BYD Dolphin has been the most talked about car in the last two weeks following its launch in multiple key right-hand-drive markets.
Now registration of interest has opened for interested buyers of what’s dubbed by the car company as the most affordable electric car to hit the Australian market.
BYD’s Australian website now reveals a purple Dolphin on its homepage with a button to register interest in the car. However, it gives no pricing information or specification, and no deposit of any sort is required.
Pricing and specifications were revealed in Hong Kong and New Zealand in recent weeks and earlier this week, BYD in Australia announced that the key details will be revealed next week.
This update was shared on Monday by Luke Todd, the founder of the Chinese auto giant’s local distributor, EV Direct, who said: “Australia’s most affordable, high quality electric vehicle of all time will be on sale. #dolphindynamic”
BYD has already delivered over 7,000 of the Atto 3 electric SUVs to Australian customers and it is now the best-selling EV model in New Zealand.
The pricing of the new Dolphin will be the key driver between prospective EV buyers considering a smaller city electric car over the already available BYD Atto 3 SUV which starts at $48,011 before on-roads for the Standard. According to the BYD website, this model is available for delivery within weeks.
It will be interesting to see if the orders on the Dolphin open before the Victorian EV subsidies run out at the end of the month.
The subsidies currently apply to the BYD Atto 3 and with lead times relatively low, for some buyers, it may be a better choice to pick the Atto 3 while the subsidies are available for cars purchased in June.
With the Dolphin announcement next week, more details will be provided and for some in states like Queensland, with a $6,000 subsidy potentially on offer for eligible models, it could be a game changer.
We look forward to bringing details of the release as they come to hand.
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.