BYD Atto 3 deliveries commence next week. Where are they going?

First deliveries of the BYD Atto 3 will commence next week, ending six months of anticipation for a growing number of electric vehicle enthusiasts.

The Atto 3 went on sale in February, and is currently ranked as Australia’s lowest cost new electric car, starting at $44,900 drive-away (dependent on state) for its Standard Range vehicle.

But it has been the Extended Range model that has been the vehicle of choice for customers of the automotive newcomer.

As reported by The Driven in May, the Extended Range Atto 3 offers the best “bang for buck” in terms of driving range per dollar spent on the car, beating both the Hyundai Kona EV with 64kWh battery, and the Long-Range Model 3.

New crowd-sourced data also shows which colours and variants are being favoured by customers. At least 66 of BYD’s 3,000 plus customers in Australia all have gone for the Extended Range variant, which is priced from $47,900 driveaway and offers 420km WLTP range over the Standard Range’s 320km WLTP range.

The data also shows that blue and white are the favourite choices for exterior colour, while red and grey account for just 10% of sales.

Additionally, the data – which is still being added to by drivers as we speak – also suggests that most buyers are from Queensland.

The news comes shortly on the heels of revelations from BYD importer EV Direct via social media that a number of Atto 3s had been loaded onto trucks for deliveries.

Now, EV Direct managing director Luke Todd tells The Driven that the first of these cars will start being handed over to customers from next week, as the company’s partnership with Eagers works to open its network of experience and delivery centres.

One of the first of these will be at Robina on the Queensland Gold Coast, at which an exclusive pre-order event was held this week.

“Robina opens officially in three weeks,” said Todd, adding it is the first “high quality experience” centre outside of the brand’s Darlinghurst operations.

There are 11 such centres planned to date, which will be operated in collaboration with Eagers as the retail partnership looks to provide experience centres to provide test drives, operate as handover locations and in some cases operate and spare parts and service centres.

Mycar will continue to provide log book servicing, and in total there will be from day one of customer ownership more than 40 locations for servicing including a mix of Mycar sites and existing Eagers operations (such as at Indooroopilly) or new BYD partnership facilities.

“We’re rapidly preparing high-quality centres across the country in a staged process to enable us to get them open as soon as possible so we can do handovers and test drives,” said Todd.

Of the deliveries starting next week, Todd says: “There’s more than a thousand vehicles in the country or not far off – and a close to three thousand in various stages of production – the full engine room has started.”

Though 3,000 sales have officially been confirmed to date, Todd adds that a steady stream of new orders are still coming through. And he thinks a new uplift will come as soon as test drives are available.

“We anticipate a significant new uplift once people can test drive the vehicles as well – there is a mammoth list of people to drive them,” he said.

BYD Seal and Dolphin by end 2022

After the BYD Atto 3 starts rolling out, Todd has confirmed that two more models – the highly anticipated Dolphin hatchback (which is expected mark an all-time low for EV pricing in Australia), as well as the Seal sedan – are on target to launch by the end of 2022.

Naming for neither vehicle for the local market has yet been set in stone. While the Atto 2 and Atto 4 terminology made its way into media reports, Todd says the choosing of names with global appeal is still very much in discussion.

The EV brand has announced its expansion into numerous global passenger car markets of late, with Denmark the latest to join the fray.

The carmaker has capacity to build 3,000 of each vehicle a month for the Australian market, he says.

This means that if demand meets capacity, BYD could be selling more than 100,000 EVs in Australia a year.

“Obviously the market will determine how many of those we sell, but based on the indication of the Atto 3 – it would not surprise me if we have very significant uptake of our manufacturing volume,” said Todd.

Pricing, names and specifications of both vehicles will be announced closer to the opening of pre-orders.