The BYD brand has now been in New Zealand for a year, with the Atto 3 being hugely successful for the brand. With this is mind, I wanted to talk to catch up again with Atto 3 owner Matthew Parkin to talk about owning the SUV.
✅ We’ll be talking about the car’s positives, and any negatives over the last 6 months.
✅ Alternatives to the Atto 3.
✅ General EV Advice.
CONVERSATION TRANSCRIPT
Adrian:
BYD has been in New Zealand for a year now and their flagship vehicle from day one has been the BYD Atto3. Today I’m catching up with Atto3 owner Matthew Parkin who I spoke to six months ago about owning the car. I’m finding out how his experience with the Atto3 has been going over the last six months. Hi Matthew!
Mathew:
Hey, how are you, Adrian.
Adrian:
Good, thank you. I guess we’ll start just to make sure you have got the car, haven’t you?
Mathew:
I still have the car, yes. It’s a little bit dirty, but I’ve still got it.
Adrian:
Yeah, that’s my first question one done. Maybe just an overview just from what made you actually buy the car in the first place.
Mathew:
I think it was really good timing to be honest, because if I saw the price of it now, I maybe wouldn’t have bought it. But I got in, you know, I think I got mine at the very start of October. So all up after rebates, I think it’s about $52,000. So my budget was 50. That was
Adrian:
Yeah.
Mathew:
what I wanted to spend on a good EV. At the time, the MG was the only option. And I don’t know. Like, I don’t know. It just didn’t win me over. And so, yes, I went with the Atto and still don’t regret it. It is the first car that I’ve owned that I still get excited to go for a drive. And I still go for pointless drives every week, just because I want to go for a drive.
Adrian:
So, I guess I should say, so that’s sort of, is it about 10 months then you’ve, had it? Is it about 10
Mathew:
Yeah,
Adrian:
months?
Mathew:
it’s coming up to that year I’ve done 14 and a half thousand K, which is definitely more than my average. And yeah, I think I did quick calculations that would have cost me around forty five hundred dollars in my Outlander that I had
Mathew:
prior to the EV.
Adrian:
Yeah, I guess we might as well just get straight to the costs, so you’re saving money then, relatively?
Mathew:
I believe so. I don’t actually know. I don’t do a lot of fast charging. So,
Mathew:
you know, charging BP. I don’t do a lot of it. It’s only when I go for, you know, drives up to Christchurch or whatever. So the majority, you know, 98% of my charging is done at home with a wall charger. So, you know, the charge it up, depending on how low it is, generally, you know, anything from $5 up to about $9. So, it’s not, it’s not a lot.
Adrian:
Oh yeah,
Mathew:
So
Adrian:
and where
Mathew:
I’ve,
Adrian:
are you based? Were you living?
Mathew:
in Dunedin.
Mathew:
Yeah, so it’d be nice if we had some better rates. It’s kind of annoying when you look at some of the rates on the North Island where their power rates can get very cheap, especially at off-peak night rate. But, you know, I suppose the bonus is that I believe all the power in the South Island is renewable. So, I suppose that’s a bonus. It doesn’t matter which power company you’re with, you’re in the South Island, it’s renewable. So that’s, I suppose a bonus, but. It would be nice to get some better rates, but you know,
Adrian:
Make a
Mathew:
can’t
Adrian:
note.
Mathew:
really complain.
Adrian:
Yeah, make a note for the… And maybe just what’s one of the key pros of the car, you’d say, or the key highlights or maybe the surprising highlight even.
Mathew:
The V2L adapter is pretty amazing. Like it is, it’s more than just a car. It does feel like there’s just that more to it. It’s not just getting from A to B. But the V2L adapter is pretty amazing. We haven’t really utilized it a lot yet. We’ve done tests with it. I’ve run the washing machine, the dryer on it.
Adrian:
Oh yeah.
Mathew:
you know, just to use it through the day and then charge up the car during the night. We’ve actually just recently got some inserts for the windows to cover up all the windows so we could technically go camping in the car. So, we are we are going to attempt that one. So, we’ve got covers for every window.
You know, go for a wee explore somewhere and maybe camp somewhere for the night. We’ll bring a tent backup, but yeah, it’ll be fun to try it out. But other than that, yeah, the cheapness is probably, you know, that’s probably my, the thing that I love about it is just either going for a drive or when you’ve got to actually go anywhere, it just doesn’t cost a lot. Even the fast charges, when I factor that, the higher rate and it still comes up a lot cheaper than fuel. And yes, you have to wait, but I’ve not, I don’t know. Like I just, I, that still hasn’t become annoying to me having to stop and charge the car.
