• Excellent boot space for its size
• Cavernous rear passenger room
• Unusual interior storage

How much space is there?

Loads. The BYD Dolphin Surf is a very well packaged city car. Because there’s no engine to eat into interior space, BYD can use almost all the car’s footprint for passenger space. So, rear-seat legroom is exceptional – far better, in fact, than a Vauxhall Corsa Electric or Renault Clio from the class above.

Shoulder room is equally impressive. Two adults can fit on the rear bench with almost a foot of space between them. Also, because the roofline is so lofty, the cabin feels very airy despite the fact you can touch the passenger door from the driver’s seats without needing to lean across the centre console.

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I still prefer the Leapmotor T03’s cabin overall, though. I’ve tested the two cars back-to-back and it’s almost as spacious, it’s far simpler and that standard fit panoramic sunroof lets even more light into the cabin, making it feel like a bigger car. The Dolphin Surf’s upswept window line and tinted windows block a lot of light.

Boot space and storage

BYD’s packaging marvels don’t cease here. You get 308 litres of boot space, which is more than you get from the larger Corsa Electric (267 litres) and the sportier MINI Cooper Electric (210 litres). It’s certainly an easier car to live with.

It’s not perfect, though. The Dolphin Surf’s boot is deep (when you remove the boot board) but it isn’t very long. That means you’ll probably need to stand large cases up to make them fit in the space, which is more exerting than simply throwing them into the boot.

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If you have a young family and regularly need to carry a pram, you’ll probably be better served by the much larger Leapmotor C10. The next step up in BYD’s range – the Dolphin hatchback – only offers another 37 litres of boot space, but it costs around £12,000 more than the Surf. Spend an extra £2,000 and you could have the C10 and even fewer packing headaches.

Is it easy to park?

Absolutely. The Dolphin Surf is less than four metres long and under two metres wide, so it’s easy to steer into any parking space. Plus, you get parking sensors and a reversing camera as standard, so you’ve no excuse for denting the bumper of the car behind you.

My only real criticism of the car is the shape of its rear windows. Not only do they block a lot of light, they also restrict the view over your shoulder. That makes it more challenging – but not impossible – to judge where other cars are when reverse bay parking.

Safety

• Not yet tested by Euro NCAP
• Shows plenty of promise, though
• Stacks of standard safety equipment

BYD hasn’t yet handed the Dolphin Surf over to Euro NCAP for crash testing, but we suspect it’ll fare a lot better than the Dacia Spring when it does. BYD is very keen to point out that 68.2% of its body is made from high-strength steel (compared to the Spring’s 60%) and its chassis is braced by its Blade Battery, which has been specifically designed to hold together in an accident, resist punctures and not burst into flames when damaged.

In addition, you get loads of active safety technology that should help to boost the car’s safety assist score. The tech list includes automatic emergency braking, lane-keeping assist, intelligent adaptive cruise control and an emergency call function.

Much to my disappointment, there’s also a driver monitoring system that makes sure you’re paying attention to the road. It doesn’t really work as intended, though, as it scorned me for adjusting the air conditioning and it was confused by sunglasses. What’s more, it bongs every time you do something it doesn’t like, and the button to switch it off is buried in about eight submenus on the touchscreen. That’s annoying to live with.