Audi R8 vs BYD Atto 2

What's the difference?

The Audi R8 V10 RWD and V10 Performance Quattro have their own personalities. I'm a big fan of the lower-powered rear-wheel drive car, but the Performance is the ultimate here with better brakes and that 330km/h top speed. Either way the R8 is a true supercar, but one that doesn't have to be driven gingerly as though something may break off.

The BYD Atto 2 isn't just the cheapest electric SUV in Australia, it's also one that doesn't feel all that cheap, which is a hell of a magic trick. If it's easy, comfortable city motoring you're after, the Atto 2 delivers in spades. But if your blood type is high octane, there are better driving EVs out there.

Note: CarsGuide attended this event as a guest of the manufacturer, with meals provided.

Note: The author, Andrew Chesterton, is a co-owner of Smart As Media, a content agency and media distribution service with a number automotive brands among its clients. When producing content for CarsGuide, he does so in accordance with the CarsGuide Editorial Guidelines and Code of Ethics, and the views and opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author.

Lamborghini styling can look over the top, McLarens can sometimes appear delicate and fragile, and Ferraris seem to be everywhere, and even for me, begin to blend into one.

The R8, though, looks exactly how an Audi supercar should look – understated, tough and serious. Have you seen that Audi advert with the R8 on a dyno not wearing any pants? That sounds ridiculous but Google it because it sums up what the R8 is – a real car with a raw race car underneath, that's meant to be driven comfortably on the road and hard on a race track and the styling indicates that intent with little in the way of fanfare.

Well, there is that big window at the back which shows off the engine and the 'side blades' that surround the large vents carved into the side of the car to cool the engine.

The latest update has taken the design from the second-gen car which arrived in 2016 and added a new grille, front bumper, door sills and vents in the rear bumper. It's a more angular, sharper, and busier design with more vents and winglets than ever.

The R8 V10 RWD and R8 V10 Performance are close to identical in their styling. You can pick the Performance by its gloss carbon front spoiler, side sills, mirror caps and rear diffuser. The RWD has gloss black elements instead.

Which looks best: the Coupe or Spyder? That's a personal thing, but I reckon race cars need to have a hardtop roof, so it's the coupe for me, please.

Built using the 'Audi Space Frame' which weighs only 200kg, the R8 is 4426mm long and just 1240mm tall, but at 1940mm across it has a wide, planted stance.

I think it’s a sharp-looking thing, this Atto 2. Kudos to BYD for not making the design look like it’s trying too hard, or like the Atto 2 is something it isn’t. It’s just smooth, sensible small SUV with styling that looks like it will age gracefully.

I like the chunky black moulding which makes it look a bit tougher than it is, plus the LED DRLs and swept back (and spoiler-equipped) roofline add a bit of visual drama.

Inside, BYD has made two pretty good choices. The first is that the cabin feels toned down from the one in the Atto 3 (which is all chunky wheel-style controls and vents). 

This one feels far more sedate and conventional in its design, which I think is a win.

The other good decision is to equip the Atto 2 with soft plastics, rather than hard scratchy ones, in places like the door panels. In some cheaper cars, you feel your elbows constantly rubbing against cheap-feeling plastics, but that’s not the case here.

Too much stuff is still controlled through that central screen, and BYD has an awkward way of shortcutting functions. They call it a three-finger swipe, meaning that if you run three fingers across the screen horizontally you can adjust the climate-control’s fan speed, while swiping horizontally adjusts temp, but it feels like a weird movement.

The R8 is a two-seater supercar and practicality isn't high on its 'to do' list with limited cabin storage in the form door pockets almost as small as my jeans pockets, two cupholders hiding under a trapdoor in the centre armrest, a hidey hole in front of the shifter containing a wireless charger and two USB ports and the glove box.

As for the boot – there are two: one in the nose with a 112-litre cargo capacity and another behind the mid-mounted engine with 226 litres.

Room for people, well you and a friend, is excellent. I'm 191cm (6'3") tall with a 2.0m wingspan and found the footwell deep and spacious, while head and shoulder room is also good.

The Atto 2 measures 4310mm in length, 1830mm in width and 1675mm in height and it rides on a 2620mm wheelbase. It also sits on BYD’s fully-flat EV platform, which helps to maximise space in the back seat.

