Clear BYD Dolphin PMS Cost & Charging Guide - Apex Engine
Apex Engine breaks down the BYD Dolphin running costs, the GB/T-to-CCS2 charging change, real-world range, warranty and recall status. See the full breakdown.
The BYD Dolphin is the quiet one in BYD Philippines’ lineup — not the cheapest (that is the Seagull), not the volume seller (that is the Atto 3), but the hatchback that has been on sale here the longest and has taken the most dramatic price journey of any BYD in the country. It was presented at the 2023 Manila International Auto Show at ₱1,688,000, then cut to ₱1,398,000 on October 19, 2023 by a newly appointed AC Motors — a ₱290,000 reduction in one announcement.
This guide covers what it actually costs to run, and one thing no spec sheet will tell you: not every PH Dolphin has the same charging plug. If you are shopping used, that single detail matters more than the model year.
Key Takeaways
- No Dolphin-specific PMS price list exists. The honest proxy is the Atto 3’s dealer-verified schedule — ₱21,271.73 over five years and 100,000 km, six visits, same BEV cadence.
- Early PH units use GB/T connectors; the 2024 model year switched to Type 2 / CCS2. The public network here standardised on CCS2. Check the port, not the year.
- Current price: ₱1,438,000, up ₱40,000 on May 7, 2026 — the same date the Atto 3 and Sealion 6 went up. This is a lineup-wide adjustment, not an oddity.
- But the sticker is rarely the price. BYD PH knocked ₱200,000 off the Dolphin in its November 2025 anniversary promo. Always ask what is open.
- 405 km NEDC, about 300 km in real use — a normal NEDC gap, and still a week of Metro Manila commuting per charge.
- It gets ~99% of the Atto 3 Dynamic’s range for ₱200,000 less. What you give up is power, space and equipment — not battery.
- 5-star ANCAP (2023), with one honest asterisk: Marginal driver chest protection in the frontal offset test.
Which Model Year Does This Guide Cover? (2023–2026)
The Dolphin has never had a facelift here, but it has had two changes that matter more than a facelift would.
2023 — arrival and the ₱290,000 cut. BYD Philippines showed the Dolphin at the 2023 Manila International Auto Show with a ₱1,688,000 sticker. On October 19, 2023, AC Motors — freshly appointed as distributor, and now ACMobility — dropped it to ₱1,398,000. That is not a promo discount; it was a permanent repositioning, and it is why used listings from that era vary so much in what the original owner paid.
2024 model year — the connector change. The 2024 cars moved to the CCS2 / Type 2 charging standard, replacing the GB/T connectors used on earlier units. Same battery, same motor, same body — completely different charging experience. More on this below, because it is the single most consequential thing in this guide.
May 7, 2026 — the price increase. BYD Cars Philippines’ own listing now reads ₱1,438,000, ₱40,000 above the ₱1,398,000 that aggregator sites still print. The Atto 3 and Sealion 6 moved on exactly the same date, so treat any listing showing the old figure as un-updated rather than a bargain.
Throughout all of it the Dolphin has been a single-variant model here — no Dynamic/Premium ladder, no long-range option. One spec, one decision.
🔴 The Charging-Plug Trap on Used Dolphins
This is the section to read twice if you are buying second-hand.
BYD’s earliest Philippine cars used GB/T connectors — the Chinese domestic standard. From the 2024 model year, the Dolphin switched to Type 2 for AC and CCS2 for DC, which is what BYD Philippines now lists across its entire range and what the local public charging network has standardised on.
Why it matters in practice: a GB/T car at a CCS2 charger is not a slow charge, it is no charge without an adapter. Public chargers along the expressways, in malls and at ACMobility sites are built around CCS2/Type 2. Home AC charging is more forgiving because the wall box is matched to the car when it is installed — but the moment you want to top up away from home, the connector decides whether the car is usable.
What to do: do not shop by model year. Look at the charging port itself before you make an offer, and ask the seller for the original charging cable and any adapters. A cheap early Dolphin that cannot use public infrastructure is not a cheap Dolphin — it is a home-charging-only car, and it should be priced like one.
