BYD Atto 3 review

It's pretty jazzy in here. In surprising contrast to the cautious exterior design, imaginations have run riot in the cabin.

The dash itself is an exaggerated wave-form, and covered in two-time stitched soft plastic. The seats too are multicoloured, with red stitching. The door speakers protrude, and tensed off them are three red strings that form the top of the door bins. So it looks like a guitar. The speaker peripheries are lit, too. Pity they sound mushy.

Elsewhere the theme is supposed to be a gym. The doorhandles and gear selector resemble dumbbells, and the vents the weights you hang off them. Or something.

For actually sitting in, the seats are well-contoured for side support, but don't have lumbar adjustment so some people find them hollow on the spine. You're set fairly high, with a low glass waistline, so it feels airy and easy to see out of.

The main centre screen does a lot of configuration donkey-work, but the climate, nav and vehicle settings are easily fathomed. The selection of hardware switches is a bit eccentric: there's one to rotate the screen and one for blind-spot warning, but not for lane departure or heated rear screen.

Another screen issue is that despite its size, it won't simultaneously display a map and the music you're playing, unless that happens to be Spotify (and you need your own account for that – the car doesn't come with one). Neither will the little driver's screen show navigation arrows.

The screen physically rotates between landscape and portrait under electric power. Very whizz-bang. Portrait looks a bit odd, but if you're the type who has their maps set to heading-up or 3D it's helpful. All right-thinking people use north-up of course.

The driver's screen is a bit small, crowded and hard-to-read, and there's no HUD option.

Rear room is pretty good, especially foot-space under the front seats, which is often an issue in EVs. Reading lights, vents and USB ports are all standard back there. The boot isn't that great, as it's both shallow and not that long front-to-back. It does have a bit of extra beneath the floor, keeping your cables tidy.