BYD Atto 1 Essential Review: Australia’s Cheapest New Car Tested

$19,990 drive away. No new car in Australia costs less, petrol, hybrid, diesel or electric.

The BYD Atto 1 Essential is the entry point to the Atto 1 range and, at its current drive-away offer, the cheapest new passenger car on sale in the country. My Premium review a few weeks back copped a fair bit of heat in the comments for wearing that “cheapest car” title. Fair call. This is the car that actually earns it.

Thanks to the team at BYD Frankston, a brand new dealership on the Peninsula, I got the keys to their Essential test drive car. The question was simple: what do you actually give up for the cheaper grade?

The answer is less than you’d think.

Size and dimensions

The Atto 1 Essential measures 3,990 mm long, 1,720 mm wide and 1,590 mm tall on a 2,500 mm wheelbase. That puts it at the same height as a Geely EX2, but slightly shorter and narrower.

It rides on 15-inch steel wheels under plastic hubcaps, wrapped in 175/65R15 Hankook iON tyres. Suspension is MacPherson struts up front and a torsion beam at the rear, with 150 mm of ground clearance. There’s no tow rating.

Pricing and warranty

The Essential lists at $23,990 before on-road costs, but BYD’s current offer sits at $19,990 drive away. The car I drove wore Pine Lime premium paint, a $500 option.

Variant	Essential	Premium
Price	$23,990 + ORC ($19,990 drive away offer)	$27,990 + ORC
Battery	30 kWh Blade (LFP)	43.2 kWh Blade (LFP)
Power / Torque	65 kW / 175 Nm	115 kW / 220 Nm
0-100km/h	11.1 s	9.1 s
Range (WLTP)	220 km	310 km
DC Charging	65 kW	85 kW
AC Charging	11 kW	11 kW

Warranty is BYD’s standard six years or 150,000 km on the vehicle, plus eight years or 160,000 km on the high-voltage battery.

Powertrain

Lift the bonnet and there’s no frunk, though there looks to be room for an aftermarket tray. A single 65 kW, 175 Nm motor drives the front wheels and gets the Essential from 0 to 100 km/h in 11.1 seconds.

Power comes from a 30 kWh BYD Blade Battery good for 220 km on the WLTP cycle. Charging tops out at 11 kW on three-phase AC and 65 kW DC. The battery sat around 95 per cent for the whole loan, so a DC charge test will have to wait.

V2L survives the cost cutting too, with 3.3 kW of discharge from the charge port. On a $20,000 car, that’s a genuine bonus.

Interior

Step inside and there’s no cloth in sight. The Essential gets the same synthetic leather seats as the Premium, the same digital driver’s display, the same steering wheel controls and the same wave-pattern dash trim flowing into soft grey microfibre on the doors. For the cheapest car in Australia, the cabin looks properly sharp.

The central touchscreen runs Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, and that covers most of what owners will want. It’s sized right for the car and stays out of your sightline. The indicator stalk sits on the right, as it should.

Physical controls handle the drive selector, drive modes, climate and volume. The air conditioning has copped criticism online. On a warm, sunny day it ran ice cold on a low fan setting, so I’d call that complaint overblown.

The cost savings show up in a few places. There’s no wireless charger, no centre console bin and only a reversing camera instead of a 360 view, though the camera is crisp and rear parking sensors are standard. Below the dash you get USB-C, USB-A and a 12 V socket.

The front seats are fully manual, a first for any car I’ve reviewed on this channel. It’s quick and precise, and honestly I prefer it to waiting on electric motors. Heated seats are gone, which is the biggest comfort loss over the Premium.

Back seat and boot

The rear is a two-seat affair, making the Atto 1 a four-seater. Both outboard positions get ISOFIX and top tethers. At 178 cm, I had three to four fingers of headroom, decent toe room and no complaints about comfort for a car this size.

There are no rear vents, USB ports or reading lights. The windows drop about 95 per cent of the way, with one-touch down only.

The manual tailgate opens to 308 L of boot space, growing to 1,037 L with the rear seats folded. There are tie-down points and an underfloor compartment for the charge cables. For a $20,000 city car, that’s more than enough.

On the road

From behind the wheel, the Essential feels almost identical to the Premium. The lower power only shows when you need a quick burst, like nosing out of a side street onto the Nepean Highway. In 40, 50 and 60 km/h zones, which is where this car lives, you won’t notice a difference.

Throttle response is smooth, steering is light and the turning circle is tight. It won’t win a drag race, but it gets to 60 km/h without fuss. Cabin noise was remarkably low, even with a crosswind coming off the bay.

Every active safety feature from the Premium carries over, including intelligent cruise control, driver attention monitoring and speed sign recognition. The Atto 1 holds a five-star ANCAP rating. The Blade Battery’s structural pack design forms a rigid floor that helps resist side intrusion, a big part of why this small car crash-tests so well.

Running costs

Plug in overnight on one of the EV tariffs offered by most major retailers and you’re paying around 5 cents per kWh. At that rate, 500 km a week costs a few dollars in electricity. For commuting, uni runs and shopping trips, no other new car gets close.

Verdict

The Atto 1 Essential is the one to buy. It keeps the Premium’s cabin, screen, safety kit and refinement, and drops a handful of comforts most buyers won’t miss. The Premium’s extra power and 90 km of range matter for highway commuters, but for city drivers the price gap is hard to justify.

At $19,990 drive away, the Essential resets what a new car in Australia should cost. Expect rivals to start feeling that pressure very soon.