- New EV platform brings improved performance
- Bigger boot and new interior tech provided
- Upgraded suspension doesn’t do enough for ride
Electric SUV now has more power, range, equipment and practicality – but it’s still not the best for driving dynamics or value.
Overview
Since BYD made its UK market debut with the Atto 3 three years ago, its fair to say it has seen rapid growth. From a standing start, the Chinese brand now has a 132-strong UK dealer network, and sold more than 51,000 cars here in 2025, with year-on-year registrations growing again by around 130% during the first quarter of this year. A clear reason for this growth is an ever-expanding model line-up, which now includes nine cars in the UK. But on top of these new launches, BYD has also reached the stage where it is starting to update models, including the car which started it all in this country.
Now known as the Atto 3 Evo, the model – an all-electric medium-sized SUV – isn’t much changed on the outside, with cosmetic tweaks limited to revised front and rear bumpers, new 18in alloy wheels, slimmer side skirts and an altered rear spoiler. However, far more significant alterations have occurred underneath, with the model now based on BYD’s e-Platform 3.0. This has seen its powertrain shift from a front-wheel drive configuration to either rear-wheel drive or all-wheel drive, and more power being made available – 314PS with rear-wheel drive, and 449PS with all-wheel drive. The Atto 3 Evo also receives a bigger battery, with capacity raised from 60.4kWh to 74.8kWh. Combined with other improvements such as new interior technology and a bigger boot, BYD will be hoping this is enough for the Atto 3 Evo to compete with the ever-growing pack of electric SUV rivals, ranging from those from established brands such as the Skoda Elroq, to those from BYD’s fellow Chinese manufacturers such as the MG S5 EV.
Pricing and spec
BYD has taken this updated model’s spec options upmarket – where the Atto 3 came with a choice of Comfort and Design trim levels, the choice with the Atto 3 Evo now comprises Design and Excellence. The latter is a higher-spec grade, of which the manufacturer says it has seen strong take-up with its other model line-ups – it accounts for 70% of sales of the Seal saloon.
The trim levels are linked to the powertrain options, with Design trim coming with rear-wheel drive, and Excellence with all-wheel drive. On-the-road prices are £38,990 and £42,730 respectively – BYD points out that despite the model’s upgraded specification, the Atto 3 Evo Design is nearly £750 cheaper than the Atto 3 Design was. As with all BYDs (and all cars from Chinese brands) the Atto 3 Evo is not eligible for the UK Government’s Electric Car Grant.
Both versions of the Atto 3 Evo are launching with 0% APR PCP finance offers – the Design with payments of £399 per month with a £1,999 deposit, and the Excellence with £419 monthly payments and a £2,999 deposit. The Atto 3 Evo comes with The Atto 3 Evo comes as standard with a six-year, 93,750-mile warranty, as well as eight-year/155,350-mile cover for the drive battery with a guaranteed state of health of at least 70%.
Although BYD has highlighted the Atto 3 Evo’s improved value compared with the original Atto 3, we’d argue that it still doesn’t look that impressive in this regard versus the wider market. The on-the-road price of the Atto 3 Evo Excellence is around £700 more than the Skoda Elroq SportLine 85, even before the £1,500 Electric Car Grant is applied to the Skoda, and nearly £9,000 more than the most expensive MG S5 EV.
Technology
The Atto 3 Evo gets a 15.6in touchscreen as standard, which unlike the one in the original Atto 3 does not rotate. The screen offers good image quality and is usefully responsive to touches, but we feel too many everyday functions, such as the controls for the heated seats, are hidden within menus, and not always that easy to use – for example, when trying to change the climate control settings we kept scrolling too far past the temperature we wanted. The infotainment system comes with integrated Google functions, although we aren’t able to rate these as they weren’t fully set up on the vehicles that were available to us on the media launch.
The Atto 3 Evo features a new 8.8in digital instrument panel, which works well, and Excellence drivers are even better informed on the move thanks to a head-up display. A wireless phone charger is provided throughout the range.
Safety
The Atto 3 Evo comes with seven airbags, and a comprehensive range of driver assistance systems, including intelligent cruise control, front and rear cross traffic alert, blind spot detection, lane departure assist, front and rear collision warning, traffic sign recognition and intelligent speed limit control. There’s also a driver distraction alert system, which unfortunately is too sensitive, and proved time consuming to turn off during our test since the option to do this is not in the main ADAS menu.
The Atto 3 Evo is yet to be tested by Euro NCAP – the original Atto 3 received five stars in 2022.
Driving experience
Whichever Atto 3 Evo you drive, it won’t be slow off the mark. The rear-wheel drive version’s 314PS may be the more modest output of the two new motor options, but this can still provide rapid acceleration by family SUV standards, with 0-62mph acceleration officially possible in 5.5 seconds – itself a hot hatch level of performance. As for the 449PS all-wheel drive version, this further reduces that time to 3.9 seconds – an extremely impressive level of shove. Ranges on the official WLTP combined cycle are 316 miles for the rear-wheel drive Atto 3 Evo, and 292 miles for the all-wheel drive model. A big increase in the maximum DC charging speed to 220kW means a 10-80% charge is possible in 25 minutes, while a full 11kW AC charge can be done in eight hours.
As well as an upgraded powertrain, the Atto 3 Evo also features altered rear suspension, which has been changed from a four-link to a five-link set-up. However, the Atto 3 Evo still has some dynamic flaws. With the rear-wheel drive version in particular, the level of ride comfort is disappointing – around town the car thumps into potholes and feels fairly firm, and at higher speeds on British B-roads there’s quite a bit of jostling from side to side as well as up and down. This also has an impact on cornering performance, since although on flat tarmac the handling is reasonable for a family SUV, any bumps unsettle the car, which reduces driver confidence.
These problems are less noticeable with the all-wheel drive version, which has a more settled feel to both the ride and handling – we put this down to the extra weight of the second motor over the front axle. You can also feel the front-drive element improving the handling balance by pulling the car out of bends. However, we still wouldn’t describe it as a driver’s car – and despite the power figures BYD itself isn’t making sporty driving claims for the Atto 3 Evo.
The brakes are OK on the move, but can be a little difficult to modulate to a smooth stop. Quite a bit of wind noise is audible at motorway speeds.
Practicality
Although the Atto 3 Evo’s exterior dimensions and wheelbase are the same as those of the Atto 3, BYD has worked to improve interior storage and spaciousness, including by moving the drive selector to a stalk on the steering column, increasing space around the centre console, which features a large storage area underneath. The interior door pockets retain the original car’s design feature of being defined by ‘guitar strings’ that produce the sort of noise the name would suggest when plucked – we imagine parents of young children should beware.
All Atto 3 Evos come with heated and ventilated front seats – the latter feature in particular performed well during our test drives – and a heated steering wheel. Dual-zone climate control is also standard, and Excellence spec also comes with heated rear seats.
Read headroom is good, while legroom is decent. The Atto 3 Evo also benefits from a flat rear floor, making it easy to move around back there.
As part of the update, the Atto 3 Evo has gained a bigger boot – up by an useful 50 litres to 490 litres, making it bigger than those found with the Skoda Elroq and MG S5 EV, although the load lip is fairly high. In addition, the Atto 3 Evo has gained a 95-litre front boot.
