Above the filling of the space at the bottom of the trunk of the Atto3 is shown.
I like to drive around with a spare tire, because I drive on construction sites quite often, and so far I have had 2x tire damage because of that. And such a damage is not always fixable with a fluid repair kit.
It’s going to be a home-bringer also used on a Toyota RAV4 : R17 165/80/17 tire and a 5X114.3X60.1 rim with the same circumference, pitch and center hole as the BYD Atto3. The RAV4 is still a bit heavier than the Atto3, so it should be fine.
At the bottom of the trunk the available space for a home-bringer is only 57 centimeters in diameter for a spare tire.
This means that the spare tire will be slightly higher mounted, on a mounting bracket. Under the spare tire there is then room for the jack and the likes.
The trunk cover had 2 positions, and this shelf at the bottom of the trunk therefore only comes to one possible mounting depth, i.e. in the highest position.
So- that’s how I positioned the spare tyre (from a Toyota RAV4, 17 inch) in the boot of the car. Not the nicest way but it works OK. The shelf that comes with the car can be positioned in the upper position no problem. I added a hydraulic mini jack and a wheel bolt wrench, since this was not part of the car’s accessories.
On this page I am keeping track of my experiences with my new BYD Atto3.
The delivery of the car was fine. It was 14-11-2022 relaxed at BYD -Louwman in Amsterdam, the cars were in the showroom and the transfer and such was all arranged quickly and competently. Cup(s) of coffee there, received instruction from the expert and on the way home with it!
BYD-Louwman delivered the car nicely with full kwH tank, extra rubber mat set, charging cable, VTL cable and all sorts of goodies that are not necessarily necessary but nice.
Everything in terms of apps and voice controls is still in English for now and I’m very happy I was able to get the car so quickly.
Ordered 2022-10-20 and delivered the 14th of November (2022)!
The OTA update to Dutch will come somewhere in Q1-2023 but thgis is not really an issue to me.
The Louwman website has the Dutch version of the instruction manuals for the Atto 3, among others, as a download waiting for whoever wants to read and/or download it. I did, of course, and quickly read through it before I went for a drive.
Fine, although on the road it was a bit tricky to figure out how to turn on the air conditioning forcibly when the front and side windows suddenly fog up on the road. We did quickly fix that yesterday by opening the windows slightly and putting the heater and defrost of the windshield on the high setting. And later today I read in the instruction booklet how to prevent that, but of course I could have read that before…. -).
So I don’t want to whine about that, but it did teach me to go through the whole book and print it out tomorrow anyway for in the glove box. You never know.
And now for the UPS and DOWNS from my personal experience and perception, for what it’s worth:
DOWNS:
There is simply no active self-thinking front wiper on it. While there is a rain sensor in the car. Incomprehensible to me, especially with our Dutch climate. And for a car of almost Eur 45k, packed with electronics I really expect that function to be in it.
The video recording app for the dashcam function is missing, while this ia actually already available in New Zealand, but not (yet?) in the Netherlands. But then we have ‘only’ soft/firmware version 1.0. And down under they have version 1.2. Ok, I am not really worried about the dashcam, but it is always prominently advertised in China and New Zealand so I would have expected it just by now. I assume that app will just come in NL as well. I have always had a front and rear dashcam in the car and it does feel a bit ‘bare’ now.
My car does not have a tow bar with a tow weight allowance on the license plate. In New Zealand, for example, that was taken care of in time. Here that is not expected to come until Q2-Q3 2023 but then it will be too late for me. My license plate is already fixed and the homologation has already been done. So I have to get a new Atto3 next year, which will allow you to tow the set weight that is on the license plate. I don’t know yet how to solve this, as I have a trailer that I use regularly and borrowing a car for this seems a bit cumbersome. And trading in the car after a few months also seems strange.
UPS:
The car drives, steers and performs very pleasantly. I have not felt comfortable behind the wheel in a car so quickly before. Usually with me that takes several months. But here everything is different. Everything is smooth and when you want to you can drive fast, tight but because everything is so smooth I now drive relaxed, quietly following someone else with the ACC and lane assist on:
ACC function (Adaptive Cruise Control). That works simple once you figure out how the controls go and how the operation is. But it was all intuitive and quick. Nice that the distance to the predecessor is adjustable in 3 steps and that you still have to keep your hands on the wheel a bit when you have the lane assist on.
