BYD Dolphin vs Volkswagen Golf

What's the difference?

Chinese manufacturers have been impressing us lately with the strides they’ve been making, and BYD is no exception with its Dolphin.

Not only does this hatch help bring the price down for prospective EV buyers, but it leaves a solid impression of a cohesive, well-built car, which is also quite a bit of fun to drive.

It’s not the fastest, nor is it the most practical, and there are a handful of downsides to its design and software, but when it comes down to it, this is simply a great value entry-level electric car.

While some Golf enthusiasts will prefer the lighter, more nimble, front-wheel drive GTI, this Golf R is now an even more serious machine. 

It’s a great touring car, super-sharp in the corners and good value in the context of its competitive set. Cars like Toyota’s GR Corolla and Honda’s Civic Type-R are on notice.

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

You wouldn’t know it in Australia, but BYD has a huge and diverse range of vehicles with lots of different styling approaches in its home market of China.

The cars we get here, though, consisting of this Dolphin hatch, the Atto 3 small SUV, and the upcoming Seal sedan all seem to share more or less the same curvy, futuristic theme.

Contemporary touches on the exterior of the Dolphin include the bar light and full ‘Build Your Dreams’ typeface embedded in the rear, the blocky gloss black alloy wheels (17-inch on the Premium we tested), the two-tone colour scheme, and of course, the grille-free face.

Short overhangs and a tall body seal the EV deal, with the Dolphin looking closest in its aesthetic to something like the Volkswagen ID.3 than anything else on the market. It perhaps won’t be for everyone - it’s a little more experimental than the more conventional look worn by the MG4 - but then, for others this distinctiveness may be a selling point.

The interior look and feel is the biggest surprise. Somehow, the Dolphin, despite being more affordable than its larger Atto 3 sibling, feels a cut above when it comes to its design theme and build quality.

The weirdly organic touches designed to mimic muscle fibres in the Atto 3 have been traded out in favour of something a bit slicker.

I really like the material choices here. The use of neoprene across the lower half of the dash, in the doors, and down the centre of the seats feels a lot less pretentious than the standard synthetic leathers you usually get at this price-point, and there’s an agreeable mix of plastics as well as gloss and matt finishes. 

The nods to this car’s name which are present are a bit more toned down and fit with the design in a more subtle way.

The floating door handles, designed to resemble a fin, are a much nicer piece than the weird rotary ones in the Atto 3, and the wavy touches across the top of the dash aren’t too in-your-face and add an element of intrigue. I like it much more than I expected to.

It’s clear this space is designed around the giant multimedia panel, for better or worse. It looks spectacular, it’s nice and sharp, and the software, which looks as though it’s trying to emulate Tesla, does a pretty good job.

It’s quick, sharp, colourful, and has nice large iconography to jab at while you’re on the move, although some of the driving settings are ambiguously labelled and require clicking through to a sub-menu to alter. You’d get used to it, but it isn’t as slick as a Tesla operating system.

It also rotates, because of course it does, although one quirk I found with this is the polarised coating on the screen made it impossible to see when in portrait mode if you were also wearing polarised sunglasses.

Also, Apple CarPlay doesn't work in portrait mode. A gimmick? You decide.

The floating physical rotary controls jutting out below are a also a brilliant little piece of design. On one side you have your gear shifter, and on the other you’ve got your volume control, between them there are core functions, an on/off switch and an auto button for the climate, as well as the hazard light and drive mode controls.

It would be nice to also have a fan speed and temperature toggle, as these functions can only be used through the touchscreen, but there are worse offenders for clumsy climate controls on the market.

In terms of exterior design, at the front there’s a relatively mild cosmetic makeover with some changes to the headlights and the bumper as well as a horizontal line across the grille, which, along with the VW roundel, is illuminated.

From the side the ride height is 20mm lower, and cosmetically there are matt silver housings on the exterior mirrors, blue calipers behind new design 19-inch rims and in the centre of the wheel there’s an R logo rather than the traditional VW branding.

At the back, you’ve got new customisable LED tail-light clusters with welcome and goodbye effects, which can be programmed via the vehicle settings in the multimedia system, as well as a larger spoiler at the back of the roof on top of the tailgate.

Inside, the ‘big’ change is an appreciably larger central multimedia screen running new program software. It has physical touch bars along its lower edge for audio volume and climate control adjustment.

