We take the 2025 World Urban Car award-winner – the BYD Dolphin Surf – for a drive in its natural habitat…
It’s taken a while, but the democratisation of electric vehicle ownership has finally shifted up a gear.
For years, the biggest barrier to switching for many drivers has been high list prices. Thankfully, now electric cars are becoming more accessible than ever.
In the last year alone we’ve seen the launch of the cheapest new EV on the market, the Dacia Spring, plus others starting below or just above the £20k-mark, including the Leapmotor T03, Citroen e-C3, Fiat Grande Panda, Renault 5 and Hyundai Inster.
The only caveat is that all the EVs at the affordable end of the market are smaller vehicles with claimed ranges of between 137-229 miles.
And no, that’s not enough to drive from London to Middlesbrough, but the simple fact is that the average car in the UK travels around 20 miles a day (about 140 miles per week) – and that figure is skewed by a small number of high-mileage drivers – so the reality is much less, especially in urban areas.
Clearly, if you want to travel longer distances, you will have to invest in an electric vehicle with a bigger battery and a range north of 300 miles, but the arrival of small EVs that are around the same price as their petrol-powered rivals is significant.
Which brings me to this week’s review of the Dolphin Surf – the latest model from Chinese giant BYD, which is battling Tesla for the crown of world’s biggest electric vehicle maker.
Marketed in China as the Seagull, BYD wisely thought Dolphin Surf might work better in the UK, given the bird’s aggressive reputation.
Not to be confused with the Dolphin, another small EV from BYD, the Dolphin Surf has a supermini footprint, which means that it’s about the same size as a Ford Fiesta or Suzuki Swift, though being electric it’s a little taller.
Starting at just £18,650, it’s a distinctively cool hatchback with a sporty edge thanks to its bold stance, integrated roof spoiler, full-width LED tail-lights and Lamborghini-like headlights.
There’s a choice of two battery sizes – a 30kWh pack paired with an 87bhp electric motor in the entry-level Active model, and a larger 43.2kWh version in the Boost and Comfort trims. Boost also gets the 87bhp e-motor, while Comfort is uprated to 154bhp.
That’s good for a claimed range of 137 miles (Active), 200 miles (Boost), and 193 miles (Comfort). Perhaps more importantly, given that the Dolphin Surf is primarily a urban car, range figures for city driving are as high as 203, 305 and 288 miles, respectively.
Thanks to all that EV instant torque, it’s quick off the mark too, though perhaps the 0-62mph acceleration times of 11.1, 12.1 and 9.1 seconds don’t do it justice.
The Dolphin Surf has maximum charge rates of 65kW (Active) and 85kW (Boost and Comfort), so it can get from 10% to 80% in 30 minutes. If you can plug in from home, it’ll take up to five hours.
It’s also worth noting that the Dolphin Surf also features Vehicle-to-Load (V2L) capability, which means that you can plug in household gadgets such as portable speakers, camping lights, or even a coffee machine.
Priced at £23,950, my Comfort-spec test car in Lime Green certainly turned a few heads during my drive in north London.
Once you’re inside, the first thing you notice is that it’s surprisingly spacious. A strict four-seater, it’s possible for a six-footer to sit behind another six-footer, and there’s loads of headroom.
Boot capacity is a very useful 308 litres (expanding to 1,037 litres with the rear seats flipped down), and there’s a space beneath the boot floor, which is ideal for storing charging cables.
The driving position is a little high for my liking and I felt a little perched, but the Dolphin Surf isn’t alone in that respect.
The cabin itself has some nice design touches and is well put together, even if there’s a lot of hard plastic on show.
That said, it’s well equipped with a floating 10.1-inch touchscreen that rotates (landscape or portrait), a dinky driver’s display (the font and graphics are a little too small), plus a row of fiddly physical controls (including the gear selector) which require a twist. It was only at the end of my drive that I realised the parking brake is a button at the end of the “barrel”!
As well as a full suite of safety and driver assistance aids (including intelligent cruise control, autonomous emergency braking, lane-departure assist and auto high beams), vegan leather seats, electrically adjustable and heated mirrors, rear parking sensors and a rear-view camera all come as standard.
Choose Boost and Comfort spec, and others goodies such as heated front seats, wireless smartphone charging and rear privacy glass are available. You can add rain-sensing wipers to the list too, though sadly no rear wiper is fitted.
On the road, the Dolphin Surf is just what you’d expect of a city car. It’s nippy with light steering, good visibility and a tight turning circle.
I didn’t get to drive it out of town, so I can’t comment on its handling closer to the limit, but it ironed out poorer road surfaces well for a car with a fairly firm suspension, and there seemed to be decent traction from the Hankook iON Evo tyres – not always a given for a lightweight front-wheel drive EV.
The brakes felt a little grabby to me, but then my test car was just being driven in. The brake regeneration available won’t please everybody. There are two relatively mild settings, but no one-pedal-mode or steering wheel paddles for adjustment.
Additionally, there are three driving modes: Comfort, Sport, and Eco. Eco dulls the driving experience, but is fine for tiddling along in traffic. Sport livens it up, but as ever, Comfort delivers the best balance of performance and efficiency.
Talking of which, I managed to get 4.8 miles per kWh out of the BYD Dolphin Surf in urban driving without trying, so a useful real-world range of more than 200 miles is more than possible even on colder days.
So, the Dolphin Surf is an impressive all-round package, and I haven’t even mentioned BYD’s six-year warranty, PCP packages as low as £269 deposit/£269 monthly payments, plus a fast-growing network of dealerships.
Verdict: The cool little BYD Dolphin Surf is going to become a familiar sight on our roads. Affordable, surprisingly spacious, safe, easy to drive and efficient, it’s backed up with a generous six-year warranty.
