BYD Dolphin Surf Review & Prices

BYD produces some of the most desirable Chinese cars on sale in the UK, and the Dolphin Surf is its attempt at taking the small electric hatchback market by storm. It’s well equipped, striking to look at and fun to drive, but it doesn’t feel quite as polished as some of its alternatives such as the Renault 5, Hyundai Inster and Citroen e-C3.

Think of the Dolphin Surf as a small Big Mac meal at McDonalds, instead of a medium. You still get the burger, and it still hits the spot, but there's a bit less of everything else. It’s cheap too, but not quite as cheap as the Saver Menu Dacia Spring or Leapmotor T03.

Where its larger BYD counterparts have fairly generic styling, the Dolphin Surf genuinely looks like nothing else on the road. It’s incredibly angular, with small LED headlights at the top of a pointy front end and sharp creases all along the car’s flanks.

A high-set rear light bar and sporty rear bumper complete the ‘designed by a ruler’ look; it really is a funky little thing, especially in the vibrant lime green paint finish.

The interior isn’t quite as quirky, but it’s clearly laid out and more interesting to look at than in some larger, more expensive alternatives. The dash top features a gradient, dimpled diamond motif, and the leading edge of the dashboard curves underneath the central 10.1-inch touchscreen infotainment display.

As with the larger BYDs, it can rotate between from landscape to portrait orientation - unless you’re using Apple CarPlay or Android Auto - and there’s a smaller 7.0-inch driver’s display too.

The infotainment screen has clear graphics and it’s responsive to the touch, but it’s a bit grabby when you’re trying to swipe and it’s not the easiest to use. You can adjust the temperature and fan speed with a three-finger drag, but the temperature isn’t marked out in degrees so it can be difficult to judge.

There’s loads of room in the Dolphin Surf, with plenty of adjustment in the seat and steering wheel as well as big storage cubbies between the seats and in the doors. The back is spacious too, even for tall occupants; while the boot is a good size with under-floor storage, it’s an awkward shape.

Everywhere that’s not trimmed in neoprene-esque fabric is made from very hard, scratchy plastics. That’s pretty typical for a cheap, small hatchback, but it’s more obviously on display in the Dolphin Surf than in the Fiat Grande Panda, for example. Fit and finish is pretty good, otherwise.

Range: 137 - 200 miles
Efficiency: 4.0 mi/kWh
Battery size: 30.0kWh, 43.2kWh
Max charge speed: 65kWh/85kW
Charge time AC: 9hrs 42mins, 0-100%, 7kW
Charge time DC: 30mins 10-80%, 65kW/85kWh
Charge port location: Right front
Power outputs: 88hp, 156hp

Entry level Dolphin Surf Active models feature a small battery and up to 137 miles of range. The mid-spec Boost claims 200 miles of range, where the top of the line Comfort version offers slightly less at 193 miles thanks to its more powerful motor.

The Dolphin Surf is both easy to live with and fun to drive. Around town it’s a doddle to place on the road and thread through width restrictions thanks to its superb forward visibility, though over-the-shoulder visibility is poor.

It is quite jiggly over rough roads and sharp bumps and dips, and you get shaken around as a result. Twisty roads are quite enjoyable, with good acceleration and enough feel through the steering wheel to know how much grip the front wheels have, but motorways are noisy affairs with a lot of wind and tyre noise in the cabin.

As an affordable electric car, BYD has done a cracking job with the Dolphin Surf, so it’s well worth your consideration. Check out new BYD Dolphin Surf deals on Carwow, or Dolphin Surf lease deals instead. There are other used BYDs on sale through our network of trusted dealers, and you can even sell your current car through Carwow when the time comes to make a change.

BYD has come in strong with the Dolphin Surf’s price, with the entry-level Active model starting at just over £18,500. That’s fantastic value compared to some alternatives considering it comes with vegan leather-trimmed seats, the 10.1-inch phone-mirroring infotainment, rear view camera and adaptive, lane assist cruise control.

You’ll have to pay a few thousand pounds more for the mid-range Boost model with a bigger battery and more range, but you also get 16-inch alloy wheels, electric front seats and electric folding mirrors for that. Top spec cars have the same battery but twice as much power, as well as 360-degree parking cameras and tinted rear windows.