BYD Dolphin Quick Specs
| Spec | Figure |
|---|---|
| Battery | 44.9 kWh Blade (LFP) |
| Range | 405 km (NEDC) — around 300 km observed in PH testing |
| Motor | Front permanent-magnet synchronous, FWD |
| Power / Torque | 95 PS (94 hp) / 180 Nm |
| 0–50 km/h | 3.9 sec |
| 0–100 km/h | around 11 sec |
| Top speed | 130 km/h |
| Platform | e-Platform 3.0 |
| Charging port | Type 2 (AC) / CCS2 (DC) — 2024 MY onward; earlier units GB/T |
| AC charging | ~7 kW (about 8 hours, 0–100%) |
| DC fast charging | ~60–62 kW (30–80% in about 30 minutes) |
| V2L output | 3.3 kW |
| Efficiency (observed) | 7–8 km/kWh mixed, 11+ km/kWh at 80 km/h |
| L × W × H | 4,125 × 1,770 × 1,570 mm |
| Wheelbase | 2,700 mm |
| Ground clearance | 120 mm |
| Boot space | 345 L / 1,310 L (seats down) |
| Kerb weight | 1,405 kg |
| Screen | 12.5-inch rotating + 7-inch digital cluster |
| Airbags | 6 |
| Price (PH SRP) | ₱1,438,000 |
What Servicing Actually Costs — And What We Could Not Confirm
We could not find a published, Dolphin-specific PMS price list, and we are not going to invent one. BYD Philippines does not publish model-by-model service pricing, and the one piece of credible dealer-sourced reporting we have — CarGuide.PH’s April 2025 figures, verified by sources inside ACMobility — covered the Atto 3, Tang EV and Sealion 6 DM-i. The Dolphin was not in it.
The defensible proxy is the Atto 3, and it is a closer match than it looks: both are BEVs, both run BYD’s once-a-year or every-20,000 km service cadence, and both are built on e-Platform 3.0 with Blade LFP packs.
| Interval | Atto 3 cost (proxy) |
|---|---|
| 3 months / 5,000 km | ₱2,240.00 |
| 12 months / 20,000 km | ₱2,400.00 |
| 24 months / 40,000 km | ₱5,196.14 |
| 36 months / 60,000 km | ₱2,400.00 |
| 48 months / 80,000 km | ₱6,633.59 |
| 60 months / 100,000 km | ₱2,400.00 |
| 5-year total | ₱21,271.73 |
Treat that as a ceiling rather than a quote. The Dolphin is a smaller, lighter, lower-powered car with a smaller battery, so where a service item scales with size — brake components, tyres, coolant volume — it should sit at or slightly below the Atto 3. But this is reasoning, not a price list, and we will say so plainly: get the number in writing from your service advisor before you budget around it. We have written the same caveat on the Seagull guide, which has the identical problem.
One thing that is genuinely free money, when it is open: BYD PH periodically bundles free PMS into promos. Its November 2025 anniversary offer gave five years of free PMS — on the Atto 3 only, not the Dolphin — while the Dolphin instead got a ₱200,000 cash discount. Ask what is running the week you buy; the answer changes the maths more than any negotiation on the sticker will.
What a BEV Service Visit Involves
No engine oil, no filters beyond the cabin one, no spark plugs, no timing belt, no exhaust. What remains:
- Brake fluid — replaced on a calendar, typically every two years, regardless of how little the pads have worn
- Motor and battery coolant — a long-interval item, but a real one
- Reduction-gear oil — the single-speed transmission’s fluid, from around the two-year mark
- Cabin air filter — the filter you still change often, and worth it in PH traffic
- Tyres and brakes — regen means pads last unusually long; the flip side is calipers that can seize from disuse in our humidity
- 12V auxiliary battery — the part most likely to actually strand you, and the one not covered by the eight-year traction battery warranty
Hindi ito “PMS” sa dating sense. After the 3-month/5,000 km first check, it is once a year or every 20,000 km — six visits per 100,000 km against the twenty a 5,000 km-interval petrol hatchback demands.
Real-World Range: 405 km on Paper, ~300 km in Practice
TopGear Philippines’ road test recorded around 300 km against the 405 km NEDC claim, with efficiency of 7–8 km/kWh in mixed driving rising to over 11 km/kWh at a steady 80 km/h.
That gap is not a defect, it is the NEDC cycle — an old, optimistic standard that flatters nearly every car quoted under it. What matters is what 300 km buys you here: for a Metro Manila or Calabarzon commuter doing 40–50 km a day, that is most of a working week per charge. Charge on Sunday night, plug in again the following weekend.
The efficiency curve also tells you something useful about how to drive it. It gets dramatically more efficient at steady highway speeds — 11 km/kWh at 80 km/h against 7–8 in traffic — which is the reverse of the petrol car intuition most drivers arrive with. Expressway cruising is where this car is at its best, provided you are not in a hurry: 95 PS and roughly 11 seconds to 100 km/h means overtaking needs planning.