Adrian:
What’s the longest queue you’ve been in?
Mathew:
I’ve not, look, knock wood. I’ve not
Adrian:
Yeah.
Mathew:
encountered it. Not once between
Adrian:
Really?
Mathew:
Dunedin and Christchurch. I’ve got two spots that I like to stop at. Either the BP. Timaru charger, it’s never, I’ve never seen another car there ever. Anytime I’ve ever stopped, it’s always been completely empty. Or the charge net charger in O’Rourie, which is 150-kilowatt dual charge. So, two vehicles can charge at the same time. And it’s cheap.
It’s one of the cheapest charge net charges in the South Island. So, they’re the two spots I like to stop at and I’ve never encountered. And because those two stops are within, I think they’re within like 20 minutes of each other or 30 minutes. As we’re coming from either direction, we will check both. And if one of them is busy, we just go to the other one automatically. So, we’ve not encountered the need to charge. But again, that does come down to the range of the of the add-o that you’ve got. You know, if the charge is busy, you just go to the next one. There are enough of them along the way. I do feel for, you know, the users who have got like a leaf. for example, where
Adrian:
Yeah.
Mathew:
they need to hop between charges. I don’t really have that issue. So, I’ve not encountered any queues here and I’m not really a confrontation type person. So, to be honest, if there was a queue, I’d probably just go on
Mathew:
to the next one. Because I have the same deal with the free charges. I find they’re the ones you get the most hostility from and the free charges, they’re free. So, yeah. If it’s available, I’ll jump on it. But if it’s not, yeah,
Mathew:
you can’t get too upset about it. It’s free. It’s going to be busy.
Adrian:
Just on the range, what’s the actual practical real-world driving range?
Mathew:
So
Adrian:
Because
Mathew:
I’ve,
Adrian:
the…
Mathew:
I’ve found with that one with, I do a lot of short trips. I live in Dunedin, a lot of short trips, a lot of hills, and it’s been very cold in winter time. So, at first it was a little bit scary because when I’d go for, by the time it comes to the end of the week and I’d want to put the car on charge, the clock had anywhere from 100 to 150 kilometers, and it would be well below 50%. So. Um, the mile, the, the range was incredibly short, but the problem is for our town driving, we preheat the car a lot.
Heat, heat, heated heats, the heat pumps on like 28, you know, 28 degrees. We keep it quite toasty and I think that’s definitely going through a bit of power. The other thing I’ve noticed is the batteries are cold. Um, and while it’s cold, um, it obviously can’t put out as much. It can’t receive as much in. So what I’ve found is if I’m going to do a road trip to Christchurch, the range seems to be pretty standard. We could make it almost all the way. We have to stop at either O’Rourie or Timaru or Rolleston to get all the way to Christchurch. Just that little bit of a charge near the end. But yeah, we’ve
found with those ones, because the car is rolling, the battery’s been used, the temp must stay fairly consistent. So, the range becomes normal again. But what I found in Dunedin with the short trips is I don’t think the battery is ever getting up to a decent temp. And because of that, it’s probably always running at 10 degrees or less. That’s what I believe it is anyway, because every long trip I’ve done, the range hasn’t really dropped as much as I expected it to, especially based on the Dunedin driving.
Adrian:
What’s the WLTP? I can’t remember off the top of my head.
Mathew:
420.
Mathew:
420 is, and in summertime, in Dunedin, when I was trialing that to see if I could get that figure, if I ran it in eco mode, kept climate control off, I could actually get more than that quite easily. So, you know, and even in eco mode, after I’ve been driving in the car in sport mode for a long period of time, you put it to eco, it feels really slow. But the moment you have to leave a green light, at an intersection, you realize that even eco mode is still quicker than most ice cars. You know, so it feels slow, but so if I needed to get more range out of it, I could, but it’s not, it just doesn’t cost much to charge it. And when they bring in road user charges, again, that’s going to be based on kilometers.
So, if the range is bad because You’re using all these extra accessories. It’s not going to cost money like in a car If you’re sitting idling and it’s using petrol, you’re technically paying road user charges for not any killing me like for not driving at all Same with if you got a V8 or a v6 that’s going to go through a lot of fuel You’re paying more than your you’re paying more than the fair share of road user charges. So, in that regard I’m not I’m not too worried.