The Dolphin Surf is particularly great value when you compare it against the Renault 5, which starts at almost £23,000 for the entry-level model. The base spec Citroen e-C3 and Hyundai Inster are around the same price, too, and the top-spec Surf is better equipped than either.

It’s fun to drive and easy to nip around town in, but the Dolphin Surf is noisy at speed and far from comfortable

In town

As soon as you get in the Dolphin Surf it’s clear that city driving is going to be a breeze. You sit high up in the cabin, with a massive windscreen and no bonnet in your line of sight; like sitting in front of a bay window. Forward visibility is excellent.

Pop the twisty gear selector in drive, flex the accelerator and you’re met with surprisingly strong acceleration for such a small car - especially in the top-spec Comfort model we tested. The electric motor is a touch noisy, but it’s easily drowned out by music.

It’s easy to place the Dolphin Surf on tight roads and through width restrictions, as its slab-sided design adds some peace of mind, and you can see the top of the passenger wheel arch if you lean forward a bit. The steering feels vague when you start turning, but it’s weightier than the Citroen e-C3 - and feels sportier as a result.

The Dolphin Surf isn’t particularly comfortable. Gentle dips and shallow speedbumps don’t disrupt it much, but broken roads and sharp potholes do thud through the cabin and bounce you around. The brakes are questionable too, either too spongy or too sharp depending on how much regeneration the car is doing.

On the motorway

Motorways aren’t the Dolphin Surf’s forte. It’ll get up to the national speed limit without any fuss, though it’ll take you a while in Active and Boost models. Once you’re there it’s not a very relaxing car to drive.

A lot of tyre roar makes its way into the cabin, and you can really feel cracks in the road surface through the seats and steering wheel. Wind noise is loud too, especially around the door mirrors, noticeable from as low as 50mph.

The Dolphin Surf doesn’t fare too well over larger dips in the road either, as it can feel as though it’s floating above them rather than driving through them, giving you an unsettled feeling in your stomach.

On a twisty road

Its weighty steering and low-ish weight makes the Dolphin Surf fun to drive on a twisty road, though it’s far from sporty. There’s not much body lean in tight corners, and there’s just enough feel through the steering wheel for you to know how much grip the front tyres have.

Twisty roads are best taken at a moderate pace though, as the Dolphin Surf feels unsettled on bumpy bends - giving you a similar sensation to the floaty motorway dips.

Space and practicality

There’s more room inside the Dolphin Surf than you might expect from a small car, but there aren’t any clever storage solutions

Even sitting high up, there’s a lot of headroom in the BYD Dolphin Surf. It’s easy to get comfortable too, as the front seats are fairly supportive - though they lack any lumbar adjustability. The steering wheel adjusts for height and reach, too.

Storage up front is a mixed bag. The centre console cup holders are too wide to stop bottles from falling over, and while one of them can store a litre-sized bottle, it’s still not a snug fit. At least the door bins have built-in bottle holders, but they’re not felt-lined so odds and ends rattle about as you drive.

There’s a big glovebox, and while the storage cubby in the centre is large it’s also uncovered - not great if you ever need to park in the dodgy part of town.

Space in the back seats

Don’t let its tiny footprint deceive you, the back of the Dolphin Surf is really rather roomy. There’s enough space for two adults to sit comfortably behind two in the front, with lots of knee room and space under the front seats for your feet.

Headroom isn’t great, but a six-footer won’t feel too claustrophobic on long drives. The front seat backs are fabric trimmed as opposed to plastic, so people with long legs won’t be jammed in against hard plastic.

The seat back pockets feel high quality, made from the same leatherette that the rest of the seats are trimmed in, and there’s a usefully large cubby on the floor underneath the centre console as well as bottle holders in the large door bins.

You also get three ISOFIX child seat anchor points on the Dolphin Surf, which you don’t even get in a lot of much larger, more expensive cars; perfect for a solo parent traveling with an infant.

