BYD Dolphin review: reliability & safety rating
The BYD Dolphin uses tried-and-tested tech and while a safety rating is pending, it gets lots of driver assistance tech as standard
BYD makes a lot of noise about its cutting-edge ‘Blade’ battery technology, which is apparently much safer than a lithium iron phosphate (LFP) setup. The battery’s honeycomb structure allegedly makes it stronger; the company’s engineers were keen to talk about the various stress tests the cells have undergone, including being penetrated with a nail, and driven over with a 50-tonne truck.
BYD Dolphin reliability & problems
It’s too early in BYD’s European journey to offer any solid UK-relevant reliability data, but the brand recently outsold Volkswagen in its home market of China, which should ensure the Dolphin and all of its hardware has been tried and tested sufficiently before launch here. While we did experience issues with a lack of power from the electric motor during our first drive, an over-the-air update seems to have solved this and we haven’t encountered any issues since.
Safety
There’s no Euro NCAP crash test rating for the BYD Dolphin yet, but a long list of standard features should all but ensure a strong score when the time comes. Every car gets forward collision warning, autonomous emergency braking, rear collision warning, rear cross traffic alert and brake, plus lane departure warning and lane-keep assist.