I know that on the open road. I’m gonna get decent range, I’m going to be able to get between multiple charging stations. Um, and for the city driving, I’m not, I’m not too worried that the rain, like I said, the range can be low. It feels like it could be as low as 150 K. Um, the way I personally drive the vehicle, which is very short trips, you know, to the supermarket, to the gym, to, to pick up or drop off people. Dunedin’s not a big city.
So no, no drive generally is more than 10 minutes. for the most part and in wintertime the battery is just cold. I had a I was in Rangiora a month or so back and I had to charge up the car in the morning before going for a drive so went to the local BP, but it was a very frosty morning and I found when I plugged it in it would not charge at more than 14 kilowatts for quite some time.
It took quite a while before that battery even allowed anything substantial into it So that was something else, I learned too, that on a very cold morning, you’re better off getting out on the open road, driving for a bit, warming up the battery, and then stopping somewhere for a charge, because it was just so slow to charge while it was really cold battery.
But yeah, but it’s things that I’m learning about the vehicle as I go. And it’s not the end of the world. I sort of come to terms with them. They’re acceptable for the benefits of the vehicle.
Adrian:
Any annoyances with the care?
Mathew:
the beeping, the beeping still actually to be honest, my brain has phased out most of the beeping in that vehicle now, so I don’t really notice it as much. They fixed up the fog,
Adrian:
The fog gate was the big thing, wasn’t it? Fog gate.
Mathew:
Fog gate was a bad one.
Again, a short trip to the supermarket. The car would be dry when I left the house, but once I got to the supermarket, shut it off and went inside. By the time I came back, even five, 10 minutes later, every bit of glass in that car was not just fogged up, but it was dripping wet. So, you would have to either leave the car running while in the supermarket or unlock, lock, and then unlock again, or lock it, unlock it, lock it. And that sort of broke whatever programming it had to vent out the condensation. It would break that. routine.
So those two things were a little bit annoying, but the last update completely fixed that for me. Now, the moment that update came out, there was a whole new group of people that were now getting fogging while driving, which that’s definitely a scarier situation. But I’ve done at least one drive to Christchurch since 1.6, and we haven’t noticed that issue at what was causing it. The only thing I sort of noticed from other people’s report of that issue was that they had a lower temperature on the climate control. And with the ADDO, I found that the temperature just needs to be higher.
Any old ice vehicle that I’ve had, 22, 23, even 21 degrees would be more than enough to keep that cabin at a nice temp. But I found with the ADDO, anything below 24, it has a coldness to it and it has a moisture to it. So, I’m wondering if the latest fog gate possibly has something to do with the actual temperature. If you get too low, it starts bringing moisture in.
And I watched a video recently on YouTube where the person doing a review of the car had a similar issue while driving and their temperature was low. And so, I do wonder whether or not if it’s too low, it brings moisture into it, but they do have an update coming out to fix it. I’ve put myself down as a beta tester, or not a beta tester, but just a pre-tester. I think they’re doing a group of 50 people to get that update first.
Now I’ve not had the issue, so I won’t be able to comment on that, but I’m also hoping they don’t make it worse because I work in the software industry and there’s a rule. You sort of, you don’t do an update. software unless it’s required, unless there’s a specific bug or something you’re trying to fix. And right now, I’m really happy with the car. Like there’s nothing about the software besides the guess-o-meter, you know, the actual
Adrian:
Hmm
Mathew:
range meter that needs to be fixed. The range meter is the only thing in the car that I wish could be fixed, but it’s not the end of the world that it’s not, you know, because I’ve got, there are apps and there are ways to work out your range. quite easily just based on the percentage of what’s left.
And like a better route planner, for example, like I use that for every road trip that I do. So, but yeah, there’s, I don’t, I’m hoping that the next update doesn’t break anything because that’s the issue that every update has come with little issues where they’ve reverted something or broken something while trying to fix something else. So, fingers crossed this next update. is all positive, hopefully.
Adrian:
Hmm. And what’s the maintenance? Is it yearly? So, you do for a check.
Mathew:
I think it might actually be yearly. Yeah. So, I think it’s yearly or 20,000 K’s. I’ll need to check. Actually, I don’t have a book, but I’ll need to check my paperwork that I do have on it. But
I remember it’s 20,000 K. So, I don’t know if it’s 12 months or 20,000 K, but yeah, I will be coming up for that. And I do have one issue that needs to be fixed in the car in that my 3D view, the left-hand camera is out of alignment. When I first reported it to BYD and Dunedin, the salesperson was like, that doesn’t sound right. So, I ended up going down to the warehouse parking lot so I could park perfectly between some lines and then get some photos of the different 3D images to show how out of skew it was.