The driver’s display now includes a G-meter and GPS lap timing. The steering wheel has its own look and feel and the sports seats feature integrated headrests. There are alloy covers on the pedals and ‘Carbon Grey’ decorative inlays around the dash and doors.

It’s a classically restrained and subtly sporty design treatment inside and out.

The clever design bits don’t end with the controls and themed motifs, either. While the Dolphin’s cabin feels a bit smaller than many of its rivals (because, physically, it is), efforts have been made to make it a versatile space. 

There are plenty of little storage areas throughout. There’s the floating one below the touchscreen, which suits wallets and sunglasses. There’s one with a roll-out cover set low below the controls which is good for smaller objects you don’t want moving around the cabin.

A large cubby is located underneath the armrest between the two seats for bigger objects and a slick wireless phone charger cut out from the top.

The two centre bottle holders are a little small, as are the cut-outs in the doors, so if you’re negotiating with an XL takeaway soft drink you might run into trouble.

The dark theme for the interior in our car doesn’t help the more closed-in feel, but the standard panoramic fixed sunroof (mercifully with a rolling shade) helps to keep the space airy.

I found it easy to set up my driving position, another clever touch being the little digital instrument panel perched on the steering column, so no matter how you adjust it you can always see it.

I was a little concerned the rear seat would be tiny, because this car doesn’t look big from the outside, but I was most definitely wrong.

Behind my own seating position, at 182cm tall, I had leagues of knee room and plenty of space for my feet thanks to the flat floor. I also had sufficient but not stellar headroom, and the soft-touch materials continue into the doors and seat trim.

I will say, the abundance of synthetic leather is much more evident for rear passengers, but it feels like a minor complaint.

Again, the bottle holders in the doors are tiny, but at least the ones in the drop-down armrest are generous. The middle seat is very useful thanks to the flat floor, although there are no adjustable air vents for rear passengers.

The backs of the front seats have a variety of pockets in different shapes and sizes, and there are USB-C and USB-A ports on the back of the centre console, alongside a bizarre centre bottle holder which is on an angle.

Boot space is 345 litres if you move the false floor to its lowest position. I was just able to squeeze in the three-piece CarsGuide luggage set with a bit of fiddling around.

With the second row down, room expands to 1310L, and you can bring the false floor up in the boot to make the load area flat.

The space underneath is quite good for storing charging cables and such, but keep in mind the Dolphin doesn’t offer additional frunk storage.

What it does offer is a vehicle-to-load adapter, which lets you power household appliances via its external charging port. Neat, and rare at this end of the EV market.

For reference, the Golf R is just under 4.3m long, close to 1.8m wide and a bit less than 1.5m tall with a 2630mm wheelbase. Right in the middle of the medium hatch footprint.

In the front there’s plenty of breathing room for the driver and co-pilot. And in terms of practicality, you’ve got big bins in the doors with room for large bottles. There’s also a box between the seats with a lid that doubles as an armrest, which also adjusts for height and length, which is nice.

If you need more, there are two cupholders in the centre console, one of which is adjustable for smaller cups, plus a long oddments tray as well as a more powerful ventilated wireless device charging tray at the front end of the console.

There’s also a decent glove box and two USB-C ports for power and connectivity.

In the back, sitting behind the driver’s seat set for my 183cm position, I have ample headroom, legroom and more than enough foot room.

That said, three abreast for full-size adults would be very squeezy. Even a trio of middle teenagers might find it a bit tight. Best as a two-seater in the rear.

Then for storage, you’ve got big bins with room for bottles. Fold down the armrest and you’ve got not one, not two, but three different size cupholders in it.

There’s a nifty double pocket set-up on the front seatbacks, each just right for a phone or hand-held game console, as well as a more conventional map pocket lower down.

There are individual ventilation outlets as well as climate control for the rear section, plus two USB-C outlets.

With the 60/40 split-folding rear seat upright the 8.5 Golf R boasts 341 litres (VDA) of boot volume, which is decent, and that number expands to nearly 1197 litres with the seat down. 

There’s a load-through hatch, tie-down anchors, a 12-volt outlet, multiple bag hooks, specific lighting and storage compartments to the side.

No spare of any description, however, with a repair/inflator kit your only option.