Space in the car is very nice, despite the higher floor than in my previous cars. The seat is also slightly higher than I was used to, even though I have the seat at the lowest position because of my 193 cm height.
Adjustable steering wheel, both in height and depth: This is for me one of the most important pluses of this car. With this, the feeling of comfort is optimal.
Navigation: The English-language controls and therefore the English-language apps work fine. Of course, you can not use street names and the like in English via voice control, but typing in is fine on the super large screen.
Controlling apps also works fine. I would like to add my own apps, such as the AGAMA dashboard app that I was used to within my previous Android head unit, but I guess that is too much to ask. And I would prefer to include the OBD reader app, GPS apps and so on. But that will come.
Lighting: Regardless of what you like: The LED headlights are fine, slightly better even than my V70 lights I was used to before. I turned the extra assistance of high beam OFF, it really made me sick. It works fine but always that extra light gives me such a restless feeling while using only low beam in this car just works super!
I only found out after reading the instruction booklet that also in this car the mounting points of the safety belts on the upper points are adjustable in height. I’m used to that, by the way, but had set it once in the previous car and never thought about it again. Now I quickly raised them because the lower position is less comfortable for me anyway. I’m glad that this is possible!
Regenerative braking: This works both when you release your gas pedal and when you brake. In the small LCD screen I can see exactly what regenerative braking does and the effect on fuel consumption is great. So that works fine, and indicates exactly that you can therefore drive more economically on back roads than on the highway. Of course, that also depends on your speed.
Consumption: I have done some test drives and come to the conclusion that your consumption is really only influenced by your driving behavior. Some examples at 13 degrees Celsius ambient temperature without rain: With ACC on, driving behind a truck on the highway averaging 95-98 km/h will cost you (on the dashboard) 12kW, and that is a momentary value. I drove the A2 in the evening between Breukelen and Abcoude at exactly 130 km/h continuously, with CC on and then the instantaneous consumption is 40kW. Count your winnings!
Charging: The car charges neatly AC 11kW where available. Right to the end. And that seems quite fine. When I have DC charging experiences, I will update that here.
Noise: I kept hearing an annoying beeping noise, which seems to come from the front under 30 kph. After reading the instruction book, I understand that this is a mandatory sound to alert pedestrians and cyclists that an electric car is driving. I understand that it is required, but this sound is really terrible in both adjustable variants in my experience!
Trunk space; This one seemed a bit on the small side before, but I can just carry the same thing I used to carry all the time in my previous car, a V70III. But it will be on top of each other instead of side by side. See the picture:
Suddenly it is snowing in the Netherlands, barely a week after my BYD Atto 3 was delivered on 2022-11-14th. The car came with fine Continental summer tires:
But I don’t feel like changing tires twice a year so it will be all-weather tires to match the car.
After some research I chose all-weather tires with the same size as the summer tires the Atto3 came with: 235/50/18.
Because of the weight of the car (1725 kg), solid tires are needed, not so much because of the maximum speed of 160 km/h.
So it became these all-seasons tires: Bridgestone 235/50 R18 101H XL (GAN) Weather Control A005. The new tires will come on the original rims and the Continental summer tires will go into storage for the time being.
The energy rating of the Bridgestone all-weathers comes to class A, rain and snow resistance comes to B and noise comes to 72dB.
These tires have a snowflake as a mark on the tire so at least you can also drive them in Germany in winter.
After the installation (scheduled for 2022-12-13th) first let’s see how I like these tires, I will report back here!
I’m especially curious about handling, noise and fuel consumption.
I have a wallbox copper charging station for an electric car with load balancer that I use both in the garage and at the front of the house with 11kW charging via power.
At the front of the house is a public sidewalk and parking is available to all. Usually there is no place to park the car out front when I get home.
