BYD made a big splash in the Australian electric vehicle market, with the all electric Atto 3 SUV finishing as the third best-selling EV in Australia, and the best selling non-Tesla vehicle with more than 2,000 sales.
Now its highly anticipated sedan, another big Tesla challenger called the Seal, has been spotted in the streets of Sydney by a BYD enthusiast, known as Al. The images of the Seal were shared on BYD EV Owners Australia Facebook page.
This one-off example was spotted on the back of a truck in Gregory Hills which is located in south-west Sydney. The vehicle was also covered in camouflage but the light blue paint was spotted in a section that was not covered.
Al described the sighting of the Seal with its Continental 19-inch sports tyres as:
“Very impressive up close. Doing it’s road testing on 19inch Conti’s.”
From all accounts, it seems to be a right-hand drive version and is likely down under for testing prior to a potential launch later in 2023.
Al also confirmed that the charge port is located in a different location to the BYD Atto 3. It’s located on the rear end on the driver’s side of the car.
Late last year BYD’s electric hatchback, the Dolphin had also been spotted testing in Sydney. Along with the Seal, it’s looking to join the BYD EV family in 2023. (See pic below).
In the last six months, BYD has launched the Seal in China. It’s a great-looking sedan in a market generally dominated by SUVs.
With BYD showcasing their newest sedan in multiple countries in recent months, there’s a high chance of it launching locally in 2023.
Recently the BYD Seal also received a five-star safety rating from C-NCAP Crash test regulators.
The Seal is offered in two battery packs with the base RWD model being offered with a 61.4 kWh battery pack that can deliver over 450 km of WLTP range.
The official range figures are 550 km NEDC for this model. As a comparison, the Tesla Model 3 RWD has an NEDC range of 556 km in China.
A long-range model with 82.5 kWh battery is also available. This top-of-the-range model has an NEDC range of 700 km. It’s expected to offer over 500km of WLTP range which is close to the dual-motor Tesla sedans currently available in Australia.
The Performance version of the Seal can sprint from 0 to 100 km/hr in 4.2 seconds. The Tesla Model 3 Performance does the same sprint in under 3.5 seconds (3.3 seconds as per official figures).
With its unique ocean-inspired looks and strong ground-up EV credentials, there has already been a lot of good interest from many of The Driven’s readers.
BYD’s experience centre rollout continues across the country. With a potential launch of the model imminent, we expect to see the Seal alongside the Atto 3 in 2023.
Starting prices of the Seal could fall below $60,000 if it is to compete with the best-selling EV sedan, the Tesla Model 3.
BYD Seal Review on Fully Charged Show
Riz is the founder of carloop based in Melbourne, specialising in Australian EV data, insight reports and trends. He is a mechanical engineer who spent the first 7 years of his career building transport infrastructure before starting carloop. He has a passion for cars, particularly EVs and wants to help reduce transport emissions in Australia. He currently drives a red Tesla Model 3.