I’m 175cm tall and could get comfortable behind my own driving position, with enough knee and headroom to ensure I didn’t feel cramped.

There are two ISOFIX attachment points, one in each window seat in the back as well as USB-A and -C connection points.

Boot space is a not cavernous, but also not tiny, 380L with the rear seats in place, growing to 1320L with the rear pews folded flat. Both models also offer a V2L (Vehicle to Load) connection, too, so you can power up household devices.

This thing really is cheap. The BYD Atto 2 arrives with a two-model range kicking off with the Dynamic, at $31,990, before on-road costs, before stepping up to the Premium at $35,990 BOC. They both get the same motor and battery, by the way, so the extra money comes down to extra kit.

The Dynamic rides on 16-inch alloys wrapped in cheaper Westlake rubber, scores LED headlights and DRLs and gets rain-sensing wipers and heated wing mirrors. Inside, there’s a 10.1-inch central touchscreen, an 8.8-inch driver display, synthetic leather seats with manual adjustment up front and wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto linked to a four-speaker stereo.

The Premium rides on 17-inch alloys wearing better Hankook rubber, and there’s a panoramic glass roof with a shade and roof racks. Inside, the central screen grows to 12.8 inches, and there’s an eight-speaker stereo and a wireless charge pad. Your seats are now electronically adjusted and heated and cooled. Plus there’s some extra safety stuff, but we’ll cover that off in a second.

There are two grades in the Audi R8 range – the entry-point R8 V10 RWD which has rear-wheel drive (RWD), and the R8 V10 Performance Quattro which has all-wheel drive (AWD).

Both obviously have V10 engines, it's a naturally aspirated 5.2-litre petrol unit (so no turbos here), but the RWD makes less power and torque at 397kW and 540Nm, while the Performance produces 449kW and 560Nm.

The V10 is mounted behind the driver's seat but ahead of the rear axle making it mid-engined car. The engine even has its own window and you can see it in there with its face pressed up against the glass.

There are two body styles as well – the Coupe and Spyder (convertible, roadster, just another word for a retractable soft roof). We'll get to the prices in the next section, but let's talk about the more interesting numbers such as top speeds.

The V10 RWD in coupe form can reach 324km/h and the Spyder can hit 322km/h while the V10 Performance Coupe and Spyder are both a smidge quicker at 330km/h.

Those are all go-straight-to-jail speeds in Australia, so if you're tempted to fact check my numbers then do it on a racetrack. Audi holds excellent track days – I've done them and you'll not only get to drive the R8 as fast as you can, the instructors will help you improve your advanced driving skills, too. Do it, it could save your life.

Acceleration from 0-100km/h is rapid – 3.7 seconds and 3.8 seconds for the V10 RWD Coupe and Spyder respectively, while the V10 Performance Coupe and Spyder can nail it in 3.2 seconds and 3.3 seconds.

The V10 engine has a cylinder-on-demand feature which can shut down five of the cylinders while cruising on a motorway, say at 110km/h. It's a fuel-saving system, but keep in mind this V10 loves petrol and lots of it – I've hidden that all the way down the bottom of this review.

Shifting gears in all R8s is a seven-speed dual-clutch automatic transmission.

Both Atto 2 models share the same powertrain - a front-mounted electric motor producing 130kW/290Nm which is sent to the front tyres. It feels fairly sedate, even under flat-footed acceleration, though BYD reckons you can knock off the sprint to 100km/h in 7.9 seconds.

That's like asking how many calories are in this pavlova that I'm about to push into my mouth? Seriously if you're asking then you shouldn't be eating it – or driving the R8.

But just for the record, according to Audi the RWD R8 uses 12.0L/100km in Coupe form and 12.2L/100km in Spyder guise after a combination of urban and open roads, while the AWD R8 of course will use more at 13.4L/100km for both Coupe and Spyder.

Both models also share the same battery, a 51.1kWh LFP unit, which should unlock a WLTP driving range of 345km. AC charging is pegged at 7.0kW, so a good match for a standard home wallbox, while DC fast charging is 82kW. Using the latter, BYD says you should go from 10 to 80 per cent charged in 38 minutes.

A race circuit is the best place to test the performance of an Audi R8. I've been lucky enough to have done this in the past, but for this update of the R8 the Australian launch was held on public roads and included a convoy of RS models such as the RS 6 Avant, RS 7, RS Q3 and TT RS.