If I want to charge in the garage I have to park the old car outside first so the EV can get in to charge. Because I always work from home during the day I can always park the car in front of the door at those times to charge. But the municipality of Woerden has included in its existing 2017 decision on its charging policy, among other things, that it is not allowed to lay a charging cable over the sidewalk. Other options for home charging such as a charging chute in the tiles or other solutions are also not allowed (yet). The starting point of municipal policy is public charging from user-driven applications. I have done that through an application to the party chosen by the municipality, and after 9 months it has still led to nothing. There are all kinds of reasons such as the full power grid and going through objection procedures that make building public charging points not very fast. but at my home it was settled with Stedin within 2 weeks. Now I can just charge at home with 11kW. But municipal policy does not allow that on public roads.
So I charge publicly when I can or in the garage. I hope the municipality, under pressure from its residents, will eventually allow alternatives to use charging cables safely over the public sidewalk. There is quite a bit of political pressure to move on this. The existing charging policy of the municipality of Woerden predates the time when EVs are available in growing numbers, so it is time to change this in terms of vision anyway.
As is now clear from user experiences, the purchase of EVs will be significantly stimulated when home charging solutions become available including solutions for connecting your EV to your home charger via public space. This is already in place in a growing number of municipalities, albeit mostly on a temporary trial basis.
In order to charge the EV at home, I have already implemented the following:
First, I replaced the meter box with a 3-phase meter box with circuit breakers.
Then I also laid a power cable to the garage, including the connection between wallbox copper on the one hand and load balancer and internet on the other, both via their own CAT-6 cable.
Then I made a box on the front wall with an extended wallbox copper connection point.
From the connection box the cable can be laid to the car. The cable mat below will be laid over the cable. The mat has a hollow space in the middle, lengthwise so the cable can lie neatly under it.
And so the above wallbox copper I can now mount::
1) OR in the meter box when the car is in front,
2) OR in the garage when the car can load on “own ground” in the garage.
In this post we will describe our solution for charging Electric Vehicles from your home across the public pavement when using our super thin EV cable mat with rubber slabs.
Due to the rapidly growing ownership of electric cars, and the fact that roughly 60% of the Dutch population can not charge their car from within their own property, charging across public pavements has become an issue.
25% of Dutch City Councils is involved in pilot projects about all sorts of solutions to get the private energy-infrastructure used for charging ones own EV. But- there is no general regulation for this.
And- you really don’t want to get all sorts of different solutions for putting charging cables in the way of pedestrians, especially not when these solutions leave something in the way after it has been used. Certainly you don’t want to put anything in the way of people with baby walkers, playing children, people with disabilities, elderly or people that use mobility walkers.
Numerous solutions have been tested and there is not one solution that fits all.
Most promising appears to be the solution of a pavement gutter in which the charging cable can be pushed in, during charging. But- it has also proved to be difficult in practice since this only works well if no-one interferes with its usage. If the cable is pulled out, it will be in the way of everyone that needs to step over it.
In my mind, a simpler solution will be required by thinking unconventionally, typically out of the non-electric box
The problem is that we want to charge the car’s battery from our existing solar panels, we then want to make use of the EV’s battery for our home aplliances through the Vehicle to Load feature during the period that there is not enough sun to use the solar panels. Then, we can really close the energy circle without additional investments in home batteries and so on. That is what this is all intended for. Multi-use of the EV’s battery and of the available solar power.
BUT- this can only work with the EV’s battery connected to your home.
And the public pavement needs to be crossed.
One of the possibilities to do this could be by constructing a charging/Vehicle To Load cable that is flat enough to behave as a doormat on the pavement. This mat must be flat enough to not cause any interfecerence for pedestrians, walkers and so on BUT it must be tough enough to keep its form and electrical characteristics during its use.
In my view, the flat cable mat should have flat start- and ending docking cables, reshape to normal round cables and EV charging connectors, connecting to the EV’s charging port and the other end to the charging point at the home.
EV charging from A/C has a maximum power of 11kW, 3 phase 400 Volts.
The current will be 16 Ampères x3 lines and per line at least 2.5 mm2 is required.
Some insulation in between the wiring is regulatory required.
For the 2 management wires we will also use round wires.
We will need 5×2.5mm2 and 2 control wires, a total of 7.
Standard flat elevator cable will be used of 7×2.5 mm2, see the below picture, the lowest one.
And- the mat will need to be wider than this, since we can use this to bring the height (thickness) back to 2-3 mm at the end of the mat’s side. That gives the look and usage experience that the EV cable mat is hardly in the way of the walking/rolling path.
