Climate control system fails in BYD ATTO-3, still getting fogged windows

My Atto 3 was delivered in November 2022, one of the first in the Netherlands.

I have posted a few previous reviews on my website, in which one important drawback remains for me.

This concerns the climate control system in this car.

MY REMAINING ISSUE WITH THE BYD ATTO 3

Despite all the updates and changes to the climate control system’s operation, it continues to be a concern to me.

In my previous articles, I have explained in detail what the problem is and when it occurs.

When it is really damp outside, the front window will become fogged which can easily be solved by setting the climate control to LO. Tghis makes the foggy stuff go away due to the fact that the cold air is humidified by the system when it ios set to LO. But this means it will get pretty cold in the car. Then, when the window has unfogged you can set the climate control to 18 degrees or higher which kicks the heatpump around from cooling to heating. That takes some time and then the car will get warm inside. Then, after a short period of time it gets too warm, I then set the air to ONLY AIR, doing this will let the damp air comes in and the front window gets fogged again. Thus, I then put the climate control to LO again, which takes some time to activate due to the heatpump changing function, and so on.

The above experienced problem only happens when it is between 12 and 18 degrees outside when it is damp or raining.

When it is really freeezing cold, the outside air is usually dry and I don’t have fogged windows. Also, I will have the heater function of the heatpump on and this also clears the foggy windows.

When it is between 0 degrees C and around 12 degrees C, I usually use the hot air function of the heat pump and this removes any possible fog,

When it is really hot, above 20 degrees C, it is also usually dry air and I don’t have fogged windows. And- when it is really hot above 25 degrees C, I will have the LO function of the heat pump on and this clears the foggy windows.

WHY DO CARS WITH CONVENTIONAL AIRCO AND SEPARATE HEATER DON’T HAVE THIS PROBLEM?

In a cumbustion engined car with an airco system an d a seperate heater on board, you can use both that AND the heater. In such a car I never have any problem with fogging windows under humid conditions. Because there is a setting in such cars that defogs the windows by using the demoistering of the airco function together with to the standard heater function to evaporate the fog. Simple and effective.

The BYD Atto3 does not have a separate heater and the heatpump can onlo do either produce cold air OR hot air. So, it is my belief that my experienced problem with getting inside fogging windows can just not be solved, excpt by continuously play with the car’s heatpump and fan settings, causing unwanted temperature changes in the car, in my user’s experiences causing the car to be mostly way too cold under exterior humid conditions.

An additional problem with the climate control system is that the cold air function only has one setting, namely “LO”. In the “LO” setting, you can only control the amount of cold air with the fan speed setting. The temperature cannot be adjusted, so the air flowing out is always very cold in the “LO” setting, regardless of the speed at which it flows into the cabin.

Heating from 18 degrees and above.

You can also choose which airflow options you want to use: windscreen, centre or bottom. You can set any combination, but the system will only remember this setting if you do not change any other climate control settings.

Because it is not possible to mix cold and warm air, not even with the outside air, you are either in the cold OR in the heat.

THE CAUSE OF MY EXPERIENCED CLIMATE CONTROL PROBLEM WITH THE BYD ATTO 3

The Atto 3 is equipped with a heat pump for the climate control system. This was touted as a major advantage at the time of sale. A heat pump is much more efficient than conventional electric heating and is also much more efficient than a normal cooling system (also known as air conditioning).

The disadvantage of a heat pump is that it can only do one thing at a time: heat or cool.

Heating and cooling at the same time is impossible due to the way a heat pump system works.

This is because the heat pump system reverses the operation of the condenser and radiator. When a heat pump is used as a cooling system, you have a radiator in the outside air that gives off heat and a condenser that gives off cold in the car or in your living room at home (in the case of a heat pump in a home installation).

When your heat pump is used for heating, the outdoor unit acts as a condenser and releases cold (i.e. absorbs heat), while the indoor unit acts as a radiator that releases heat and absorbs cold.

