Thanks Noosa Today again for our regular column in your paper.

Ask John Green what he loves most about his BYD Atto 3 electric vehicle (EV) and the answer can be quite long. For starters, John says “It’s fun to drive, it’s quiet and all this adds up to driving pleasure.” He loves how easy it is to manoeuvre at any speed compared to a combustion engine car, with fast acceleration from traffic lights and intersections.

Also on his list is the fact that it’s an SUV so it’s a good height for getting in and out of easily. The faux leather seats are comfortable, and the display is hi-tech but user-friendly. John was able to test drive a car in Brisbane before placing his order online, and he’s now been driving it for just over a year covering about 20,000 kilometres.

John was inspired to research EV options, foremost so he could reduce his emissions’ footprint. He wanted to be an early adopter to the uptake of EVs and be part of the environmental solution. But financial benefits were also part of the pull. After reading as widely as he could on EV models, John thought the BYD was good value for money and all the motoring reviews he found were positive. “I didn’t find anything that would stop me buying it. And it was $20,000 less than buying a Tesla.” Clearly, other drivers in Australia share John’s enthusiasm with the Chinese-made BYD fast catching up to Tesla as the highest selling EV in Australia despite only being on the market here for less than two years.

Another positive feature John likes is the '60 kilowatt hour battery' .that gives it a range of 400 kms and the Blade battery technology developed by BYD allows him to fully charge or fully run down the battery if needed – compared to other models that recommend only charging between 20% to 80% to enhance the battery life.

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