BYD Dolphin G Review & Prices

The BYD Dolphin G is the smallest and cheapest PHEV on sale today, and it’s a difficult car to pigeonhole. It’s priced as an alternative to the Toyota Yaris and Renault Clio, but in terms of size and equipment it sits between those cars and the larger Volkswagen Golf and Vauxhall Astra.

It’s a bit like that super-smart kid at school who got bumped up to the year above in maths. Like that kid, the Dolphin G is pretty unassuming to look at. It’s not an ugly car, but in anything other than the standard bright orange paint it looks pretty generic.

That theme continues inside. The dashboard looks smart, and it feels nice and solid, but a Peugeot 208 has a more special-looking cabin. The Dolphin G does get a slick 12.7-inch screen as standard though, which is responsive and easy to use and gets Google apps built-in on mid-spec models.

Moving to the rear seats, it’s more spacious than any small hatchback on the market, with enough legroom for our six-foot tester, and the 425-litre boot trounces the Renault Clio and Toyota Yaris. That’s more than you get in the larger Volkswagen Golf as well, but there is a big drop down to the boot floor which makes loading heavy items harder on your back.

Under the bonnet is a 1.5-litre petrol engine paired to an electric motor, and there are two battery options to choose from. Entry-level cars have up to 25 miles of electric range, while all other cars can do up to 65 miles without the engine. That’s further than the Jaecoo 7 or Vauxhall Astra PHEV can go.

It’s impressively economical as well. We managed to get 69mpg on a variety of different roads, which is slightly more than we got from the Toyota Yaris. The Dolphin G feels pretty slow though, so overtaking manoeuvres need to be carefully considered. The engine makes a bit of a racket when you floor it, but most of the time it’s smooth and quiet.

Around town this is a really easy car to drive. It behaves a lot like an EV at low speeds, with peppy acceleration away from the lights and near-silent running. Visibility is good as well, and mid-spec models get a 360-degree camera to help you out in tight spaces.

There’s not much fun to be had when the road gets twisty, but the Dolphin G goes around corners pretty well. The steering has a good amount of weight to it and it places the car where you want it, and there’s not much body roll in the corners. It’s not as comfortable over bumps as a Toyota Yaris though, because the Dolphin G gets a bit jiggly on rougher roads.

A Volkswagen Polo, meanwhile, is a better motorway car, because the Dolphin G isn’t the most refined car at speed. It’s not a dealbreaker, but you do notice a fair amount of wind and engine noise.

Verdict

The BYD Dolphin G is an appealing option if you want something practical, well-equipped and really economical. It may not be as good to drive as a Toyota Yaris, but it’s such good value for money that you’ll be willing to overlook that shortcoming.

The BYD Dolphin G costs about the same as a Toyota Yaris, but you get a lot more interior space and more standard equipment. All models get adaptive cruise control, a 12.3-inch touchscreen and keyless entry, then for a few grand more you can have the Boost model with heated seats, a heated steering wheel and wireless phone charging.

The best value can be found in the Comfort version. For around £28,500 you get 18-inch alloy wheels, a panoramic glass roof, a head-up display, 360-degree cameras and an electric driver’s seat. This also adds the Google-based infotainment system, which can show directions from Google Maps in the digital driver’s display.

It’s at-home in town and decent on a twisty road, but the BYD Dolphin G is a bit noisy on the motorway

In town

Around town, the BYD Dolphin G is really easy to drive. If you keep it charged up then you can waft around in silence, and even when the battery runs flat you still get EV-like punch away from the lights. The hybrid system is really smooth and quiet.

Visibility is pretty good as well, especially out the front because the dashboard is quite low and the windows are large, while the 360-degree camera is handy in tight car parks.

The Dolphin G is a bit jiggly over broken surfaces. It’s not bad to the point of being an issue, but the Skoda Fabia is a bit more comfortable.

On the motorway

All versions of the BYD Dolphin G come with adaptive cruise control which can maintain a safe distance from the car in front, as well as steer to keep you in lane. The system works well, and it takes the strain out of long journeys.

It feels planted at speed, and the suspension smooths out compared with at low speeds, but you notice a fair amount of wind noise and a faint hum from the engine. If you’re after the most-refined small car, a Volkswagen Polo is the better bet.

On a twisty road

You won’t mistake the Dolphin G for a hot hatch, but it handles a twisty road much better than a lot of other Chinese cars. The steering has a reassuring weight to it, and it feels planted and precise through the corners.

You have the confidence to get a wriggle on when you want to, unlike a Chery Tiggo 4, which feels a bit vague and wobbly.

