com, because new stuff means more choice, but you never get a second chance to make your first impression so whats yours, let us know what you think in the comments and please do remember to like And subscribe because thats, How I get paid now theres a lot to talk about, because the ATO 3 is from a Chinese car maker byd, which is just entering the UK market. Now byd stands for build your dreams, which sounds a little bit cheesy to me, but the ATO 3 itself is anything but because it hits all of the right markers its a five seat: mid sized SUV with 261 miles of wltp range and its kind of in The middle of everything, its quite obviously gunning for things like vws ID3, thecube reborn, maybe even the Kia Nero EV, so its right in the middle. What weve come to figure out really is whether these build your dreams will turn into nightmares. Sorry, I couldnt resist that. One: okay, okay. I know there are a lot of sort of five seat, mid sized SUVs out there on the electric Market at the moment, but theres good reason for that theyre, a good, solid base for most peoples, family lives. They cover a lot of bases, and the idea with the ATO 3 is probably to not put off those more conservative customers thats, why this car isnt that crazy or is it so lets drink? This in byd says that the ATO 3 has a face.

That is, and I quote, inspired by ancient dragons, so these swept back LED headlights over a blanked off Grille and horizontal bar are supposed to resemble the eyes and mustache of a dragon. Do you see it? Hmm now, apparently its very aerodynamic, but a quick check reveals it to only be as slippery as something like a Hyundai, Kona and actually less slippery than a vwid4, so kind of middle of the pack really and then on the rest of the face. Its kind of a little bit Anodyne its got some sort of big fake vents down here, and it it gives it a nice enough face still doesnt look like an actual Dragon, though the side view is fine. The 18 inch wheels look decent and theres. Some chrome trim around the windows and on the rear pillar that add a bit of jazziness but its not that memorable. One thing that makes me wince the charge port slightly chops into the wheel Arch, but it does come in five metallic colors, which is excellent and then at the back like on the front, youve got another full width, light bar and these silver trim pieces on the C pillar, both of which remind me of Volkswagen group cars, like the id4 and the Cooper, born a little bit strange that its kind of taking inspiration from other cars, then the bit that kind of makes me sort of stutter a bit. It says: build your dreams right across the back spelled out, which kind of reminds me of inspirational quotes that you pin to the fridge door after that, its its kind of nice enough, but it doesnt really break the mold.

Tell us what you think in the comments is conservative. The right way to go or should byd have been a bit more out there. But you know where the buid ato3 gets a bit more out there in here, because it feels like byd saved up all the crazy and put it on the inside. So much so Im not really sure where Im going to start, and that must be a first for me, I mean you get in the first thing that hits you is this kind of rib Dash and door panel, which Im Im not sure what to think about, And then, after that, you sort of look at the dash and it looks like its melted down onto the lower portion. But then you start thinking. Parts of this are actually quite familiar and you know why, because all of this is apparently inspired by a gym. Let me point a few things out, so these are events here are supposed to be: free weights resemble dumbbells, which is very interesting, then, on this frankly crazy door card. This is supposed to be a barbell, then the gear selector, which reminds me of the kind of throttles from an aircraft thats supposed to be a kettlebell, and even this Center divider top is supposed to be like a treadmill. Now, while I applaud the fact that its different, it does feel a little bit mad, what do you think? Would you like your car interior to resemble a gym? Let me know in the comments, then, after that it gets a little bit more normal, so once youve got past all the kind of crazy shapes theres, a small Drive information screen in front of me here, a steering wheel with some decent buttons on both roller and Clicky and normal buttons and then a couple of stalks and then on this design trim, which is the top spec.

There are two others active in Comfort. This one gets a 15 point, something in screen, which is quite big. On the two lower grades, you get a 12 inch screen and its got a neat trick. So obviously this looks normal thats fine. But if I press this button here, you can switch it from landscape to portrait. Now the company thinks that the portrait screen is better for Sat Nav and the landscape stuff is better for music um. I just like it because its a nice little Gadget Im not sure how much youd actually switch it around, but it is like one of Ginnys favorite cars, the Fisker ocean, so its a nice little touch one of the things it also does is it has a Load of ambient Lighting in here – and if you sync it, it will pulse in time with the music youre playing Im, going to call gimmick on that one. After that, all of the cars get these multi color uh fake leather sport seats, which is nice. They all get a full length, um opening sunroof, which makes the interior actually quite light, and it does feel quite well equipped, though it can feel a bit playskully like everythings, Big And Chunky and funny shape. So it feels a bit almost childlike now thats quite attractive in some situations, but I dont know whether it will wear on me after a bit, especially one thing. I find these doors quite quite Bonkers.