The new Golf R is priced at $70,990, before on-road costs, which is a $500 bump from the version it supersedes. A new limited run Black Edition model, the details of which we’ll get to shortly, weighs in at $72,490.

At that money the Golf R lines up against a diverse group of properly hot hatches like the related Audi S3 ($78,800), Honda Civic Type R ($74,100), Lexus LBX Morizo RR ($76,490), Mini JCW ($56,990) and the Toyota GR Corolla ($70,490). Even higher-priced outliers like the BMW M135 xDrive ($83,600) and Mercedes-AMG A35 4Matic ($87,900).

So, the heat is on, and at 70-odd kay it’s fair to expect a decent basket of standard fruit. Aside from the performance and safety tech covered later the Golf R features list includes auto LED matrix headlights, LED tail-lights, Nappa leather-appointed trim, a leather-trimmed steering wheel, heated and ventilated front seats, three-zone climate control, 14-way electric driver’s seat (with memory), 480W nine-speaker Harman Kardon audio (including digital radio), a 12.9-inch multimedia screen (with built-in nav) and a 10.2-inch digital instrument display.

There’s also keyless entry and start, 30-colour ambient lighting, adaptive cruise, a head-up display, wireless Android Auto and Apple CarPlay, auto rain-sensing wipers, surround lighting, a (more powerful) ventilated wireless charging pad, a 360-degree overhead view, ‘Park Assist Plus’, metallic paint, fog lights and 19-inch alloy rims.

Not bad at all in the context of this category.

VW Australia has also announced an optional ‘Warmenau Package’ for the standard R - named after the location of the R division’s headquarters in Wolfsburg - for $6500 bundling up 19-inch forged alloy wheels (developed in-house by Volkswagen R, reducing the weight of each wheel by 8.0kg or 20 per cent), carbon interior trim elements and an ‘R-Performance’ titanium exhaust system from Akrapovič.

Limited to 300 examples, the Black Edition features dark accents throughout, including the wheels, badges, mirror housings, brake calipers and tailpipes, as well as darkened headlights and the lighter 19-inch forged alloys. It’s available in all three Golf R colours - ‘Pure White’, ‘Grenadill Black’ and ’Lapiz Blue’.

There’s the choice of two powertrains for the Dolphin. Both are single-motor front-wheel drive set-ups.

The base Dynamic can make use of 70kW/180Nm which sounds underpowered to me, but the car we tested for this launch review was the Premium which offers a much healthier 150kW/310Nm.

As well as the increase to battery capacity the Premium upgrades the suspension to a rear multi-link set-up.

While the base car seems like such a value buy, the increase in power, ride quality, and range seems to justify stretching to the Premium if your budget allows.

This updated Golf R is powered by a 2.0-litre, four-cylinder turbo-petrol engine VW enthusiasts around the world know by its ‘EA888’ code name.

In this guise it now produces close to 245kW (+10kW) and 420Nm (+20Nm) with the maximum available across a broad plateau from 2100 to 5500rpm.

The 2.0L EA888 features a cast iron block and alloy head, with direct-injection, water-cooled exhaust gas routing to the turbo (in the cylinder head) and variable valve timing with double camshaft control.

Power goes to all four wheels via a seven-speed dual-clutch auto transmission and an all-wheel-drive system using a twin-clutch pack to manage front-to-rear drive distribution as well as torque across the rear axle.

As previously mentioned, each variant also gets its own battery capacity. The entry-level Dynamic offers a 44.9kWh battery and 340km of driving range, while the top-spec car offers a 60.5kWh unit with a driving range of 427km.

Charging on a fast DC unit maxes out on 60kW for the Dynamic or 80kW for the Premium.

This sounds slow, with many rivals offering in excess of 100kW charging at a minimum, but because the Dolphin’s battery sizes are so trim, it still means an 80 per cent charge will arrive in a little over half an hour.

On the slower AC charging standard, the max speed is a disappointing 7.0kW. For a fully electric car, we prefer to see at least 11kW as it makes it worthwhile to plug-in to an AC unit at a shopping centre to add roughly 70 - 100km of range an hour.

Because the Dophin is also quite efficient, though, you can still expect about 50km an hour to be added on this charging standard.

Official energy consumption for the Premium as-tested is 14.2kWh/100km, and we saw an impressive 14.1kWh/100km on our brief test program, making it one of the more efficient EVs I’ve ever driven.