Our ‘patent pending’ design of the Jantec.nl EV charging pavement cable mat:
Total width of the EV pavement cable mat is around 40 cm
The slab has the behaviour of a normal doormat. We will pour our rubberized mat around the center EV-cables part. The rubber will protect the cables and will also keep the EV cable mat flat on the pavement.
Cable center part is only 1,5-2 cm wide and only 5 mm high (thick)
The EV cable mat will become available in lengths of 1, 1.5 and 2 meters.
At both ends the copper wires are bound into a regular round cable with 2.5 meters of cable, including regular Mennekes a male and a female charging connector.
NB: The product is under evaluation 2022-10-29.
Pricing is yet unknown, but will be above Eur 300 per set.
For the time being, I will use my old rubber mat that has a cut-out already, although the cable is clearly visible through he mat. But it does work!:
From the webhost manager: THIS IS A POST ABOUT NEW ZEALAND, AND WE HOPE THAT BYD WILL ALSO DELIVER THE TOWBAR TO (the rest of) EUROPE!!
The $1199 (plus fitting cost) kit that BYD China has stamped as a safe choice meets New Zealand (NZS 5467 and SAE J684) standards and Australian (ADR 62) protocol.
The BYD Atto 3 electric car has gained a Kiwi-sorted special skill that could even go global with a breakthrough option. The local distributor has won factory sanction to put into the market, three months on from the car’s release, the ability to officially tow.
An increasing count of local EV owners are deciding to tackle towing – including, worryingly, cars not rated to tow, including NZ’s favourite. It’s not about an EV’s lack of ability to tow, it’s more about the factory sanctioning and approval, along with the official stamp of approval around the safety aspect, relating to if and how they tow.
Nissan’s position on the Leaf, the national favourite by volume as a result of its wildly used import success since its launch in 2010, is that it’s not suitable for towing. This has not stopped owners from trying.
The Atto 3 had the same caution, but Kiwi creativity, via Auckland firm Best Bars, looks to have even changed the Chinese parent company’s mindset.
The $1199 (plus fitting cost) kit that BYD China has stamped as a safe choice meets New Zealand (NZS 5467 and SAE J684) standards and Australian (ADR 62) protocol.
Owners of the compact crossover, which achieved 689 registrations as of last week, have just been alerted about it and orders are already coming in.
“It is likely we are the first market in the world to fit a tow bar [to an Atto 3],” says BYD Auto NZ brand manager Warren Willmot.
“It is a car designed for China and they don’t tow things up there. The car has not been designed to tow.”
Though the head office in Shenzhen, China, didn’t require a test item, approval required the submission of numerous CAD drawings, all carefully scrutinised by factory engineers who were involved in every step.
“We are one the very first Western markets for this car so we have a very good working relationship with the team up at Shenzhen, where everything has been signed off and approved.”
The kit includes a bespoke wiring loom and will entertain 750kg braked and unbraked – as per BYD’s engineering instruction – and a 75kg tongue download, an NZTA best practice requirement.
It should be perfect for a light trailer but, more potentially, as the mounting point for a bike carrier, Willmot says.
“Our customers are not buying the Atto 3 to tow… a big boat.
“The types of customers wanting this car will want it to tow something like a small garden trailer and, the majority of them just want to take e-bikes. It would cope with a couple of those.”
One point often made is that, with their instant torque from powerful electric motors, EVs are conceivably perfect tow vehicles. The Atto 3 joins an NZ new-EV towing club, in which there are now 19 EV members, another being the Tesla Model 3.
October 20, 2022 I ordered the BYD Atto 3 at Louwman BYD because of, amongst other things, its fast delivery option.
BYD is a new brand in the Netherlands of which the Atto3 will be available from early November for a limited number of quick orderers.
The dealer indicated that the car has about 2 to 4 weeks delivery time and that it was about halfway with the shipment on its way to the Netherlands.
That appeared to have been a conservative estimate because:
Update 25-10-2022: The car has already been unloaded from the ship, will be homologated this week, then registered and will be delivered Monday, November 14th 2022!