With a heat pump installation that can both cool and heat, you have two settings on the control panel: cooling or heating. In the Atto 3, these are LO for cooling and 18 to 26 for heating on the control panel. In practice, this means that in the LO setting, ice-cold air always flows into the car and in the 18 or higher setting, warm air always flows into the car. The only way to regulate anything is with the fan speed and by playing with the three cold or warm air flow options.

THE SOLUTION FOR MY POOR EXPERIENCES WITH THE AIR CONDITIONING SYSTEM IN THE BYD ATTO 3

For a year now, the Atto 3 has also received a setting that allows air to flow into the cabin WITHOUT using the heat pump.

This is a pleasant solution for the summer when it is dry, but my problems with fogged windows only occur when the outside humidity is very high, or when it is raining or foggy. This is not solved by having a “HEAT PUMP OFF” setting.

When it is freezing and dry, I have no problem: I just turn on the heater. Under such conditions, no moist air enters the car when it is very dry outside, regardless of whether it is freezing or not.

And if no moist air enters, the windows will not fog up and the heater can remain on. Or not. But then you don’t need the LO setting to blow the windows dry.

Unfortunately, weather conditions in the Netherlands often cause the windows of the Atto3 to fog up while driving.

The only solution for me is to always have the LO setting on in such weather conditions. And that makes it very cold in the car.

COATS ON IN THE ATTO 3 WHEN IT’S DAMP OUTSIDE

So we always sit in the car with our coats on when it’s raining or foggy outside, because of the cold in the car due to the fact that the car has to be in LO mode, otherwise the windows will fog up.

It’s crazy, but in case of rainy or very humid weather on the road, we always have a set of coats in the back of the car, just because we sometimes just don’t wear a coat outside due to the good weather conditions.

Depending on the number of people in the car, I have to set the fan to 1-2 when I’m driving alone and to 3-6 when there is more than one person in the car with me.

Bizarre but reality.

Afterword:

Via a friend of mine, I got hold of an old school electric defogger device that very old cars could use to defog the front or rear car windows.

This is an interesting devide with an electric heater and a fan. The device plugs in an electric 12V outlet and I tried it in my BYD Atto 3, to find out if this can solve my experienced front window defogging problem.

Although this device does work, it does not solve my problem since I would need a powerful heater as add-on for the entire car, next to the cold air in the same airflow to the front window. If I set the car to LO, the cold air is extremely cold and that cools to the point where it becomes very uncomfortable.

Solving my problem with fogged windows for the BYD Atto 3 can in my view only be solved by using the heat pump for heating and add a small electrical system to the car that can demoisterize (with a cold condensor) in the airflow to the front window. Such cooling systems exist for small appliances like mini refgrigerators and I am unsure wether this will be possible to use for my needed purposes.

I will investigate on this!

9 May 20254 October 2025

User review BYD Atto3 from October 2022 driven during 2.5 years and 50.000 kilometers

Writing this on May 9th 2025 after almost 50.00 kilometers, I trust that this user review of my Atto3 may be useful to others.

The car is now well over 2 1/2 years ‘old’ and has never had any defect, never got me stranded nor did I ever need any assistance to drive it.

In my earlier review I made some comments about the poorly functioning airco, no homologation for a pulling rod and so on. You can read those comments here:

Climate control system fails in BYD ATTO-3, still getting fogged windows

BYD Atto 3: User experiences after 9 months and 10,000 miles

I did a couple of upgrades to the car, these can be found here:

BYD Atto3 upgraded black C-pillar covers

BYD Atto 3: Mounting an original BYD dashcam DIY

BYD Atto 3 tow bar

BYD Atto3 -Spare tire in the trunk

BYD Atto3 on all-weather tires Bridgestone 235/50 R18 101H XL (GAN) Weather Control A005

I have 1 pending upgrade, which is the automatic wiper control unit that I have laying around. I am still a bit hesitated to install this, due to possible warrant voiding by BYD when I cut holes in the car under the steering wheel pillar’s plastic cover to mount an on/off switch for the to be installed wiper module.

