What is likely to be one of the most important cars in Australia’s EV revolution has been spotted testing in the streets of Sydney. It’s an EV hatchback model from BYD in camouflage, which appears to be the BYD Dolphin. It was first reported by user @smithy_dll via a tweet on Twitter.
@LudicrousFeed spotted a new EV is this the BYD dolphin? pic.twitter.com/o8IcEXTpKP
— Lachlan Smith (@smithy_dll) November 25, 2022
The tweet was asking a question to Ludicrous Feed on Twitter to confirm that it was a BYD Dolphin or another car. Ludicrous Feed is an EV expert and YouTuber. He later confirmed in a YouTube video that it was the BYD Dolphin hatchback.
Tom also confirmed the location of the BYD Dolphin in Sydney. It was seen driving around the streets of western Sydney near the Rhodes Central shopping centre.
The BYD logo can be seen at the front of the EV along with the curves along the length of the body. The orange rear-view side mirrors are also unique to the funky design of this EV hatchback.
The BYD Dolphin is a very important EV for the Australian market. If the testing goes well, it would be expected to launch in 2023 with a price tag of under $40,000 AUD.
Size-wise, the BYD Dolphin EV hatchback is slightly shorter in length to the very popular Toyota Corolla hatchback, coming in at 4,125 mm.
The BYD hatchback is powered by BYD’s blade batteries and the extended range model will be able to get over 300 km of WLTP range from a 44.93 kWh battery pack.
Last month BYD produced over 217,000 NEV vehicles and is ramping it’s production at a rapid pace. 25,336 of these were the BYD Dolphin EV hatchback which made up 11.6% of the total production.
The hatchback segment in the Australian car market is still quite popular. According to FCAI, the 2021 Australian vehicle sales data showed that Toyota Corolla sold 28,768 units which also included some sedans, followed by the Hyundai i30 made up another 25,575 hatchbacks.
There is plenty of pent-up demand for hatchbacks in the country and an EV that’s affordable is bound to get interest from everyday buyers but also larger fleets.
With the recently passed Electric car discount bill and the need for businesses and families to save money on expenses like fuel, an affordable EV like the BYD Dolphin will be a hit in 2023 when it is expected to land on our shores.
Riz is the founder of carloop based in Melbourne, specialising in Australian EV data, insight reports and trends. He is a mechanical engineer who spent the first 7 years of his career building transport infrastructure before starting carloop. He has a passion for cars, particularly EVs and wants to help reduce transport emissions in Australia. He currently drives a red Tesla Model 3.