A homologation is the determination that a vehicle or vehicle part meets all European technical and administrative requirements.
UPDATE 4-11-2022: In the public Dutch RDW vehicle register, I saw that there have been 6 BYD Atto3’s registered at the 31st-of October-2022. One of which is a convertible!!??. That’s completely new to me! I really need to get me more info about this because I would actually prefer a hard top electric convertible over the normal Atto 3 SUV-version. Another quick contact with Louwman and the 6 licensed Atto 3’s are to be used as demo models. My car will be registered in the next week so I have the newest possible issue date for the registration of the car…. Good thing that the delivery will now be within 1 week!
I ordered the car in the color red metallic, design version and it will look like this:
Test drive IMPRESSION 25-10-20220 BYD Atto 3
We viewed the car on Tuesday, October 25, 2022 at the dealer in Amsterdam, Louwman BYD. The address is Pieter Braaijweg 8. There, the Atto 3 is displayed in 3 available colors. We test-drove the gray BYD Atto 3 in Amsterdam South-East.
And the first impression is : Wow! What a beautiful car.
The seating is well fitting, despite my 193 centimeters the seats sit as if they were made for me. Nice soft shape around the shoulders and firm at the bottom.
The primary controls are otherwise similar to my present car, a Volvo V70 III. On the left behind the steering wheel are the turn signals, and much can be operated on the steering wheel, pretty much in the same spot I’m already used to. On the left in the wheel is the cruise control and on the right the audio system.
Since the BYD Atto 3 does not yet speak and understand Dutch, we operate the car in English for all secondary commands such as the roof controls, radio and navigation. With the navigation it went almost all right but via voice control the built-in navigation went wrong with driving back. Try getting an English speaking navigation system to drive to the Pieter Braaijweg 2…. Manual touch screen control on the big screen went perfect, of course!
Otherwise accelerating and braking is fine, a very soft just audible high noise below 10 km/hr seems to occur at the inverter, possibly because of the low speed but both at standstill and at speeds higher than 10 km/h it is not audible at all.
Regeneration can be done in 2 modes, I used the highest mode and that works well, but I did use the mechanical brake the last few meters before the traffic lights. Perhaps I need to get more used to that or the car still needs to learn what my driving style is.
The car feels more like my Volvo V70 II, which is built on a GM chassis, and the BYD Atto3 does not feel sluggish and behaves like a 1750-pound midsize car, with well damped suspension all around. Cornering is tight, the turning radius is quite short and acceleration is fast but without slipping front tires. The continental tires give lots of grip.
As a comparison, the length of the BYD Atto3 is about the same as my partner’s Mazda 3. That Mazda does not feel like a mid-size car, but more like a smaller type of car when in terms of exterior size it is not. Acceleration of the Mazda is quick, so is braking, and steering is pretty direct. The Mazda’s suspension is short and feels less dynamic than the BYD Atto 3. Actually, the Mazda 3 is more mechanical suspension, OK but not very luxurious. I do find that luxury present in the BYD Atto 3, both in terms of suspension and handling. I can also just imagine the BYD Atto 3 as a cab.
In the Atto3, vega materials have been used in terms of upholstery. Moreover, the seats are ventilated and also have heating, should you want it.
There really is not a piece of bare plastic to be found in the car, both the dashboard and the console are covered with different colors of vega upholstery. This gives it a luxurious look that you won’t find in all EVs in this sub-class.
A word about the external look: It was really a surprise that both the front and rear running lights continue across the middle of the car. While subtly done, it is very present.
My verdict: BUY THIS CAR! I had already ordered the car before the test drive, and delivery is going to take place on Monday, November 14. TOP!
RIMS:
TYRES:
For European deliveries: Continental-ecocontact-6-XL-235-50-r18
Classy summer tires, also good in the wet, economical and quiet.
The BYD atto3 is a crossover and is spacious and modern inside, finished with soft materials.
Whether you like it all is a matter of taste, of course.
Interesting detail: the car has been in production for over a year under the name BYD YUAN PLUS , and almost all cosmetic after-market parts are just available, including the FRUNK:
BYD Atto 3 frunk as shown on Aliexpress
Without frunk, with standard cover plate under the front flap but not clear whether this is also delivered as such in NL.