The assessment about the car at May 2025:

The car drives perfect, BUT I needed a lot of getting used to the functioning of the airco/heater system, though. The Atto3 works completely different than any airco/heating system I ever encountered in a car. After 2 1/2 years I am finally getting the hang of using this system. I have tried all options and found out that the ATTO3’s heating/airco when used in AUTO mode is dangerous to use in our Dutch weather conditions. I get foggy windows, both in- and outside now and then, depending on weather conditions. Like sudden snow, hail, or warm rain. Fog is also a difficult situation to deal with when on AUTO setting.

Since I overcame that (-to me, at least-) disappointing fact, I fell back to manually controlling the airco/heater every time I start my ride and during driving.

So- when foggy and cold outside, I need both airco and set the temp to HI. But this is not possible in this car. I can either set the temp to LO which is airco cold air only OR set any other temp which is heat only.

When foggy and warm outside, I only use the airco and thus set the temp at LO.

When cold and NOT foggy, I set the temp at 24 degrees, turn temp back to 20 when heated up. Keep changing temp between 19 and 24 to keep a sort of stable temp in the car.

When warm and not foggy, I set the temp to LO to put the airco (which is cold air only) ON. When the temp reaches a convenient point, I set the airco OFF from LO and put the temp to 20 but I cannot keep the airco ON, because setting any temp other than LO ends the functioning of the cold humidifier air. If the foggy window gets back due to not retracting moisture from the car, because the airco is off, I switch back to LO again and so on.

All in all, this is drivable but not very pleasant, running a manual switchboard on the climate control that should be better programmed. I don’t know if there are any other people that may make better use with the airco/heater of the Atto3. If so, please contact me at info@jantec.nl.

BTW: Due to the above, I can’t really make use of the android-auto software, since I can only control the airco and so on when trhe car is NOT in android-auto mode….THIS IS SOLVED june 20th, 2025: The new software update solved the airco control problem when using android auto! Now, a lower part of the big control screen is customizable for a.o. controlling the airco and system.settings while android auto is in use. This is a perfect setup now, although I still need to manually switch a lot to keep the fog off the front window under specific wet conditions.

11 April 202418 May 2025

BYD Atto3 upgraded black C-pillar covers

My Atto3 originally had silver colored C-pillar covers. I ordered a set of black covers that can be mounted on top of the existing ones. The result is shown in the added pictures. Mounting these covers is very easy because along the inside’s edges a strip of 2-sided tape is plcaed. . Just remove the cover tape a bit, plac ethe cover where it fits, and carefully tear the cover strip entirely off the inside. Press on and you’re done!

For reference, the car as delivered:

21 September 202324 September 2023

BYD Atto 3: User experiences after 9 months and 10,000 miles

This review replaces my previous reviews of my Atto 3, as all of my desired software enhancements have been completed filled in by BYD.

Meanwhile, software version 1.4 was loaded into the car via OTA on 18-9-2023 and as far as I am concerned, the car is completely OK in terms of software.

This is of course very personal. by now I am used to the beeps and other sounds the system makes when something is signaled or detected that I do not always immediately interpret as dangerous.

I have even learned to appreciate the fact that the system intervenes in dangerous situations. The other day I was driving behind a driver who suddenly hit the brakes in the middle of the intersection for some unknown reason. Before I could brake, the car was slowed down so that no collision occurred. I had not had similar intervention from the car before and was very pleased with it. It also shows that you really only know what you need when you have (unnoticed). So at this point I’m all over the place. Safety sometimes seems patronizing but avoiding a collision is enough reason, as far as I am concerned, to learn to appreciate the safety aspects of the Atto 3.