And at first, I was a little bit concerned. You know, it’s going to take time. They’re going to have to send away for a new wing mirror or something. But I’ve seen a couple of people report the same issue in the Facebook group. And there’s actually a BYD map that goes on the ground around the car. They can use it to recalibrate the cameras.
So, something I was quite worried about, I thought, I’m now going to be without the car. It’s going to take them days or weeks to actually resolve it. It sounds like it’s actually pretty straightforward and something that can be done on the day. So… I’ll either be booking that in prior to the service or just getting them to fix it during the service.
Adrian:
Have you been sort of looking at other EVs in the market or yeah?
Mathew:
Oh, I look at all of them, like
Adrian:
Yeah.
Mathew:
all of them. They’re all exciting, like every
Adrian:
Yeah.
Mathew:
single one of them. Like even the worst of the lot, they’re all still exciting. But the Atto, I budgeted that one to do a job. And I’ve got no complaints from the vehicle, so I’ve got no reason to sort of upgrade it or shift it out. But the goal is to actually have that thing for six to eight years, to try
Adrian:
Yep.
Mathew:
and maximize the warranty on it. And, you know, if all goes well, the car battery might end up as a house battery down the line. But if I can keep it for eight years, I will pay for a good majority of the car. So, whereas every ICE vehicle I’ve ever had, there’s always been a loss at the end of it, there is a potential with the Addo to have a very small loss, if any at all, really. Because the battery at the end… will have a value and whether I use it or I sell it, it hopefully will just make that difference because it is a good long-life battery being that it is a blade battery and LFP, it should outlive the car, well outlive the car.
Adrian:
you have anyone that’s actually sort of sold them in like a retail
Mathew:
there was someone, I don’t know if it was in North Island or Australia, but someone had actually bought a written off Atto and then used the parts to retrofit an old ice vehicle, which
Adrian:
Oh.
Mathew:
That’s pretty exciting too. Like I like the look of some of the older cars, but
Adrian:
Yeah.
Mathew:
you know, so I could see that being a project, maybe not for me, but you know, like it would be cool to see more people doing that, buying up wrecked EVs. and then taking the parts out, chucking them in, you know, an old Holden or an old Supra or a Sleeker or something. And from the outside, it looks petrol, but completely EV on the inside. And yeah, that would be cool to see. As prices come down, we might start to see that happening more.
Adrian
Do you think you’re going to keep coming down the price?
Mathew:
I don’t know. I’m biased because I’ve got an Atto and I also got it at a good price. But I do feel there might be a little bit of profiteering going on within BYD. And again, that’s what businesses are here for. They’re here to maximize profits. But
Adrian:
Yeah
Mathew:
looking at the Dolphin and you look at the Australian price without a grant, you look at it here with a grant. And even when you factor in the grant, Australia is getting a far better deal on that dolphin, which, you know, if I was in the position of BYD, I would probably try and maximize the profits as well. Why wouldn’t they? Everyone’s trying to jump on the wagon. But, you know, we can thank BYD and MG for getting Tesla to bring their price down. Like,
Adrian:
Yeah.
Mathew:
that’s played a part. It’s a hundred percent payback. When I bought my Atto, there was $17,000 difference between the cheapest Tesla and the car that I got. So, in my mind, I got a great deal because
Adrian:
Yeah.
Mathew:
there’s nothing in a Tesla that’s worth $17,000 more. Not a thing in that vehicle. Again, the speed in a Tesla is great and they do look good, but they got Elon Musk as a spokesperson, which divides. So many people, it’s just, it’s, yeah, it’s stupid.
So, any company that is keeping Tesla honest, I’m pretty excited with because in the end, we should all hopefully benefit from that. And, you know, even like BYD, they’ve got some, actually it’s not BYD, but the Yang Wang U9, which is their supercar or their sports car make, but that looks amazing for the price tag. It looks pretty awesome. I love the Lucid Air.
Adrian:
Yes.
Mathew:
I don’t think we’ll see them here anytime soon, but I would love one of them. They look beautiful. So, if I had to pick, you know, top of the line Tesla would be nice, but the Lucid Air would be the car I’d pick. If I had the money, the budget, and they actually had them here, that’s what I’d be going for.
Adrian:
So, no plans to go back to a petrol ice car.