First of all, the door handle is kind of a pullback thing here, look and thats on top of a speaker, but then down here it has what byd calls guitar strings say that again, if you say the phrase byd, it keeps activating the voice, control, which is Another feature that it always has cancel. Anyway. I was still listening. Shes still listening, cancel shush now, stop it shes gone away and thats, because Ive stopped talking. What I was gon na say was: when youve got used to the door handle you realize that down here on the door, pockets are strings. Now it basically looks like a rubbish ukulele and its supposed to hold things in the door pocket, but they go straight across the speakers now Im not sure how good that is for audio quality, but Im guessing not good. Is this too much? Let us know there will be three grades: active comfort and design and theres a good spread of kit on this design. Spec car heated electric seats, heated electric mirrors, Sat Nav over the air updates, carplay and Android auto non leather leather in two tone: Shades loads of Drive resistant systems. It does feel like you get a lot of toys. Obviously, the lower grades get less fun stuff, but a quick flick through the specs reveals that theyre pretty well equipped across the board. Although the two lower grades do get the smaller main screen, all cars get a heat pump and everything gets an electric tailgate and a big panoramic roof, but actually, when you start poking around, although there are a lot of different textures like look at this theres sort Of a grainy black plastic here, smooth black plastic here, silver, blue and then smooth plastic and then down here its a different blue uh of the vents, which has got a gray thing and then some silver and then red stitching theres.

A lot theres a lot going on, but some of it feels really nice. I particularly like the gear selector. I think that feels really nice and then down here. Youve got a wireless charging pad on this grade, along with some physical buttons for off use functions. So the stuff for the driving modes, the air con uh the handbrake stuff like that, its one of those cars thats a little bit overwhelming when youre first get in it. It feels a little bit Playskool, but compared to other cars in this sector. It has definitely got character and thats really important, because in here is where you spend most of your time its what youre looking at and then as far as storage, goes its an electric car with a flat floor. So its got a big storage bin down here with some charge, points that you can see down here and then theres another big sort of deep covered bin here, underneath the little treadmill inspired top cover, um, decent glove box and thats about it, its good enough. Its also spacious plenty of room in the back and a big boot at 440 liters, which includes this double floor and then even so, theres a Handy underfloor, Storage for cables, theres a standard electric tailgate and you get a lot more space. If you fold the split rear seats forward, its um, its a nicely spacious thing, actually Ive got a good anecdote about the name um an ATO.

Second is one quintillionth of a second and scientists. Havent actually been able to measure it yet so because scientists are always trying to set new standards of measurement thats. What builds your dreams thought? This should be called because an ATO is something that is always setting new standards, and the three part is because its based on a new platform, thats 3.0, so its the ATO 3 1 quintillionth of a second very fast thats. My attention span now its a funny thing, but a lot of EVS in this price range and size seem to have exactly the same amount of power and torque its like theyve all got together and figured out what the optimum would be and the ATO 3 is No different, so it basically gets just over 200 brake horsepower and will do 0 to 62 miles an hour, the usual Sprint in about 7.3 seconds. I have to say, though I dont think its that fast you can change the modes from this little rocker switch down. Here and theres Eco sport, normal and even though Eco feels like its been injected with Temazepam, and it hits completely slowed down. Sport doesnt seem that much more than normal and I dont think its doing 0, 62 and under seven and a half seconds just feels quite its good look, look theres a acceleration, its just, not particularly urgent. This isnt an urgent car, its um, its quite sedate, really, which is not a problem.