Intervention by the car on the steering wheel when you approach the edge of the road too much I previously found very annoying, and so did the accompanying beep. But I can also keep a little more distance from the shoulder and avoid the intervention. Matter of doing.

As I had mentioned in my earlier reviews, there were quite a few things that were just not set up nicely, which made driving the car uncomfortable. These were things like faltering A/C controls, or just the wrong air freshening functions available but also things like the fact that the A/C did not remember what the last setting was and should start with that again by default next time. That’s all fixed now, though.

Also promised afterthoughts like Apple Carplay and Android auto have been around for a while. I myself use Android auto and that works absolutely great!

Issues that remained:

1) I have the tow bar, but the car is officially not allowed to tow any weight because the car is not “homologated”. That is, there is no towing weight on the car’s Certificate Of Conformity. You can never get that later, only when the car is registered. Very unfortunate, especially since we were more or less verbally promised at the time of purchase that all that would still come.

2) No standard dashcam function while the cable is just pre-mounted. The camera is not mounted off-factory (for NL). I fixed this recently

3) No rain sensor for the windshield wiper. I was not used to that at all so it was getting used to having to operate the switches myself all the time. I can fix this and ordered the parts but I haven’t started yet. Read the progress HERE .

Other topics:

I retrofitted a spare tire myself, of course you never need it but when you do… yes, exactly!

And immediately upon geting the car I had the standard summer tires replaced with all-weathers.

Driving experiences

I have liked the car from my first drive in November 2022 in terms of driving experience and handling. The software improvements have made my experience even better. The Atto 3 does not drive like a small mid-size car but behaves on the road very similar to my previous car(s), Volvo V70. Maybe an odd comparison, but I also drive other cars with regularity and with that I experience difference but between the Atto 3 and a latest version V70 so not. You could also say that a V70 is a dodgy car, but that is not my experience with the last made version V70’s. PS: My last version V70 F (BW), 2 liter gasoline/LPG had an empty weight of ‘only’ 1450 kilos, the Atto weighs empty 1825 kilos….

Anyway, I was and still am very satisfied with the Atto 3.

As far as driving experiences and the range of the car are concerned, I have also experienced a few things over the past 15,000 kilometers.

Driving an EV is very different from driving a fossil fuel car. Filling up the charge level takes longer than filling up at the gaspump.

The Atto 3 weighs 1,825 kilos. Minus point associated with a relatively heavy EV: You really have to be very careful with some speed bumps, not to always just go over them at the advised speed. Often it goes well but I now have 1 in my route where I don’t want to go faster than 40 while there is an advisory of 60. On an 80 km/h meg. driving on it is OK, but when driving off at 60km/h it’s like falling off a platform.

Consumption and charging

But, especially on the trips abroad this past year, it turned out that everything goes very well when you check in advance WHERE you can charge WHAT with which pass or app. Because the Atto3 can ‘only’ fast charge at 88 kiloWatts it does take a while to charge the car all over again. So I do that at 40-50% remaining charge. And then 15 minutes is enough to be back at 90-95%. Then you may have to stop more along the way but I don’t mind that for 15 minutes. You drive with the Atto 3 from 100% to 50% about 210 kilometers. So stopping at about 200 km after 2 hours of driving so suits me very well.

And then you come to the real difference between fossil driving or electric: Everything you do costs electricity, and with an EV, so does range. Headwind: 10% less range. Average consumption at 90 km per hour is about 14 kW for 100 km, so a full tank of 60 kWh will get you over 400 km, even 420 km WLTP. At least, in summer at 90-95 km/h on a flat road without storm, without headwind and without too much load.

I have tried a number of driving scenarios and my most notable one is on the A2 from Breukelen to Abcoude at 130 km/h with no headwind or storm, though at night with lights on. Average consumption: 35 kW for 100 km. So if you would drive 130 km/h for a longer period of time, you would get barely 250 kilometers and then the battery would be empty.

Suddenly I understood why the Atto 3, but now most new EVs are capped at 160 km/h….

