The new BYD Atto 3 debuted in April and is now in showrooms across China.
When it comes to electric vehicles, few have been as successful as the Atto 3, and now its successor has arrived in showrooms across China. In China, the Atto 3 is marketed as the BYD Yuan Plus. The outgoing model, familiar to many Malaysians, reached sales peaks of over 78,000 units sold in a single quarter, but its popularity has been waning as the car reached ‘old age’. Rather than waiting for demand to completely flatline, BYD has its successor ready and it looks like improvements across the board for this electric crossover.
The first thing to note is that the new Atto 3 has gone up in size slightly, mostly to accommodate more room for rear passengers.
| Old Atto 3 | New Atto 3 | |
| Length (mm) | 4445 | 4665 |
| Width (mm) | 1875 | 1895 |
| Height (mm) | 1615 | 1675 |
| Wheelbase (mm) | 2720 | 2770 |
Despite a noticeable increase in size, the new Atto 3 is still designed to maintain a relatively managable ‘compact’ footprint. Inside, you can expect a larger central display, a column-mounted gear selector, and an overall evolution of the BYD interior design language.
Mechanically, there are major improvements as well. Batteries are BYD’s forte, and with the Atto 3 we’re now getting the second generation Blade Battery system which delivers up to 630km of range under the CLTC protocol thanks to a very efficient motor. The 2nd generation Blade Battery is compatible with BYD’s flash charging, which takes the battery from 10-70% in just 5 minutes or 10-97% in 9 minutes depending on condition and charger speed.
Another change is that the new Atto 3 is a rear-wheel drive vehicle. There are two rear motor output choices – 200kW and 240kW, which improves the overall performance versus the outgoing model. BYD has also addressed the poor dynamics of the Atto 3 by integrating an adaptive damping system as an option. Lidar is a key option for this new model which works with BYD’s in-house computing for advanced driver assistance features.