Mathew:
Not, yeah, no, not, I don’t miss it. And every time I’ve driven one, like when I, when I got my Atto, there was a little bit of damage on one of the side panels. BYD took it back, got it fixed up, and they gave me, or the panel beaters gave me an ice vehicle for a week. And yeah, I wasn’t, I wasn’t a fan of it. It smelled, it smelled really bad.
It’s, I don’t know, it’s just the noises it makes too. Like I’m just so used to. eight months of driving an EV, it’s just such a difference. So no, I don’t intend on going back to ice anytime soon. I don’t tow anything. So, there’s no reason for me. Like I’ve always had smaller cars, Mazda 3s, Corollas. My Outlander was probably the biggest vehicle I had, which was fun for a moment, but I really didn’t need a vehicle that size anyway.
Adrian:
Is there anything else you wanted to mention or cover off?
Mathew:
I do like the fact that in the outer, every time they bring an update out, the password, the BOD password to allow you to sideload apps keeps getting leaked. I love that. I hope that doesn’t change. I hope they don’t restrict the apps that we can have on there. Like I’ve got, I’ve got, uh, YouTube, I’ve got Twitch, I’ve got Disney, I’ve got prime and they come in handy.
They really do come in handy when you’re charging or you’re just waiting for someone, I can just. check on some YouTube and just sit back and enjoy while I wait. And yeah, so I’m hoping that we don’t lose them because I’ve gotten quite used to having them on there now.
Adrian:
Well, that’s good. I think that’s a pretty good review. Thanks, Matthew.
Mathew:
Yeah.
Adrian:
I think that covers everything. Someone looking for a BYD, looking for just an EV in general. Maybe that’s the last tip for the person sitting on the fence with a petrol car, looking at just an EV, not necessarily the BYD 803. What’s your key point of advice?
Mathew:
Um…
Adrian:
Apart from having a lot of money.
Mathew:
Yeah, I swear. Well, that’s what the cheapest one is 40 something thousand, in that area. There is a little bit of a learning curve. I think that’s one thing I’ve noticed on the on the Facebook group is there is a, you know, the demographic of people buying EVs is on the older side and it’s not just a car or it is it’s like a it is a computer and as someone in the IT world, I love that. side of this car, but I can also see for some people that is a little bit stressful.
But yeah, if they can get past that hump, that sort of technology hump, that change in what a car is, I think they’ll love it. And you know, it doesn’t take long for people get used to how everything works in it. But yeah, it’s… Definitely join the Facebook group. If you’re looking for an ad, I’d definitely join the New Zealand
Adrian:
Yeah,
Mathew:
Facebook group because.
Adrian:
yeah, that’s really great. That’s not so much information in there.
Mathew:
It is, it is. It’s probably one of the very few Facebook groups that I, you know, for the most part, find it very useful. You know, every other Facebook group I’m on can get quite toxic at times, but they’ve managed, admins have managed to keep that group quite contained for the most part. You can still have your position and defend that position, but no one seems to get irate or anything.
So… definitely speak and speak to people and drive a few vehicles to find the one that suits. I didn’t, I drove literally this one and it sold it for me but it’s because it fit that price point for me and at the time there were two options. If I had to pick now that the MG4 that’s just
Adrian:
Yeah.
Mathew:
come out, it looks great. Like it looks great from the outside. I don’t know what it’s… I haven’t watched enough reviews to get an idea of at this point, but I love the look of it. So, it’s got that going for it. I think the only downside was that the top of the line version doesn’t have an LFP battery, which that’s probably the biggest thing for me at the moment is the battery chemistry.
That’s pretty much what includes or excludes a car for me, only because the degradation of the older style batteries, the lithium-ion batteries, was a concern. Maybe it’s not a huge concern. Maybe it’s not a big issue. Like again, you still see extremely old Tesla’s with like 300k on the clock or more, and they still had a decent amount of their battery left. So maybe it’s not that big of an issue. But in my mind, the battery chemistry was the deciding factor for me.
You want it to last too. You want to be able to know that you can sell the vehicle in 10 years and it still have range left in it. And I think the Atto, as long as the car itself survives, I think it could definitely sell on and still have a decent range in the battery. For whoever takes it over, they won’t actually have to worry about replacing a battery on it.
Adrian:
Okay, that’s pretty good, mate. I think it’s heaps of information.
Mathew:
Sounds good.
Adrian:
Yeah, thanks very much. Thanks for your time.
Mathew:
Not a problem.