If you drive mostly on county roads and/or urban and you can control your foot a bit with acceleration, you can easily stay under 15 kW/100km, I sometimes even manage to average 14 kW/100km.

Of course, it still remains a small/medium SUV and the streamline also affects consumption….

19 September 202324 November 2023

BYD Atto 3: Mounting an original BYD dashcam DIY

I have driven my BYD Atto 3 from its purchase in November 2022 with a Garmin mini dashcam mounted in it, on the windshield just above right next to the interior mirror. That works fine, except you have a cable running that you have to get rid of and you have to use your phone app to view the footage.

According to the BYD dealer, it is not possible to retrofit the original BYD dashcam.

I removed the protective cover where the dashcam should go in, using appropriate tools for this purpose so as not to damage the plastic snap brackets.

It then turned out that the cable for the dashcam is just neatly mounted there. On the right side of the picture below, you can just see the mounting foot of the Garmin mini dashcam. The blue loose connector with yellow area is the connector for the original BYD dashcam. Obviously, this is for a left-steered version but for a right-steered version the situation is just mirrored.

On Aliexpress I just came across the original BYD dashcam as a separate replacement unit, for about 83 Euro. So ordered it 2 weeks back and mounted it this morning.

Mounting is very simple: First remove the rubber where the lens of the dashcam should come through .

Then click the cable into the camera, it is automatically secured. Look very carefully how to insert this plug! It is a combined plug with 2 contacts for the power supply and a coax video connector attached to each other so it only fits one way!

And click the camera in the right place in the holder.

And…guess what? It just works. I also simultaneously had the update of the car to V 1.4 underway, and after booting up, the car detected that a dashcam was present. And the app was activated right away, so the camera now functions integrated into the car!

I then mounted the protective cover and neatly removed the Garmin dashcam mounting sticker and cleaned the windshield. When reinstalling the protective cover, I placed the large part first. Then turned the mirror down under and inserted the small part into the large part. That took some very careful work…

The software is self-explanatory: you do need to insert a MicroSD card under the dash. I have a 128Gb MicroSD card in there and I formatted it to FAT32 via the car software’s camera app.

What you find after using the camera is a number of directories on the microSDcard. your files are in the DCIM folder, arranged by video and photo.

The app allows you to change a number of settings including the recording time per recorded clip. I always set that to the longest possible time, here it is 5 minutes. just like the Garmin.

You can watch live and then also take pictures. I have programmed a quick button on the steering wheel to allow the dashcam to take recordings when I feel it is important. Of course, the app always makes recordings anyway, which are kept for a short time because of the size of the storage on the MicroSDCard. when the card is full, the oldest recordings go off. But when you initiate a recording yourself then this recording is always saved on the MicroSDCard.

Programming the camera power button for protected (non-erasable) recordings) goes like this: You use the screen rotation button on the steering wheel for this purpose. Press this button for 5 seconds until the large LCD screen gives you the choice of what you want to connect to this button. So I chose video recording for this.

If you want to copy recordings, the easiest way is to copy them to a USB drive via the file manager app of the BYD software. just copy from MicroSDCard/DCIM/…. to USB/… paste like on your phone.

That’s it! Have fun with your dashcam in the BYD Atto 3.

2 April 202313 May 2023

BYD Atto 3 tow bar

Interestingly enough, as expected I have a German Tüv allowance paper that came with the pulling bar that states that the towbar is intended only for mounting a bike carrier or a towbox with a max vertical pressure of 60kg.

AND you should know that the BOSSTOW towbar hitch as a whole is approved for pulling 11.6 kiloNewton (1160 kg) which is more than the Atto3’s (in NZ) allowed 750kg. The maximal vertical pressure that the BOSSTOW hitch can handle is 140 kg. This hitch is well-oversized which is OK by me.

I am not worried at all about the sturdiness of the hitch, it appears to be a strong enough construction that is capable of handling much more than I will ever need.