There’s plenty of passenger space in the Dolphin G and it has a large boot, but the high loading sill makes hauling heavy items in tricky

The BYD Dolphin G is larger than any of its alternatives, and that means it’s also more spacious inside. Getting comfortable behind the wheel is easy thanks to the adjustment in the seats and steering wheel, and there are plenty of cubby holes for your bits and bobs.

There are three cupholders in the centre console, or you can remove a divider and have a wide storage tray with a single place for your drink. The wireless charging tray is angled towards you, and there’s a massive area under the centre console with a couple of USB-C ports and a 12-volt socket.

Space in the back seats

In the rear seats, the Dolphin G is more spacious than a Skoda Fabia or a Toyota Yaris. Even six-footers will have enough room, although the panoramic roof you get in mid-spec cars does eat into headspace.

Fitting a child seat is simple thanks to the easy-access ISOFIX points, although the door openings are a bit narrow. It’s better than a Yaris, but if you’ve got a growing family then a Volkswagen Golf is a slightly better bet in terms of rear seat space.

There are a couple of USB-C points in the back to keep the kids’ devices topped up, although there are no cupholders and the door bins are pretty small.

Boot space

At 425 litres, the Dolphin G’s boot is the biggest in its class. It’s 139 litres more than you get in a Yaris, 45 litres more than a Skoda Fabia and 34 litres up on the Clio. It even competes with larger cars from the class above. A Volkswagen Golf only offers 380 litres of space, and a Honda Civic has 410 litres.

It’s a nice, square shape and there’s some handy storage under the floor for your charging cables. The parcel shelf is a lightweight fabric affair, so you can just fold it up and store it in the car.

There is quite a large drop down into the boot, which makes loading heavy items a bit tough on your back. The rear seats don’t fold flat either, so pushing something bulky like a chest of drawers to the front is a faff.

The BYD Dolphin G feels solid inside and the tech is good, but there are some suspect materials.

It’s certainly more cheerful inside the BYD Dolphin G than it is in a Toyota Yaris or Skoda Fabia. You get a layered dashboard and tall centre console separating you from your passenger, as well as the option of light upholstery to lift things even further. It’s not as interesting as the space-aged cabin you get in the Peugeot 208, though.

Everything feels well-screwed together, but the materials aren’t the best. The dashboard is entirely made of hard plastic, which is fine in a car like this but our test car had some noticeable scratches on it. The silver trim is prone to marking as well, and it’s placed around most of the major touchpoints.

The infotainment system is a breeze to use, with logical menus and zippy graphics. There may not be many physical buttons, but there are some handy shortcuts to change the temperature and fan speed by swiping three fingers up or across on the screen.

If you go for the mid-spec models with a Google-based infotainment system then it has apps like Google Maps and Spotify built in, and you can get your directions from Google Maps in the digital driver’s display. It’s a really slick system.

The BYD Dolphin G has a 1.5-litre petrol plug-in hybrid system with a 7kWh battery in the basic model, rising to 18kWh in every other car. The smaller battery will take you up to 25 miles on electric power alone, while the larger option has 65 miles of all-electric range. 

During our tests, we managed to get just under 60 miles of electric range in the real world. What’s more impressive though is the fuel economy. Over 50 miles on mixed roads, with the hybrid battery completely flat, it averaged 69mpg. That’s about the same as a Toyota Yaris can do, but you can’t run that on electric power alone for longer distances. 

The Dolphin G falls into a 10% Benefit in Kind (BiK) bracket, unless you go for the smaller battery in which case it’s 16%. A Toyota Yaris sits in the 25% bracket, so the Dolphin will be much cheaper for company car drivers. That said, if you have a home charger then you might want to consider an all-electric car such as the BYD Dolphin. You only pay 4% BiK on that car. 

First-year road tax sits at £115 per year, going up to the standard £200 per year thereafter. No version is expensive enough to attract the luxury car supplement.

The BYD Dolphin G hasn’t been put through Euro NCAP safety testing yet, but every other BYD model on sale has the full five-star rating. 

You get a shed-load of safety kit as standard as well. Blind spot monitoring, adaptive cruise control, lane-keep assist and rear cross-traffic alert are all included.

Being such a new model, there are no reliability records for the BYD Dolphin G just yet. BYD has been around in the UK for a few years now though, and there are no reliability horror stories to report.

The Dolphin G is also covered by a six-year, 93,750-mile warranty. That’s better than the three years of cover you get on a Skoda Fabia or Renault Clio, but the Toyota Yaris can be covered for up to 10 years if you keep it serviced within the dealer network.