What is it?
The progress of BYD into the UK market has been little short of astonishing. In the space of two years, the Chinese brand has launched four models and grown its presence to a market share in July 2025 of close to 1.9%, ahead of such long-established brands as Dacia, Honda and Mazda.
Now we have a fifth new model, and one that could easily accelerate that growth. The BYD Dolphin Surf is an electric vehicle (EV) targeting the potentially lucrative supermini market, and at a price starting from £18,650 – this puts the car into the ‘affordable’ sector of the EV market, even ahead of any grant the Government may or may not allow buyers to claim.
Few EVs so far have managed to meet the affordability requirement expected by small car buyers, but the Surf’s makers believe that this car will ‘spark’ the sector into life. And BYD has credentials – the Surf has already been on sale for a while in other global markets as the Seagull (the front-end styling is said to resemble one) and shifted more than half a million in the year.
Renaming it the Dolphin Surf for the UK market continues the brand’s ‘Ocean’ series and relates the car to its larger family-hatch sized sister the Dolphin. BYD describes the newcomer as an “all-electric hatchback built for the big city” and the brand’s most accessible model yet.
The Surf comes in a choice of three trim levels dubbed Active, Boost and Comfort and two power levels. Active buyers get an 88hp motor allied to a 30kWh version of BYD’s signature Blade battery, which equates to a WLTP-certified range of up to 137 miles. The Boost costs another £3,300 and gains a bigger 43.2kWh battery, boosting range to 200 miles.
Costing from £23,950, the Comfort matches the larger battery to a 115kW motor, cutting two seconds off the 0-62mph time (9.1 seconds, compared to 11.1 for the Active and 12.1 for the Boost due to its heavier battery). BYD claims that used exclusively in a city environment the car could clock up closer to 300 miles between charges.
A strong sales pitch for this car is that being affordable does not mean compromising on equipment levels. All versions for example get a 7-inch digital instrument panel for the driver and the 10-inch central infotainment screen which rotates from landscape to portrait format at the touch of a button. This includes navigation but is also fully compatible with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto apps. BYD’s own app-based cloud features are included, as is voice control.
Other features on even base models include rear parking sensors and a camera, a vehicle to load function enabling the powering of external equipment from the car and a host of ADAS driver aids which include adaptive cruise control.
As of July 2025 the Dolphin Surf is yet to be crash-tested by Euro NCAP and while superminis are less certain to earn top five-star ratings due to a perceived need to keep their price down, the safety equipment list is certainly extensive.
Alongside the bigger battery the extra money for a Boost pays for alloy instead of steel wheels, plus electric folding of the door mirrors and adjustment of the front seats – the driver’s six ways, the passenger’s four.
Comfort buyers get LED instead of halogen headlamps, rear privacy glass, heating on the front seats, wireless smartphone charging and the rear parking camera replaced by a 360-degree view version.
All this is contained in a body of compact proportions, just under four metres long but with a proportionally long 2.5-metre wheelbase aiding handling and interior space, including a boot of 308 litres, extending to 1037 litres with the rear seats folded.
What do we think of it?
On first sight the BYD Dolphin Surf presents quite narrow, tall proportions which, on getting in, prove more than adequate for four occupants – the car is only a four-seater. Headroom is particularly generous along with rear-seat legroom, while the boot is big for the sector.
Generally, the fit and finish is to a good level with quality soft-touch surfaces and the colour-scheme well chosen. BYD successfully applies the standards of its larger cars to this small newcomer.
The cockpit design is typical BYD, with the centre dominated by the 10-inch rotating touchscreen. There is a row of proper switches below the screen, but the system does suffer from too many controls being on the screen and not that user-friendly and swift to access. For example, changing the air con levels and fan speed requires a swipe of the screen.
In terms of its on-the-road performance, the BYD Surf is definitely in its natural environment on more urban streets, being a very easy car to drive when negotiating traffic-choked roads, with a nicely tight turning circle. It rides over even less than perfect surfaces smoothly while especially considering this is a small car, the steering has a pleasing weight to it.
At motorway speeds the Surf maintains generally comfortable progress with a little wind noise but nothing more, though running over more severe road imperfections will be felt by occupants. Its least satisfactory environment is on the kind of fast, sweeping B roads that excite more enthusiastic drivers – they will find little to excite them here as the car feels rather too ordinary.
The Business Motoring test car was to the top level Comfort specification and a week with the big battery and most powerful motor showed this to offer a good combination of performance and range. Buyers may be attracted to the cheapest Active version as it has most of the equipment and the full safety specification of the upper models, but the combination of lower power and not much over 100 miles before a recharge is necessary are rather more limited.
A return trip to Cardiff from mid Wales gave us the chance to test how ‘real-world’ the Surf’s range really is, and on a wide mix of roads it came much closer to the quoted WLTP figure of 193 miles than one would expect.
We would have liked to have had more opportunity to play with brake regeneration rates – a feature particularly useful on city cars which on a typical journey do lots of slowing down and speeding up. There are no paddles or buttons to adjust the rate, just two levels on the touchscreen and the most severe not that heavily retardant – you will not be one-pedal driving in this car.
When it comes to charging, downtime again varies according to model. The Active can make use of DC charging rates of 65kW while the Boost and Comfort up this to 85kW, translating to replenishment from 10% to 80% in 30 minutes. Three-phase 11kW AC charging is standard across the range, allowing a complete charge from flat to full in 3.5 hours on the Active and five hours with the Boost and Comfort.
Overall, the gripes with the Dolphin Surf are small and easily outdone by what you get for the money with this car. BYD has firmly stated its intention to become Britain’s best-selling car brand by 2030 – a very bold aim, but judging by the product heading our way typified by the Dolphin Surf, it’s an aim that cannot be dismissed…
Business Motoring Test Drives are the initial test of a new vehicle, of usually between 50 and 100 miles. Business Motoring Reviews are usually conducted over a full week, completing several hundred miles.
