The BYD Atto 3 Evo is on sale now, with prices starting from just under £39,000. As its name suggests, the ‘Evo’ is effectively a revised version of the regular BYD Atto 3, which was the Chinese brand’s first car to enter the UK market when it arrived back in 2023.

BYD Atto 3 Evo: prices and specs

Just a tenner under £39,000 gets you into the entry-level BYD Atto 3 Evo Design. There’s nothing ‘entry-level’ about this model’s specification, though, because it’s powered by a 309bhp rear-mounted electric motor, as well as a new 74.8kWh ‘blade’ battery. This, according to BYD, is sufficient for 0-62mph in 5.5 seconds. But if you’re gentle on the accelerator pedal, a combined WLTP range of 316 miles is also possible – 55 miles more than in the old car.

As you might expect, the additional power of the £42,730 Excellence model does bring range down somewhat – to 292 miles. Excellence cars get an additional electric motor on the front axle, boosting power to 443bhp and slashing the 0-62mph sprint time to just 3.9 seconds which, would you believe, is faster than a Ferrari F430 supercar.

To help control the extra power on both models, BYD has switched to a more sophisticated five-link rear suspension system, but has not confirmed any further major changes to the chassis, steering or brakes. The new battery pack does adopt a cell-to-body construction, though, which offers greater rigidity and savings in terms of packaging.

Regardless, the whole system runs on an upgraded 800V architecture, instead of the 400V set-up of the old car. The main draw here is that it doubles the old car’s 110kW maximum charging speed to 220kW. BYD quotes a 10-80 per cent charge time of around 25 minutes.

Equipment and tech

As standard, all Atto 3 Evo models now get a much larger 8.8-inch instrument cluster, as well a huge 15.6-inch touchscreen which, to the dismay of some, no longer rotates and is fixed in a landscape orientation. It does have full Google integration, though, so that means you can access Google Maps, Google Assistant and the Google Play store natively.