BYD Atto 3 all-electric SUV launching in Australia this Saturday

As far back as December 3rd, the BYD Yuan Plus aka BYD Atto 3 was spotted. Now, as we head towards the back half of February 2022, we’re about to get the official launch of BYD in Australia.

Until now, those keen to get a cheaper EV from Chinese-based BYD, were leveraging a small number of imports from EVDirect.com.au and some happy customers already have the BYD e6 in Australia.

The company’s first official product launch feels quite different, with the BYD Australia New Zealand tonight sharing and hyping the event for this weekend.

In China, the BYD Yuan started life back in March 2016, but after leaving its petrol and hybrid versions in the past, it is now a fully fledged electric model. The S2 has been sold in China since 2019, but featured just a 40kWh battery.

Now it’s set for launch in Australia this Saturday at 7PM, BYD has chosen a different name, the Atto 3, for the Australian audience. I assume there was some focus groups that told them this name worked better.

The BYD Atto 3 is also known as the Yuan Plus in China, based on BYD’s e-Platform 3.0 and is expected to feature a 152kw electric motor and 330 Nm of torque, with the power provided by BYD’s own blade battery.

BYD promotes this platform as scalable, which could suggest there’s room to move on the battery capacity, given the range requirements of Australia and considerable, particularly with our current fast-charging infrastructure constraints.

BYD’s e-platform 3.0 features 800V charging which suggests their fast charging rate could be quite fast and also features a heat pump which is a more efficient technique for heating the cabin in colder temperatures.

If you’re looking for a sneak peak, go check out the Yuan Plus video from Wheelsboy published 2 days ago. This shows off the interior which keep in mind, could change a little to meet Australian Design Regulations.

Importantly, we’ll be watching for a price tag on Saturday evening, as this compact SUV has a chance at being Australia’s cheapest EV which should do good things for EV adoption. Hopefully, we’ll see a price tag starting with a 3 in the front of it, beating out the MG ZS EV at around $44k, but is currently unavailable.

The challenge will be, securing enough supply for Australia in a very competitive market.