Two knuckle taps on the grille trigger the 136-litre front compartment to open or close. Presented in Paris, the SUV homologates more than 600 km of range in both propulsion and all-wheel-drive versions.
At the BYD Atto 8’s debut at Paris Expo Porte de Versailles on 14 October 2026, Stella Li showed how to access its 136-litre front compartment without touching the bonnet. The company’s executive vice-president tapped the grille, and the bonnet lifted within seconds.
Two knocks open it; repeating the gesture closes it. The feature gives drivers access to the front storage space without lifting the bonnet by hand.
BYD describes the compartment as “el maletero delantero más grande de todos los SUV de Europa”. Li’s reaction was “Alucinante, ¿verdad?” She said the technology could appear in other BYD models and even those of competitors.
The Atto 8 is more than five metres long and can be configured with up to seven seats across three rows. Independent technical specifications list its dimensions as 5,040 mm long, 1,996 mm wide and 1,760 mm high. The large SUV, known as the BYD Tang L in China, is offered in Europe as the Design RWD and Excellence AWD. The rear-wheel-drive version has a 340 kW (462 PS) motor, while the two-motor AWD delivers 570 kW (775 PS) and up to 775 Nm of torque. BYD gives their respective 0–100 km/h acceleration times as 8 seconds and 4.6 seconds.
Both versions use a 115 kWh second-generation Blade LFP battery. BYD quotes a WLTP range of 653 km for the Design RWD and 602 km for the Excellence AWD. The SUV also brings the company’s FLASH Charging technology to its European lineup. VOI reported a 10–97% charging time of nine minutes. BYD says sales are expected to begin in the first quarter of 2027; the technology is already available in Spain.
The grille gesture is a different kind of vehicle-interface feature from the larger display in Tesla’s Model 3 update. The Paris presentation places the Atto 8 among BYD’s European offerings.
