Nature’s gentle Dolphin and an EV drive

Nature’s gentle Dolphin and an EV drive | Daily Tribune

As I step into the dolphin, I familiarize myself with the many buttons (believe me, there are no levers). They all seem very playful and filled with interesting shapes and color combinations. The main buttons are located in the center console, making the Dolphin easy to get used to. No need to search far for the button needed to get the car to what it should be.

Driving the ocean

The ocean theme is readily evident in the BYD. Its (snub) nose, things like the dolphin flipper door handles and the wave-like dashboard insert, but let’s give points to BYD for giving the Dolphin a unique sense of style. Material-wise, it’s quite honest. There are some fancy-feeling inserts here and there. For the most part, the feel is solid, a nice touch to the gentle creature.

Ergonomically, it’s easy to get comfortable in the driver’s seat since it offers plenty of range. The steering wheel, though lacking in telescopic adjustment, fits right. The fully digital gauge cluster has crisp graphics and doesn’t wash out even in direct sunlight. The most important buttons — speed, range, and power front-and-center are easily within reach.

To the center, there’s a 12.8-inch screen. There’s a row of physical buttons, but these are mostly centered on drivetrain — the toggle shifter, drive mode, and brake regen level, to name a few. Luckily, the voice command system is good — probably one of the best out there — so, after a while, you’d be leaning on that instead.

Sitting in comfort

Driving position aside, the Dolphin’s strong suit continues to its interior room. Because it’s riding on a purpose-built EV platform — BYD’s latest 3.0 e-platform — it can manage to accommodate the extra tall (and extra wide) despite its diminutive footprint. There’s no struggle for head- or shoulder space at the front. The same story continues in the backseat, where they’re supportive and the flat floor provides ample knee room all around. If anything, the middle passenger is the only one who’ll complain. Because the seat’s slightly raised, it equates to an uncomfortably low headroom. There’s also no flip-down armrest or AC vents here.

The Dolphin is powered by a single permanent magnet motor that puts out 95 horsepower and 180 Nm of torque. These figures don’t scream high-performance, and, spoiler alert. But, based on this car’s design brief, no one with a right mind will be using it as a dragster. All things considered, it’s still quite lively.

But the engine was able to keep up to speed as I drove it down the C5, making sure to step on the metal enough to make sure I kept to the speed limit of the SLEX. It also has the oomph needed to merge onto expressways easily, though the speedometer progress almost grinds to a halt past 130 km/h. Still, this car is good enough for pretty much anything everyday driving throws at you.

Power on

The motor is energized by a modestly-sized 44.9-kWh (usable) lithium iron phosphate battery pack. It also has active thermal management. A 10 to 80 percent top-up takes about 30 minutes, says BYD, and it can be done using the widely accepted CCS Type 2 standard. But before reaching that point, it can go up to 400 kilometers between charges, says BYD. Surprisingly, its as-tested range is even better at 405 kilometers (average consumption is 8.92 kilometers per kWh).

When it comes to storage, the Dolphin’s quite decent. It maximizes all available space by carving out a shelf just below the rotating infotainment screen and a lidded cubby hole just below that. There are also the generous door bins and a sizeable glovebox. However, there are some questionable design choices here, such as that shelf. Make sure to clear any objects placed there whenever the screen is rotated to portrait view. Forget to do that, and it could potentially damage the screen’s motor or the object in question.

The Dolphin’s suspension tuning clearly favors the supple side of the equation, and with that, it deals with potholes and road cracks very well. Low-speed NVH is excellent, as is the rigidity of the platform, resulting in zero creaks or rattles.