BYD’s Dolphin Surf: Can SA’s cheapest EV be SA’s best car?

In a country where we are spoilt for choice but don’t always have the means to own a flashy new car, the BYD Dolphin Surf makes a lot of sense. Yes, I know it is a full battery electric vehicle. Yes, I know about load shedding and Eskom having no power. And I also know you can’t get to Durban on a single charge.

But it is a South African Car of the Year finalist. And for now, and hopefully into the future, load shedding has not been a thing. Also, nobody buys a BYD Dolphin Surf as a long-distance family car anyway. So, with what is on offer at the price, I am all good with saying it makes a lot of sense.

Bigger battery for the Dynamic

At the heart of the Dolphin Surf is BYD’s Blade Battery technology and purpose-built e-Platform 3.0, which are the main drivers behind the car’s excellent safety rating, efficiency and performance. Talking of which, we had the top spec Dynamic model on test, and this derivative comes equipped with the bigger 38.8 kWh Blade Battery, that is claimed to offer a combined driving range of 295 km.

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Did I ever get 295km? No, but if I ran around the suburbs and the city, I would get really close to this number. Obviously, the Achilles heel of battery electric vehicles is long distance, and faster open road driving, where the battery can’t re-gen itself and the battery drops fast.

The BYD Dolphin Surf only makes 55kW of power and 135Nm of torque, so drag racing at traffic lights and flying down highways are not in your future. But adequate day-to-day performance, and an electronically limited indicated top speed of 136km/h is. So, if you can live with this, then you will be happy with the car.

An economy rate of only 2.5-litres per 100 km

Charging and the related costs are probably the next things you might want to know about. Well, you get a 7-kWh home wall box charger included in the price of the car. And this means that unless you are far out and about and must make use of the more expensive, and faster, public charging points, your Dolphin Surf will happily charge to full in a few hours each night.

Doing it the way most owners will do from home, a kWh of electricity should cost you around R4, and then a full charge comes in at R150. For this money, if you convert to litres per 100km, you are getting close to 2.5-litres per 100km. You are not beating this with any conventional internal combustion compact hatch. End of story!

Smart storage spaces are on offer

Moving away from performance, the interior is small, but nothing that you don’t expect from a car like this. There are 20 smart storage solutions throughout the cabin and a 230-litre boot capacity that expands to 930 litres with the seats down.

You have a simple and clear 7-inch digital instrument cluster in front of you. And a very easy to use 10.1-inch touchscreen that supports Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. In the centre stack, you also have a rotary toggle switch station that allows you control most of the basic functions of the car.

For added convenience, you have voice-activated control by saying “Hi, BYD”. And you also get a 15W wireless charging pad. Something typically Chinese and quirky is the built-in karaoke function. Why would you need this? I don’t know. Don’t ask me. I am not one of the trendy influencers who loved this feature of the car.

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To wrap up, there is nothing bad I can say about the BYD Dolphin Surf. The car is priced right. It is safe. And it is economical. Bottom line, it does exactly what it says it will on the box.

Pricing

• Dolphin Surf Dynamic – R389 900

The BYD Dolphin Surf offers a 3-year/60 000km service plan, a 3-year/100 000km complete vehicle warranty, and an 8-year/200 000km power battery warranty.