We showed you the pretty BYD Seal yesterday, and here’s another EV named after a sea creature, the BYD Dolphin. This compact electric hatchback is cute, but what really grabs attention is its price – Thai BYD distributor Rever has announced the estimated price of 799,999 baht (RM103,926) after government incentives for EVs.
That’s eye-popping. For context, the latest Toyota Yaris facelift, an ICE-powered Thai 1.2L eco car, tops out at RM90,656 before adding the Lusso, Chiaro or Presto styling packs. Then again, it’s also not that surprising as we predicted back in December that the Dolphin could be Malaysia’s cheapest EV at below RM100k when it reaches our shores in Q4 this year. EV Rahmah?
Speaking of B-segment hatchbacks, at 4,125 mm long and 1,770 mm wide, the Dolphin is 220 mm shorter and 22 mm wider than a Honda City Hatchback, but the EV is 82 mm taller than the Honda and its 2,700 mm wheelbase length is in C-segment territory. Without the need to accommodate an engine, EVs can benefit from better packaging.
The Dolphin is available with a single 174 hp/290 Nm motor, which in turn sucks from a 44.9 kWh in-house Blade battery, but the spec offered in Thailand for 800k baht is with a 94 hp/180 Nm motor powered by the same battery pack. By the way, this isn’t the lowest spec, which pairs the 94 hp motor with a 30.7 kWh battery.
The 0-100 km/h sprint is done in 12.3 seconds, but as always with EVs, it will feel much faster in real-life compared to an ICE-car with the same century sprint time. Claimed range is 410 km per charge in the NEDC cycle, so you can deduct 20% from this for the more realistic WLTP ballpark.
AC charging at 7 kW takes 6 hours and 25 minutes, while DC fast charging at up to 60 kW will refill the battery from 30-80% state of charge (SOC) in 30 minutes. There’s V2L (Vehicle To Load), so you can power electrical appliances with the supplied adapter. Two colours are available – Coastal Cream and the unique Flora Purple you see here. The interior is two-tone black-beige for all.
Interesting specs/price and design, right? The good news for us is that the the Dolphin is coming to Malaysia. BYD SD Motors Malaysia has revealed plans to bring in the Dolphin and Seal and has set Q4 2023 as the target. Both were previewed at the BYD brand cum Atto 3 launch in December.
Why did we think that the Dolphin could be Malaysia’s first sub-RM100k proper EV? In China, the Atto 3 (Yuan Plus) is priced from 150k yuan while the Dolphin starts from 94k yuan. Since the Atto 3 starts from RM150k in Malaysia, the Dolphin under the same duty-free structure could very well duck below the RM100k mark. The best part is that while it may be affordable (for an EV), most of what’s good with BYD EVs is present in the Dolphin.
What do you think of the BYD Dolphin as an EV proposition? For now, we have the impressive Atto 3 as the brand’s debut product in Malaysia – click here for our full review of the electric crossover.
GALLERY: BYD Dolphin EV
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A cheaper battery vehicle, 1.29 tonne.
30kWh battery + 94hp motor
In Thailand where petrol price is two times prices in Malaysia, it is a very good deal. However in Malaysia, as long as Ron95 is highly subsidized by the government, it is a hard sell as the cost benefit is very small, unless a new incentive is introduced.
shhh, we dont talk about Thai vechiles usin RON95 here. We only envy and complait about Singkie cars.
Base on weight and wheelbase i call it c-segment car