VW is proud to point out that thanks to an electronic coolant regulator unit, the Golf R’s 2.0L engine “features very efficient thermal management with a short warm-up phase” which it says reduces friction losses for better fuel consumption.

Its official combined cycle (urban/extra-urban) fuel economy figure is 8.3L/100km, which isn’t out of order for a hot rod hatch with this much performance potential.

Over the course of a 200km-plus road drive on the launch program, covering mainly twisting B-road and highway sections, we saw a dash-indicated average of 9.9L/100km.

With a 55-litre tank those figures translate to a theoretical range of around 660km, and a real-world number closer to 550km between fills.

The Dolphin is immediately impressive. From the get-go I was greeted with a feeling of quality from the car in ways I didn’t expect. The steering feels nicely balanced and not too artificial like it can be on some EVs, while the interior is refreshingly ergonomic.

The ride might be the Dolphin’s most impressive trait, with a feeling of balance across both axles, and a spritely feel to the whole car.

It is trim for an EV, with a kerb weight of 1658kg, which no doubt helps the steering feel, and the efficiency.

As it is, I didn’t experience the kind of crashing and wallowing many EVs suffer from on larger bumps, and smaller bumps seemed to be filtered out with ease.

It even feels nicely balanced in the corners, pairing nicely with the great steering feel which is not something we’ve come to expect from Chinese cars.

The motor is also willing, with software tuning keeping power delivery on the right side of overwhelming, although the warm-hatch equivalent's seven second 0-100km/h sprint time is a hint at what it’s capable of.

Unfortunately, it is let down by a pretty sub-standard factory tyre package. The LingLong Comfort Masters are designed for the Dolphin, complete with little Dolphin markings on them, but are hardly inspiring for traction when you plant the accelerator or tip it into a corner with enthusiasm.

They are better than the pretty much no-name Atlas Batman A51 tyres which came on the Atto 3, but even MG has wised up to putting tyres from renowned manufacturers on its Australian-delivered cars.

The Dolphin is also easy to park, thanks to its excellent surround camera suite and tight footprint, but visibility out of the tiny rear window is limited and made worse by the huge headrests for the outboard back seats.

In terms of electric driving characteristics the Dolphin offers two levels of regen braking, one which is virtually non-existent, and another mild tune.

Surprisingly, there’s no single-pedal mode, and the Dolphin leans on blended braking more than some of its rivals. It feels a lot more traditional to drive in this sense, so may be well suited to someone hopping out of a combustion car.

The drive modes are quite dramatic, with 'Eco' mode limiting motor torque and even switching off the climate control, while 'Sport' will make bouts of wheelspin a bit too easy by upping the response time from the motor. I found it best to stick to the nicely-balanced 'Normal' setting.

Tl;dr? The Dolphin is impressive. It’s responsive, relatively light, and has a sense of quality to it through its great ride and decent handling. Not bad for the cheapest EV in Australia.

The Golf R weighs in at 1517kg and Volkswagen says it will accelerate from 0-100km/h in 4.6sec, which is quick, and the car’s broad torque band makes it super-usable. The maximum 420Nm is available from 2100rpm all the way to 5500rpm. 

A blue ‘R’ button on the steering wheel is your short-cut access point to various modes - ‘Eco’, ‘Comfort’, ‘Sport’, ‘Sport+’ and ‘Race’ - and in the racier settings what VW calls ‘Turbo Pre-load’ steps in. More or less an anti-lag set-up for smoother power delivery.

Even from low revs in a (manually-selected) high gear, squeeze the throttle and it quickly builds up a head of steam. Power delivery is impressively linear.

The transmission is super slick and manual shifts are rapid. Refreshingly, manual mode is exactly what it says on the tin. Select a gear with the wheel-mounted paddles and it will stay in that ratio until the rev limiter makes its stuttering presence felt.

And if you’re going into a corner under brakes just keep the left-hand paddle pulled in and the transmission will automatically cycle down to the lowest ratio available, which is handy if you’ve really got the bit between your teeth.

Even with the standard exhaust, once you’ve dialled up the sporty modes, you get that snap, crackle and pop on full-bore upshifts and on the over-run, which also enhances the experience.

Suspension is by struts at the front and multi-links at the rear, and the ‘Adaptive Chassis Control’ system monitors acceleration, braking and steering to fine-tune the set-up.