You know you dont want everything to be neck snapping. The other thing is, the ride. Is okay, so um its perfectly acceptable handles big bumps, quite well its not too nibbly, but one place that the ATO 3 really seems to struggle for me is in the steering now its got fairly good body control, but the relationship between what happens when you turn The wheel and what happens to the front wheels is ever so slightly off, strangely, on a Motorway or on an a road that makes this quite a relaxing car to drive because it doesnt react to every input. So you could sneeze Look Away, do whatever, and the 803 would just still track fairly straight, but when youre going around any kind of corner like a roundabout, you feel, like youve, already turned the wheel a bit before it actually turns thats. Quite disconcerting, its not my favorite thing about the car, if Im honest, theres, also brake regeneration, which frankly, is not strong enough, certainly isnt a one pedal car, its one of those weird cars where I absolutely dont mind it, but it doesnt blow your mind in any Way – and it also likes to beep quite a bit, so I was driving down this road earlier, and a car pulled into a right hand. Turn lane in front of me and the byd had a little Mardi, because it thought I was just going to drive straight into him. Uh interesting take on Safety Systems when they just misread saturations, but I have noticed that it will do a little bit of Tire.

Scrabble and Torx deer when youre pulling out of a junction um but thats, quite common with a lot of electric cars. I just thought wed started to move past that thats, where it feels a little bit unresolved. But overall, I think the ATO 3 is a really good effort, its very its a solid effort. No one would be offended driving this car. I just think that the the Finesse and the absolute Precision isnt quite there in This five seat, SUV, which sounds like a stupid thing to say its good, its just not brilliant. Like I mentioned right at the start, the ATO 3 gets a wltp range of 261 miles from a battery pack that can accept just over 60 kilowatt hours of juice, so a bit less than the long range mgz and a bit more than the more expensive small Battery VW id4 absolutely workable, but nothing special, but what it does have is a really interesting battery its called a blade battery and what byd calls an eight in one system. So it includes everything to do with controlling the battery in one slimmed down space from the transmission to the charging system to the vehicle control unit. That gives excellent efficiency and the battery itself is a Lithium Ion phosphate unit or lfp, rather than the more usual lithium ion. It doesnt contain any Cobalt or heavy metals which is contentious and its safer and more durable. Its also got an industry first direct battery heating and cooling system, plus a standard fit heat pump, which byd reckons could save you, 20 percent of range in really cold weather, thats, all really good stuff.

Interestingly, viato3 is based on a skeleton called e platform 3, which can actually be fitted with lots of different bits of hardware, so front rear or four wheel drive and even 800 volt charging systems like our favorite Hyundais and Kias, and much more expensive cars like the Porsche tyken or Audi e tron GT. Unfortunately, the ATO 3 doesnt get that and with a peak charging rate of just 88 kilowatts DC, although its quite solid across the charge curve. It means that it will take about 44 minutes to charge from 10 to 80 percent, which basically feels a bit slow. These days, byd quotes a fast charge time of 29 minutes on a big enough charger, but thats from 30 to 80. So not quite the same figures were used to theres a standard, seven kilowatt AC charging ability on the lowest active grade or 11 kilowatts on the more expensive versions and itll take about 9 hours, 45 minutes to charge on a home wall box, so youre getting some Next Generation Battery tech, but you might not notice the difference. One of the good things about the ATO 3, though, is that it does seem to cover quite a lot of bases. It comes as standard with vehicle to load charging and its powerful enough to potentially charge another electric car. Its also got a five star Euro end cap safety rating, which is really important. Thanks to that clever design. It cant tow, though, which I know is important to some of you.

It also comes with an eight year or 100 000 mile warranty on the blade battery or four years and seventy thousand miles on the rest of the car, which is kind of up there, but not stunning. So that is the build your dreams at O3, its a good car with a frankly mad interior. But how much would you pay for it go on have a guess! Well, Ive got the price list here, and it says the lower spec active grade is 36 490 pounds which is fairly spinny and then the Comfort grade just 500 pounds more than that. So 36 990.. The bells and whistles design grade like this one that weighs in two grand more at 38 990 pounds. Now, if you think of something like an mgz, long range that comes in at 35 – 495, which is obviously a bit less, but its still cheaper than a smaller battery ID for life in Comfort grade, so the VW stuff tends to be a lot more expensive. Would I have one well Im, not quite convinced, yet I think the ATO 3 is a really interesting car with some brilliant Tech, but it feels like by ID hasnt quite hit its stride just yet. This feels like just the beginning. In fact, byd is going to bring several new models to the UK fairly soon, including the Han Saloon, which is really quite handsome and the Tang 7c SUV. So byd should it be on your list.

Let us know what you think is byd a maker. You might consider, or would you stick to something more familiar? Well, if youre stuck, you should pop over and see us at electrifying.com, where we have all the information on the byd and all of its competition like the mgz, vwid4 and Kia Niro EV.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OOD0Q2SV-VA