BYD ATTO 3 vs MG IM5

The BYD ATTO 3 is £460 cheaper to buy. The BYD ATTO 3 is cheaper to charge, roughly £160 a year versus £192 for the MG IM5, at 8,000 miles on an off-peak home tariff. Add 5 years of charging and the BYD ATTO 3 comes out roughly £620 cheaper overall. These figures cover list price and home charging only - insurance, servicing, tyres and depreciation will move the real total.

EVcarsguide estimates a real-world motorway range of about 263 miles for the BYD ATTO 3 and 217 miles for the MG IM5 - both below their WLTP figures, because sustained high speed is the hardest case for an EV. The BYD ATTO 3 goes roughly 46 miles further between charging stops. A rapid charge to 80% takes around 35 minutes in the BYD ATTO 3 and 65 in the MG IM5, so the BYD ATTO 3 loses less time at each stop. That makes the BYD ATTO 3 the stronger long-distance car.

The BYD ATTO 3 is the easier car for tight UK car parks: it is 85 mm narrower than the MG IM5. In a standard 2,400 mm bay that leaves about 525 mm of total clearance for the BYD ATTO 3 and about 440 mm of total clearance for the MG IM5. The MG IM5 also turns in a 0.4 m tighter circle, which helps with U-turns and multi-storey ramps.

Over a 8-year ownership window EVcarsguide's degradation model projects roughly 90% battery health for the BYD ATTO 3 and 90% for the MG IM5. That is close enough that capacity loss should not decide between them. Both use LFP-type cells, which are happy charged to 100% every day. Both batteries carry a 8-year manufacturer warranty.