TCO vs. a Gasoline Hatchback
The natural cross-shop is a well-equipped petrol hatchback like the Honda City Hatchback RS, at roughly ₱1,199,000:
| BYD Dolphin | Honda City Hatchback RS | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | ₱1,438,000 | ~₱1,199,000 |
| Service interval | 20,000 km / 1 yr | 5,000 km / 6 mo |
| Visits per 100,000 km | 6 | 20 |
| Per-visit cost | ₱2,240–6,634 (Atto 3 proxy) | ₱5,000–7,000 light, ₱10,000–18,000 heavy (estimated) |
| “Refuelling” | Home electricity | Pump prices |
Be careful how you read that. The Dolphin column is a proxy from a different model, and the Honda column is our own estimated band because Honda Cars Philippines’ PM Cost Calculator has been offline since 2026 — neither is a published price list. Running the Honda’s bands across twenty visits produces a six-figure five-year total, and we will not print a precise number built on two estimates stacked together.
The claim that survives scrutiny is the visit count: six against twenty. That is an interval difference documented by both manufacturers, and it is not close. The Dolphin costs ₱239,000 more to buy; the servicing gap and the fuel-versus-electricity gap are what you are betting will close it over your ownership period.
Dolphin vs. Seagull vs. Atto 3: Which BYD Should You Actually Buy?
All three are on sale here, and the pricing between them is tighter than the marketing suggests:
| Seagull | Dolphin | Atto 3 Dynamic | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Price | ₱968,000 | ₱1,438,000 | ₱1,638,000 |
| Battery | 30 kWh | 44.9 kWh | 49.92 kWh |
| Range (NEDC) | ~300 km | 405 km | 410 km |
| Power | ~75 PS | 95 PS | 204 PS |
| Body | City hatchback | Hatchback | Crossover |
The number that jumps out: the Dolphin gets within 5 km of the Atto 3 Dynamic’s NEDC range for ₱200,000 less. You are not paying that ₱200,000 for battery — you are paying it for a crossover body, more than double the power, and a longer equipment list. If range is what you were worried about, the cheaper car already solves it.
Against the Seagull the logic runs the other way: ₱470,000 buys you 50% more battery, a third more range and a bigger car. Puro city driving lang ba? The Seagull is enough. The moment your week includes an expressway run or a provincial trip, the Dolphin’s extra 100 km of range is what stops you planning your life around chargers.
⚠️ A Naming Warning Before You Read Overseas Reviews
Search “BYD Dolphin” and you will hit reviews of cars that are not sold here under that name — because BYD uses “Dolphin” as a family label abroad.
The Seagull sold in the Philippines is marketed elsewhere as the Dolphin Mini (Latin America), the Dolphin Surf (Europe) and the Atto 1 (parts of Asia-Pacific). It is a smaller, cheaper, less powerful car than the Dolphin we get.
So a glowing “BYD Dolphin” review from Brazil or a critical one from the UK may be describing the Seagull, which BYD Philippines sells separately at ₱968,000. Check the battery size and the price in any overseas review before you let it influence your decision here: 44.9 kWh and 405 km means it is our Dolphin. 30-something kWh means it is our Seagull.
PH Charging Reality — And the 3.3 kW You Get Back
AC is the daily story. About 7 kW on a Type 2 wall box fills the 44.9 kWh pack in roughly eight hours — plug in after dinner, full by morning. DC fast charging runs around 60–62 kW, good for 30–80% in about half an hour, which is a coffee stop rather than a fifteen-minute splash.
Saan ka magcha-charge? As with every EV we cover, that question decides more than the spec sheet does. A garage or dedicated slot with power makes this car effortless. Condo parking with no outlet turns 405 km of range into a weekly errand. Our look at how South Luzon went electric covers why horizontal subdivisions have made the region the easiest place in the country to live with one.
V2L gives 3.3 kW back. Lights, fans, a fridge, a router, laptops — enough to keep a household’s essentials alive through a brownout. It is not a whole-home backup and BYD does not sell it as one, but in a country that loses power to typhoons on a schedule, a car that doubles as a generator you already own is a genuine argument. Confirm the V2L adapter is included with your unit rather than assuming it is in the boot.
