BYD Dolphin vs Hyundai Ioniq

What's the difference?

It’s about time for a change. Since the beginning of the EV era, Tesla has been the dominant name, and not without good reason.

Tesla made electric cars popular, cool, and above all, accessible. To this day, the Model 3 and Model Y remain excellent purchases in their respective categories.

And yet, the tide seems to be turning. Many buyers haven't been thrilled by Elon Musk's antics, how popular the Tesla brand has become or maybe they never liked the look and feel of Tesla to begin with.

For those prospective EV buyers, it looks like BYD is set to be the next big thing in electric cars.

Offered at a far more accessible price-point, the Chinese brand still stands out with its distinctively styled vehicles and innovative features.

And the new car we’re looking at for this review, the Dolphin hatchback, could be the one to elevate the brand to the levels of popularity and recognition Tesla currently enjoys.

At the time of writing, it was also the most affordable electric car you can buy in Australia. But is it more than that? Read on to find out.

Hyundai's Ioniq range is nothing if not a flex in the face of Toyota.

Sure, Toyota has a dominating position in the Australian market, with its well-received range of hybrid models, but what happens after hybrid? Hyundai takes on the blocky Prius formula with not only a directly competing hybrid model, but a plug-in and a fully electric version, too.

This expansive range is as though Hyundai is trying to demonstrate it's ready for any future, near or far, and guess what, Toyota? Anything you can do; the Korean juggernaut thinks it can do better.

These cars aren't really designed to sell so much as they are offerings for early adopters, but a few years after its launch, with a host of rivals set to take it on, and an entire sub-brand based on the Ioniq just around the corner, is Hyundai's top-spec Ioniq electric  worth a look? I took one for a week to find out.