We drove on some rough B-road sections, in the wet, and the R remained surprisingly refined. Given how hard it grips and how much it communicates back through the seat of the pants it is a comfortable touring car. It’s like a GT in hatch form, eating up the kilometres without fuss or putting too much stress on the driver.

Worth noting we spent much of our time in ‘Nürburgring’ mode, accessed through the Race menu, which, no surprise, was developed on the famous Nordschleife. It’s tuned to optimise dynamic performance on undulating patchy surfaces and is a superb set-up sweet spot for the road and track.

Progressive ratio steering delivers good road feel without too many jitters coming up to your hands. And turn-in is precise without being jagged. Just point the car and it goes exactly where you want it to.

The drive system splits torque between the front and rear axles and across the rear. If, for example, it senses the car wants to turn more but might push into understeer, it calmly manages drive distribution to keep everything under control.

Tyres are Bridgestone Potenza S005 (235/35) and over even coarse chip surfaces they remain quiet and grip with admirable determination.

Braking is by ventilated discs all around and on twisting backroads we occasionally leant on them hard and they were well up to the task. A firm pedal with progressive application when getting on or easing off the brakes. 

They even stood up to a race circuit pressure test without raising a sweat, because day two of the launch included a track session at Sydney Motorsport Park. And we can confirm the car is properly fast, balanced and predictable in that environment. 

SMP’s dipping, then uphill, off-camber right-hand turn four highlighted the R’s grip and the sophistication of its torque vectoring set-up. We also went sliding on the skid pan in the car’s Drift mode, which biases the rear axle, and is huge fun.  

In terms of lower speed manoeuvring, you’ve got a 12-metre turning circle, which isn’t vast but isn’t tiny, so be ready for that.  

You’ve also got a 360-degree overhead view, which is very handy in tight spots. And if you want some extra support, ‘Park Assist Plus’ will help you slot the car into the space you’re aiming for.

Under the heading of miscellaneous observations, the sports front seats deliver solid lateral support yet remain comfortable over long periods behind the wheel.

Speaking of the wheel, it’s just the right thickness, with perforated leather at the quarter-to-three positions helping with that lovely connection to the front tyres.

As well, from an ergonomic point-of-view, working through the central multimedia screen and driver’s display is straight-forward, with the latter able to be configured via the steering wheel. 

The current Golf range picked up a maximum five-star ANCAP assessment in 2022 and VW’s ‘IQ Drive’ driver assistance tech package includes highway speed auto emergency braking (AEB) with cyclist and pedestrian detection as well as junction assist, adaptive cruise control (with stop and go), intersection assist auto-braking, low-speed manoeuvre braking, lane keeping assist, lane-departure warning, blind-spot monitoring, rear cross-traffic alert, driver fatigue monitoring and tyre pressure monitoring,  

The airbag count runs to nine - dual front, front and rear side, side curtain and a front centre bag. Then multi-collision brake minimises the chances of subsequent impacts after an initial crash. And as the name implies ‘Emergency Assist’ will take control to slow the car if the driver becomes unresponsive.

There are three top tethers for child seats across the second row, with ISOFIX anchors on the two outer positions. 

The Dolphin is covered by a six-year or 150,000km warranty, which beats a lot of mainstream rivals for its duration, but not its distance.

In the EV segment it plays in, though, things are a bit tougher, as its primary Chinese rivals, GWM and MG, are offering seven year and unlimited kilometre warranty promises.

Service pricing is available all the way out to 96 months or 160,000km, averaging $299 per year for the duration, which is pretty good.

Many rivals are offering free servicing for several years, and there are also many electric cars which only need to see a shop once every 24 months or 20,000km, compared to the Dolphin’s more traditional 12 month intervals.

The Golf R is covered by Volkswagen Australia’s five-year/unlimited km warranty, which is a match for most mainstream brands, although an increasing number are nudging up to seven and even 10 years.

There’s also a 12-year corrosion perforation warranty, which is a plus, and the recommended maintenance interval is 12 months/15,000km with ‘Assured Service’ pricing averaging $840 per workshop visit over the first five years.

Three- or five-year pre-paid ‘Care Plans’ reduce that number, with the latter working out to an average of $658 per service. Far from over the top for a performance hatch like this one.