BYD has announced that it has received over 10,000 pre-sale orders for its newest and most affordable model, the all-electric BYD Seagull.
Pricing of the new BYD Seagull has also been confirmed which starts at the equivalent of $A17,100 and goes up to $A20,790. This makes it one of the most affordable EVs in the market.
BYD has also started to promote when the model will officially go on sale. A date of April 26 has been set which is a day before the end of the Shanghai Auto Show.
The Model was officially unveiled at the Shanghai Auto Show which is running until April 27.
At the show, it was also confirmed that the BYD Seagulll will be fitted with BYD’s blade batteries which has quashed some of the speculations around the potential use of a Sodium-ion battery pack in the new model.
The actual blade batteries in the model will have 30.08 kWh and 38.88 kWh of capacity. With the larger battery of 30.88 kWh, the Seagull’s batteries offer up to 405 km of CLTC range which is more likely to be around 300 km on the WLTP cycle.
That’s plenty of range for an inner-city electric car that is much easier to park on narrower streets.
These battery packs power a single-motor drivetrain that can deliver up to 55 kW of power which is zippy enough for a city car.
A good comparison to the BYD Seagull is the Kia Picanto ICE car currently on sale in Australia. The 1.2 litre engine produces 62 kW with losses in the drivetrain of an ICE vehicle, it’s likely to be less than the power the BYD Seagull can deliver.
Last year, 5,196 Kia Picanto microcars were sold in Australia so there is plenty of demand for a mini inner-city vehicle in this class – why not all-electric like the BYD Seagull?
Dimensions-wise, the new Seagull is:
- 3,780 mm in length
- 1,715 in width
- 1,540 in height
That’s longer, wider and taller than the Kia Picanto which is 3,595 mm in length, 1,595 mm in width and 1,485 mm in height.
With a reduced transmission tunnel in the BYD Seagull, there is even more space on offer.
Recently the new Seagull’s details were released in its local market as part of a pre-sale approval which also confirmed the BYD’s use of batteries made by its subdivision, FinDreams.
BYD Seagull will officially go on sale in the coming days with deliveries expected in months to come.
YouTube Video showcasing the BYD Seagull at the Shanghai Auto Show by Wheelboy:
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.