BYD sketches the next Atto 1: 425mm longer, five seats and lidar

BYD has released official design sketches of the second-generation Seagull, the car sold in New Zealand as the Atto 1, ahead of its launch in China. The new model is 425mm longer than the current car, gains a fifth seat, and carries a roof-mounted lidar sensor for BYD’s higher-level driver assistance.

The sketches were shared by Zhang Zhuo, general manager of BYD’s Ocean network sales division, and show large trident-shaped headlights, sharp surfacing, wide wheel arches and a lowered glass line. Zhang says the car adopts a completely new layout with expanded interior space, and rides on eight-spoke 16-inch wheels.

Regulatory filings in China put the new car at 4,205mm long, 1,810mm wide and 1,570mm tall on a 2,650mm wheelbase, 150mm longer than the current Seagull’s. That puts it within 65mm of the BYD Dolphin, and roughly the size of the Dongfeng Box and Geely EX2 that compete with the Atto 1 here.

A single 95kW motor drives the front wheels, up from 55kW and 65kW in the current car’s two versions, with a choice of 30kWh and 39.2kWh lithium iron phosphate packs from BYD’s FinDreams division for a claimed 320km to 420km on China’s CLTC cycle, around 260km to 340km on a WLTP basis. Top speed is 150km/h. The lidar unit supports BYD’s God’s Eye B system, which offers navigation-based driving on urban roads and highways in China. Inside, spy photographs show a single floating central screen with no instrument cluster, a column shifter and a two-spoke wheel.

BYD’s own naming has wobbled. Zhang described the car as the Great Seagull, or Da Haiou, at the Chengdu motor show in August, suggesting a model positioned between the Seagull and Dolphin, before calling it the second-generation Seagull in this week’s post. Either way, the current Seagull’s Chinese sales have fallen 66.5% this year to 74,087 through August, in a segment where the Geely EX2 was China’s best-selling car in August.

BYD New Zealand has not said whether the new car will replace the Atto 1 here or when. The current Atto 1 registered 20 in August and is the entry point to a local range that passed 15,000 vehicles on the road this week, and BYD has more than 15 models planned for New Zealand over the next 18 months. At the smaller end still, the Racco kei car we drove in Japan is the basis for a European budget model.