Cheapest car in Australia is electric
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Stopping at Goulburn for lunch, we came across this cute small EV at the Superchargers. The BYD Atto 1 is now the equal cheapest new car in Australia. Not just the cheapest EV – the cheapest of any kind, electric, petrol or diesel, tied only with the petrol MG3. The "Essential" base trim sells for $19,990 drive-away. It has a lot of features for the price, including air con, wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, adaptive cruise control, keyless entry, and vehicle-to-load (so you can run appliances from the car's battery). It's a small car, so it has a small boot (308 litres), but you can of course increase the boot space by folding half or all of the rear seat (up to 1,037 litres).
We asked the driver of this car about it. She described herself as a nonna, on a long drive with her granddaughters. She has had many cars in her lifetime, but she says she likes this one the best.
She has the next trim up from the base trim, the "Premium". That gives her a bigger battery (43 kWh instead of 30 kWh) with 90 km extra range (310 km instead of 220 km), a more powerful motor, faster charging, heated front seats, wireless phone charging and a 360° camera. It sells for $27,990 plus on-road costs, which is about $31,500 drive-away.
We chatted about how it's best to plug in the car to charge while you walk away to do something else, and how it's not worth waiting around for it to charge above 90%. Her granddaughters were disappointed that the car finished charging before they got to go on their promised walk. I apologised that I had taken all of Nonna's time.
We are driving today from Canterbury to Yackandandah. Last night we had dinner with my bestest friend Rachael, grabbing some local Thai. We see her too seldom these days.
Here in Goulburn, we grabbed a couple of pies for lunch from Trappers Bakery, beside a cosy wood fire.
FSD
Full Self-Driving took us from the freeway, out through the exit ramp, over the overpass, into the car park, and reversed into the charging bay perfectly (see photo).
Charging
We left Erina yesterday afternoon with a full tank (from our villa's power point), passing the "Welcome to Sydney" sign on the M1. We didn't see any power point options at Rachael's block of flats in Canterbury. The car used 7% overnight to keep Sentry Mode active and the car fridge cool. So, Goulburn was the first place we'd charged since Erina, which just happened to align with the range of our stomachs for lunch.
We arrived at the Goulburn Supercharger with 18%, and reached 84% in half an hour. The bays were less than half full when we returned, so I guess the warned congestion fee no longer applied. We were ready to go but got distracted yacking with Nonna, while our car reached 99%. Total cost $24.10 ($0.48/kWh).
We didn't think about any of that. We just left Erina with a full tank and stopped here for lunch, plugging in where the car suggested. I joked with Nonna that I'm not one of those people that tracks it all in a spreadsheet, but then she asked me to read her charging post, so she could record it ... in her spreadsheet 😁.
It's school holidays, so the Goulburn Superchargers were fairly busy. I didn't notice anyone needing to queue at the chargers, but there was a bit of a queue at some of the petrol pumps.
Related Posts
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Links
- Lunch, at Trappers Bakery, Goulburn Trappers Bakery Goulburn
- BYD Australia BYD ATTO 1 | All-Electric City Car
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Thing is at 20k the company are making profit not loss no company sell at a loss so that says something, it says EV market is still selling and taking advantage of the situation.
I really hope next year we see a price war, everything I read says more EV companies are looking at coming into Australian market so hopeful prices are better than current.
The atto A1 sadly doesn't suit me being disabled a number of reasons. I need to bigger brother that's 28k at current normally 32k that's 10k out of my price ranges sadly
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I reckon you would save at least 2 hrs of work time. No one ever considers that.
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We road trip more than most. It is still much cheaper and faster to use EV chargers than petrol stations. But it's a different approach. Instead of deliberately going to a fuel station to fill up, we aim to plug in whiner we're stopped for some other reason, like here to get lunch. It's quicker to park, plug in, have lunch, and drive off than it is to stand around waiting to fill with petrol, go to the cashier, then repark to go get lunch.
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You are right that there are more petrol stations than dedicated EV chargers along most routes. But of course we only have to stop at some, not all, and most routes have enough EV chargers for that. In a petrol car, we tend to go "we need petrol, let's stop there and fill up" where standing at the bowser adds at least five minutes. In an EV we tend to go "we need to stop soon (for lunch or amenities), let's stop at the next place that has an EV charger", where standing at the charger adds ten seconds to the trip.
Queues are a pain. In 150,000 km I think we have queued twice for an EV charger. They of course happen in peak times, like the end of holidays. On the day of this post in Goulburn, we saw some cars queuing for petrol. We didn't see any queuing at the chargers, but I expect it did occur that day. Fortunately our car's navigation takes congestion into account and aims to send us to least busy options. We also tend to charge at accommodation each day on a road trip which bypasses queues.
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220kms battery isn't bad at all.
Personal loan would probably pay for itself.
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Our red Tesla Model Y has self driving, self parking and an added fridge in the sub trunk, plugged into a 12V socket. 466km WLTP range. Starting at about $58900 plus on road.
The BYD Atto 1 Essential (similar to the yellow Premium in the photos) I think has adaptive cruise and lane centring. Maybe have self parking. It has a 12V socket, and also a 240V V2L socket. No Sentry Mode or dash cam built in. 220km WLTP range. $19990 inc on road.
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I wish the dolphin was that that price, I'm 10k short of the dolphin.
And sadly in WA used market is more expensive that these new one.
I'm 3 years off that 10k that can be so heavily affected so quickly with current economy.
I desperately want a EV I'm stuck at home all the time due to fuel cost a EV would put more food on the table and make life easy.
I think anyone that can afford to change to EV should.
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Not completely sure that the boot will suit your needs. It looks okay for general purposes but if you have mobility aids it might not be big enough - but I'm not expert.
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But the secondhand ev market in WA is insane I kid you not 40k for EV with 200000ks on them, and PHEV are 30k and advertised that they either need a new battery or its not taking to the EV side but runs fine as fuel only 🤷 seriously.
Flooding the market with BYD I hope will shake up the market but the truth is there already people buying the 20k atto and trying to flip it for a profit.
It's good to know the battery information for those years. Much appreciated l.
PS forgive my dyslexia
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No time waiting to charge.
Plus cheaper registration and insurance. EV insurance 3 -5 times more expensive than ICE, registration $120 higher. My ICE car can be serviced by my husband. EV'S can only go into service agents.
So no I'll stick with my ICE car even with cost of petrol still us thousands $'s a year cheaper.
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When we were considering an EV a few years ago, I was also worried about where I’d get it serviced. Then I found out that our car didn’t need servicing, like an ICE car – no engine oil, cam shaft, transmission oil etc, because it doesn’t actually have an engine. In 150,000 km, our servicing has only been replacing tyres, windshield wipers and washer fluid.
Charging at home is nearly free. Our ongoing costs are negligible.
We certainly don’t pay 3 - 5 times the insurance as an equivalent ICE car.
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Coolant only needs to be changed about as often as a fuel pump does.
Insurance is not higher. My car was less to insure than a similarly-priced hybrid or petrol car.
You ain't saving "thousands of dollars a year" with an ICE, lol.
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