Even then I think I was 'stitched up' because I began the day in the R8 V10 Performance Coupe but spent almost the entirety of my allocated time in roadworks at 40km/h before swapping to an RS Q3.

So, while I can't honesty comment about the dynamics on this updated R8 V10 Performance Coupe I can tell you that having driven every iteration of the R8 since 2012 that it's a weapon, with helicopter-like visibility out of that large front window.

If, like me, you think turbos are 'cheating' (superchargers are fine), then you'll love the linear power delivery of the R8's naturally aspirated V10, and while I love front-engined sportscars, nothing beats a mid-engined car for the feeling of balance and lightness in the nose while having the sound of thousands of explosions going off just behind your back.

Having AWD is not just great for acceleration and perfect traction from Audi's quattro system, I think it's a good safety feature in a supercar, and while only your judgements can stop things going pear shaped, the system will be there to help on slippery roads.

The following day was different. I was in the R8 V10 RWD, the country roads were superb and while it wasn't a racetrack it was enough to get a hint of the capabilities of the RWD R8.

While the R8 V10 RWD feels the same to sit in with the same great view, it feels different to drive than its faster sibling, in a good way. First there's the noticeable power difference – more than 50kW and 20Nm less – but also the lack of AWD makes the front end feel more pointable, and the car feel more like a traditional sportscar that pushes from behind rather than pulling from the front. Less power, but more fun.

The RS cars in our test convoy were all awesome machines, but stepping out of even the RS6 Avant and slipping down into the R8 cockpit was like getting into a UFO – it's so far ahead dynamically of any other Audi that all I could do was laugh like an idiot. Corners which were making an RS 7 really struggle, were handled effortlessly by the R8. And in a straight line it's a bullet in a barrel.

The Performance has the better brakes: 380mm ceramic discs with six piston calipers up front and 356mm discs with four piston calipers at the rear. The RWD has steel discs – 365mm with eight piston calipers up front and 356mm discs with four piston calipers in the rear.

Keep in mind if you are planning on track days, you'll find the ceramic discs costly to replace, and beside the stopping power of the steel ones is excellent.

And yet, on pot holed course bitumen the ride is a lot more comfortable than you might think and having driven the Performance in traffic it's a much nicer place to sit than the claustrophobic cabin of a McLaren 570S. You could honestly use the R8 daily.

Your drive experience in the Atto 2 very much depends on what you ask of it.

Or to put it another way, the first half of my drive route was a breezy run through the city and suburbs, then onto the freeway, before arriving at our destination. 

It was probably 60 kays or so, and across it all the Atto 2 felt quiet and comfortable, with enough power at its disposal to easily get up to speed and stay there. 

In the second half, though, I hunted down some twisting roads and cracks started to appear. The ride is pretty solid and there isn't huge amounts of body roll during more enthusiastic cornering. 

But the steering is vague and there's plenty of slack – you can turn the wheel a fair bit without eliciting much response from the tyres.

Interestingly, turning the wheel with a bit of aggression also produced a weird sound up front, like you could hear the mechanicals shifting the tyres.

The tyres make a difference, too, with the Premium's more expensive Hankook rubber far happier to hang on without squealing than the Dynamic's Westlake tyres. 

But context is key here. The Atto 2 is an accessible, affordable city-focused EV, and it performs those duties admirably. But if you're sold on a car-driver connection, there isn't much of that on offer here.

The Atto 2 is yet to be assessed by ANCAP but there’s no shortage of stuff. The entry-level car gets six airbags, rear parking sensors and all the usual traction tech. Then there’s active cruise, lane departure warning, blind spot monitoring, cross-traffic alert in both directions - the list goes on. In fact, the only things the Premium adds on top are a 360-degree camera and front parking sensors. 

The R8 is covered by Audi's three-year, unlimited kilometre warranty which not only falls behind in duration compared to mainstream brands but also its direct rival Mercedes-Benz which now has five-year, unlimited kilometre coverage.

Service intervals are every 12 months or 15,000km but unlike other Audi models there isn't a three-year or five-year plan available.

BYD’s warranty is an okay six years but just 150,000km, which is underwhelming compared to the best in the business. The battery is covered for eight years or 160,000km.

BYD vehicles typically have 12 month, 20,000km service intervals with capped price servicing, but the details are yet to be confirmed for the Atto 2.