• High-quality interior for the price
• Novel rotating infotainment screen
• Unusual – and slightly sickening – smell

How’s the quality and layout?

Largely good. The Dolphin Surf has been pieced together using bits from other BYD products. You get the same steering wheel, rotating infotainment system and physical switchgear as the larger Dolphin hatchback – and it’s all good quality. The buttons are solid and the cabin trims toe the line very well between plushness and durability.

I like the physical hotkeys on the dashboard that allow you to jump to screens such as the climate control menu, but I wish the Surf had proper physical climate buttons like you get in a Corsa Electric. The icons on the touchscreen are far too fiddly to use on the move.

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But there’s one thing I can’t stand about BYD’s cars. The smell. It’s an incredibly pungent cocktail of what I’m assuming are the chemicals used to treat the seat upholstery and the adhesives used to hold the cabin trims together. After an hour at the wheel, I was starting to get a sore head – and no amount of air fresheners could cover it up.

Infotainment and technology

Every BYD has a rotating infotainment screen that can swap between landscape and portrait mode. It sounds like a gimmick, but it’s a lot more useful than you’d think. When the screen’s in portrait mode, it allows you to see further along your route, giving more warning for upcoming junctions or roundabouts.

BYD’s menu design is a lot less useful. Almost all the controls have been crammed onto the screen – and it takes a good five minutes of prodding and swearing before you arrive at the driver assistance menu. I’d like some hotkeys to jump directly to a screen that allows you disengage lane assist and the annoying driver monitoring system. Like Volkswagen’s setup.

Comfort

• Supportive front seats
• Driving position is quite high
• Good refinement for the class

The driving position isn’t bad for a city car. You sit a little too high up for my liking, though. I’m six foot tall and, even with the seat in its lowest position, I feel like I’m craning my neck to look under the roof at the road. At least the seats offer enough support. Still, SUVs prove most buyers want a tall seating position, so I guess BYD is just catering to demand.

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Refinement is good. BYD has done a decent job of making the air flow cleanly around this rather angular little box. There’s a little bit of wind noise whipping around the pillars on the motorway, and tyre roar is noticeable at 70mph – but that’s partly because you don’t have a background hum from a petrol engine. It’s acceptable for a car of this size and this price.