nothing to help the uneasy feeling you get when hanging on around a corner.

Plenty of interior storage solutions, but the boot is still smaller than in alternatives

You won’t struggle to find space for odds and ends in the Atto 3 Evo, with its large door pockets, plentiful glovebox, phone pads (one of which is a wireless charger) and three cubbies in the centre console: one behind the cup holders, a large one beneath it and a covered bit in between the seats.

The seats themselves aren’t very comfortable, with little lumbar or bolster support. The flat-bottom steering wheel feels a little too big, but you can adjust it for both reach and rake, making it fairly easy to find an agreeable driving position. You’ll find an ISOFIX child seat anchor in the passenger seat, which is handy.

Space in the back seats

The back of the BYD is fairly generous, with plenty of legroom and no flat floor to get in the way if you’re travelling three-up. Shoulder space is okay, too, as is headroom; particularly tall adults might find their locks ticking the headliner, though.

Seat-back pockets, a flip-down centre armrest with a pair of cup holders and small door bins round-out storage space for rear occupants. There are a pair of ISOFIX points in the outermost seats.

Boot space

Boot space is improved on the earlier Atto 3, with the Atto 3 Evo offering 495 litres of cargo capacity and a very impressive 95-litre front boot. The boot itself is fairly unremarkable, with no real under-floor space meaning the charging cables can’t be hidden away. They’ll almost certainly live in the front, which is more of a faff to open.

Plenty of soft-touch plastics and trimmed surfaces, but the Atto 3’s upholstery doesn’t feel very nice

Though you still get the zany, curvaceous dashboard of the old Atto 3, the Atto 3 Evo has grown up a touch and replaced the wavy, indented lower dashboard and door cards with a much more strait-laced synthetic leather material instead. It’s more conventional and looks more premium, but it’s not very pleasant to touch.

The new 15.6-inch infotainment display is impressive, as it’s not only very quick and responsive to your inputs but features clear graphics and built-in Google Maps. You can also add apps via the Google Play Store and connect your own account for Google Voice Assistant, but BYD hasn’t gone so far as to use a Google OS like Nissan or Renault.

It’s a shame because the BYD menus are a bit of a faff to navigate, and while you can use a three-finger swipe to adjust the heater and fan speeds it’s still less intuitive than having physical buttons.

The 8.8-inch driver display is much improved over the old model’s tiny item, but it's a shame that it’s mounted behind such a cheap-feeling steering wheel. The airbag cover is very scratchy and the leatherette trim feels a bit nasty.

A new 74.8kWh battery resides under The Atto 3 Evo’s floor. This is significantly up on the old model’s 60.4kWh unit, and means the SUV can now travel up to 316 miles to a charge (292 in all-wheel drive guise).

Unfortunately, this is still some way behind the Skoda Eloq which can muster 355 miles of range when similarly equipped in a high trim level. A Renault Scenic, meanwhile, can go as far as 381 miles.

New charging tech means the Atto 3 Evo can handle 220kW ultra-rapid fare, meaning an appropriate charger will fill the battery from 10-80% in 25 minutes. An 11kWh AC charger can manage 0-100% in eight hours, while a 7.4kWh box would take around 12 hours.

As an electric car, the Atto 3 Evo is subject to the lowest rates of Vehicle Excise Duty and - for company car drivers - Benefit in Kind tax. Even in Excellence trim the BYD also avoids the luxury car supplement threshold for EVs.

The BYD Atto 3 Evo hasn’t yet been rated by safety experts Euro NCAP, but the earlier Atto 3 scored five-out-of-five stars when tested in 2022. We expect the new version to score the same.

As standard, Atto 3 models come with adaptive cruise control, traffic sign recognition, automatic emergency braking, lane-keeping steering, rear collision warning and a driver attention monitoring system. You’ll find a trio of ISOFIX anchor points in the cabin, too.

BYD scored very poorly in the 2025 Driver Power satisfaction survey, coming 30th out of 31 brands entered. Ouch.

At least the Chinese brand offers a strong warranty, with six-year, 93,750-mile coverage for mechanical items and eight-year, 155,342-mile protection for the battery and motor. This fares well against Hyundai and Kia, but Toyota still paves the way with its 10-year, 100,000-mile service-linked warranty.