BYD DOLPHIN SURF

Time to charge it up again, but that's okay: who's up for some karaoke?

- JACK WARRICK

I'd been wanting to test the Dolphin Surf's rapid-charging capabilities since it first arrived (Autocar, 15 October) and a longer trip outside of London provided the ideal opportunity recently.

I opted for Cobham services as the designated stop for my return journey from deepest Kent. Its huge charging bay features 27 chargers – and 24 of them are 350kW rapid chargers from Ionity. They are usually reliable but can be a bit more of a faff to use than units from the likes of Gridserve and MFG.

According to BYD, the Dolphin Surf has a maximum charging speed of 85kW, which is sufficient to replenish our car's 43.2kWh battery from 10% to 80% in 30 minutes.

Surprisingly, this small EV reached 87kW early on. But my initial excitement was soon tempered because the rate dropped dramatically to 46kW after about five minutes and sat in this range for the remainder of the charge. Result: I found myself with more time on my hands than I'd bargained for.