Warranty: Three Different Numbers
| Component | Coverage |
|---|---|
| Whole vehicle | 6 years / 150,000 km |
| Electric motor | 8 years / 150,000 km |
| Blade (LFP) battery | 8 years / 160,000 km |
Standard across BYD Philippines’ range, and on a ₱1.44M car it is the most valuable thing in the deal. Six years of whole-vehicle cover outlasts most mainstream PH warranties, and it is the reason staying inside the casa network for servicing is worth more than any savings an independent shop could offer.
Safety: 5 Stars, With One Asterisk
The Dolphin holds a 5-star ANCAP rating under the 2023–25 protocol:
| Category | Score |
|---|---|
| Adult occupant protection | 89% |
| Child occupant protection | 86% |
| Vulnerable road users | 85% |
| Safety assist | 77% |
The asterisk is real and worth stating: within that adult-occupant result, the driver’s chest protection in the frontal offset test was rated Marginal. Five stars is an aggregate; that particular line is the weakest part of the car’s crash performance, and you deserve to know it rather than read only the headline.
⚠️ Note whose stars these are. ANCAP and Euro NCAP have harmonised their protocols, so those two are comparable to each other — but neither is ASEAN NCAP, whose out-of-100 scores appear in several of our comparison guides. Putting the Dolphin’s 89% beside an ASEAN NCAP score from a Xpander or BR-V is comparing different tests with different denominators.
There is also an equipment gap worth naming: the Dolphin has six airbags, a 360-degree camera and reverse sensors, but no adaptive cruise control and no lane-departure mitigation. It has basic cruise control only. Rivals near this money increasingly include the full suite, and that omission is part of why its safety-assist score sits at 77%.
Known Issues on the BYD Dolphin
The recall — and this one does name the Dolphin. On September 30, 2024, BYD recalled 96,714 vehicles in China, of which 87,762 were Dolphin and Yuan Plus units built between February 4 and December 26, 2023. The defect was in the electric power steering column (CEPS) controller: fitting the plastic cover created micro-cracks in a capacitor that could grow into a short circuit, overheat and burn. The remedy was a free insulation gasket.
ACMobility’s position is explicit: units sold in the Philippines are not affected. That is a distributor statement rather than an independent audit, but it is on the record and we have found nothing contradicting it. If you own an early unit and want certainty, your VIN is the only thing that settles it — ask a BYD service centre to check it rather than reasoning from build dates.
What owners and reviewers actually flag (we could not verify a PH-specific defect pattern, and we will not manufacture one):
- Modest power. 95 PS and roughly 11 seconds to 100 km/h is adequate, not brisk. Reviewers consistently name this as the car’s main compromise.
- Missing driver aids. No adaptive cruise, no lane-departure mitigation, no wireless phone charging.
- No spare tyre — tyre sealant only, which is worth knowing before a provincial trip.
- 12V battery health, the standard EV watch item across the whole segment.
Nothing here is a safety defect in this market. All of it is worth raising at the 20,000 km visit rather than discovering on the road.
What’s Next: A Dolphin That Is Not an EV
In June 2026, BYD launched the Dolphin G DM-i in Europe — a comprehensively redesigned Dolphin that is a plug-in hybrid, not a BEV: a 1.5-litre petrol generator plus an 18.3 kWh battery, 209 hp / 210 Nm, 1,040 km total range with 105 km on electricity alone. It is slightly longer and wider, with a modernised cabin.
It is unclear whether it will be sold outside Europe, and BYD Philippines has said nothing about it. There is also no indication the current Dolphin EV is being discontinued here.
What that means for you: unlike the Atto 3 — where an 800V replacement is already on sale abroad and makes the local car look dated — the Dolphin’s overseas successor is a different kind of car. A PHEV Dolphin arriving here would sit alongside the EV rather than replace it. So the “should I wait?” question is weaker here: there is nothing concrete to wait for, and the car on sale has a settled price, a known charging standard and three years of local road time behind it.
Dealer Network & Service Access
ACMobility grew BYD from 2 outlets in early 2024 to 79 by February 2026, which has quietly removed the strongest objection to buying a Chinese EV in the Philippines. For an owner outside Metro Manila, that expansion matters more than any spec on this page.
Our rundown of when the dealer premium is worth paying applies generally — but for a BEV the line sits much further toward the casa. Almost nothing here is serviceable by a neighbourhood shop, and unauthorised high-voltage work is the fastest way to void eight years of battery coverage.
What You Can DIY
Reasonable: cabin air filter, wiper blades, tyre pressures and rotation, washer fluid, 12V terminal checks, keeping the charge port and cable clean and dry.