Boot space

You’ll be able to fit a couple of pieces of hand luggage in the Dolphin Surf’s boot, with a backpack or two wedged in there too. At 308 litres it’s about 20 litres down on the Renault 5 and more than 40 litres smaller than a Hyundai Inster’s boot.

It’s an odd shape too, narrowing at the top, but on the plus side there are four sturdy-feeling tie down points for a net or bungees.

You can fold the rear seats down to increase boot capacity to 1,037 litres, but there’s an enormous edge where the back rests hinge which is annoying when you need to load flat items in. The boot edge lip is rather large, too, but there’s a usefully large underfloor storage cubby with some neat zip-up bags to keep charging cables in. Shame there’s no frunk, though.

You’ll find handy straps on the seat backs, making it easy to pull them back up, but the seatbelts easily get caught in the process as there aren’t any guides keeping them out of the way.

There’s plenty of standard kit and the dashboard is funky, but there are lots of cheap plastics in the cabin too

It’s not quite as ‘out there’ as the exterior, but the Dolphin Surf’s interior is easy on the eye with a diamond-patterned dashboard which curves down underneath the 10.1-inch central infotainment screen.

The seats look rather sporty, with pronounced bolsters and fixed headrests in the front, trimmed in leatherette and a neoprene-like fabric. The upper-centre console, leading edge of the dashboard and door card inserts are trimmed in the same fabric, but the rest of the interior surfaces are made from very scratchy, shiny plastics.

Switchgear is a different story, as the row of physical buttons, the gear selector, door handles and the door buttons all feel sturdy and high quality, with well-damped clicks. The air vents look and feel rather nice too, as does the steering wheel - excluding the plastic airbag cover.

As with other models in the BYD range, the infotainment screen rotates from landscape to portrait at the touch of a button, unless you’re using Apple CarPlay/Android Auto, which locks it to landscape mode.

The graphics are crisp and clean, and it’s fairly touch-responsive, but the climate control touchbar at the bottom of the screen is fiddly to use. You can use three-figure swipe motions to change the fan speed and temperature instead, but drag and swipe gestures feel strange; your fingers drag along the screen with the odd friction squeak.

The temperature settings are unintuitive though; instead of giving you a temperature you’re presented with a series of numbers and letters ranging from ‘H9 to L9’ representing hot and cool instead.

Unfortunately, the driver display isn’t as posh as the central screen, with three rather low-definition displays masquerading as one larger item.

You can choose from two batteries with three different power outputs in the Dolphin Surf. Active trim level cars have a 30kWh battery with an 88hp motor and a range of 137 miles.

Boost models have a larger 43.2kWh battery, with the same 88hp power output but can go much further at 200 miles, which puts the Dolphin Surf broadly in line with alternatives such as the Citroen e-C3 (199 miles) and entry-level Renault 5 E-Tech (190 miles).

Top-spec Comfort models have the same 43.2kWh battery but almost double the power output at 156hp, though range falls slightly to 193 miles. The Dolphin Surf Comfort we tested showed a hugely impressive 4.4mi/kWh in city driving, which suggests it can achieve almost all of its claimed range, but this will certainly drop over mixed conditions.

Neither battery level has particularly fast charging; 65kW for the smaller battery and 85kW for the larger one, but the size difference means they all take around 30 minutes to charge from 10-80%.

The Dolphin Surf will appeal to company car drivers because it sits in the lowest band for Benefit-in-Kind rates, while owner-buyers also benefit from the minimum first-year tax rate. All Dolphin Surf models escape the luxury car supplement in years two to six, too.

The Dolphin Surf is too new to have been rated by Euro NCAP yet, but each of BYD’s other models scored the maximum available five stars when put through their paces in safety testing.

All trim levels come equipped with lane-keeping active cruise control, emergency lane keep assist, automatic emergency braking, collision warning and an infuriating driver attention monitor as standard; far too sensitive and with an irritating chime.

BYD didn’t feature in the 2024 Driver Power owner satisfaction survey, and while the Dolphin Surf is too new to know of any problems that might occur, BYD offers an impressive six-year, 93,750-mile warranty.

The battery is covered for eight years and up to 125,000 miles, if it drops below 70% of its full capacity, while the electric motor also has eight years of cover but a lower 93,750 mile limit.