Leave it alone: anything orange-cabled. And given there is no spare tyre, the genuinely useful “DIY” here is preparation rather than repair — know where your sealant kit is, and keep a tyre shop’s number saved before you need it.
Verdict: The Sensible One, If You Check the Plug
The Dolphin does not win any argument on paper. It is slower than the Atto 3, pricier than the Seagull, and its safety-assist kit is thinner than rivals at the money. What it has is balance: 405 km of NEDC range for ₱200,000 less than the crossover that offers 410 km, a service cadence of six visits per 100,000 km, a six-year vehicle warranty, and 3.3 kW of V2L for brownout season.
Two things decide whether it is right for you. The first is the usual one — can you charge at home? If not, no EV at this price makes sense. The second is specific to this car: if you are buying used, verify the charging port with your own eyes. A GB/T Dolphin and a CCS2 Dolphin look identical in listing photos and are very different cars to live with.
Get both answers right and this is one of the most rational EVs on sale in the Philippines. Get the second one wrong and you will spend the ownership period explaining to people why you cannot use the charger they are standing next to.
Prices, specifications and service figures verified as of September 2026 against BYD Cars Philippines’ own listings and independent PH reporting. The PMS figures in this guide are an Atto 3 proxy, not a Dolphin price list — confirm current SRP and service rates with your dealer before you budget.
Frequently Asked Questions
Magkano ang PMS ng BYD Dolphin?
Walang publicly-posted, Dolphin-specific na PMS price list ang nahanap namin. Ang pinakamalapit na totoong basehan ay ang Atto 3, na parehong BEV at parehong 20,000 km/isang taon na cadence: ₱21,271.73 sa loob ng 5 taon at 100,000 km, o mga ₱4,254 kada taon. Proxy lang iyon, hindi kumpirmadong Dolphin figure — at dahil mas maliit ang Dolphin, makatuwirang asahan na katulad o bahagyang mas mura. Ipasulat mo sa service advisor mo ang eksaktong halaga.
Magkano ang BYD Dolphin sa Pilipinas ngayon?
₱1,438,000 sa sariling price list ng BYD Cars Philippines, tumaas ng ₱40,000 noong Mayo 7, 2026 mula sa ₱1,398,000. Isang variant lang ito. Tandaan: ₱200,000 ang binawas dito sa 31st anniversary promo noong Nobyembre 2025, kaya laging itanong kung anong promo ang bukas bago ka pumirma.
Ano ang totoong range ng BYD Dolphin?
405 km NEDC ang claim, pero mga 300 km ang nakuha ng TopGear Philippines sa aktuwal na paggamit — normal na gap iyan para sa NEDC. Sa mixed driving nasa 7–8 km bawat kWh, at lumalagpas sa 11 km/kWh kapag steady 80 km/h sa highway. Sa madaling salita: sapat para sa isang linggong commute sa Metro Manila o Calabarzon kada charge.
CCS2 ba ang charging port ng BYD Dolphin?
Oo — pero hindi lahat. Ang mga naunang PH unit ay GB/T ang connector; lumipat sa Type 2 (AC) at CCS2 (DC) simula sa 2024 model year. Malaking bagay ito kapag second-hand ang bibilhin mo, dahil CCS2 ang naging standard ng public charging network dito. I-check mo mismo ang charging port bago ka bumili, huwag ang model year lang.
Ilang taon ang warranty ng BYD Dolphin?
Tatlong magkahiwalay na bilang, tulad ng ibang BYD dito: 6 taon o 150,000 km para sa buong sasakyan, 8 taon o 150,000 km para sa electric motor, at 8 taon o 160,000 km para sa Blade battery.
May recall ba ang BYD Dolphin sa Pilipinas?
Wala. Kasama ang Dolphin sa recall ng 96,714 units sa China noong Setyembre 30, 2024 — depekto sa steering-column controller na puwedeng mag-short at mag-init — pero sinabi ng ACMobility na hindi apektado ang mga unit na ibinenta sa Pilipinas. Libre ang ayos sa mga apektadong unit sa China.
Dolphin ba o Seagull ang bagay sa akin?
Presyo laban sa range. ₱968,000 ang Seagull sa 30 kWh at ~300 km NEDC; ₱1,438,000 ang Dolphin sa 44.9 kWh at 405 km NEDC, mas malaki ang katawan at may 6 airbags. Kung puro city driving lang, sapat na ang Seagull. Kung may highway o probinsya sa routine mo, ang Dolphin ang may sapat na baterya para hindi ka mag-alala.