In the last six months, there have been multiple sightings of BYD’s all-electric sedan, the Seal, on Australian roads. As the brand gears up to launch this officially in our local market, the home market is gearing up to launch a plug-in hybrid version of the model.
The first production cars have already started to roll out of BYD’s manufacturing plants. According to a report from cnevpost, one of BYD’s plants in central China’s Henan province has produced the first couple of these hybrid Seal vehicles.
BYD is the leading new energy vehicle (NEV) brand in China with its DM-i hybrid and full battery electric vehicle range of cars.
The new Seal DM-i is expected to have up to 30,000 monthly sales according to Ning Libang, who is the director of BYD’s Ocean network product sales division.
The new model will be offered with two electrical range variants. One with 121 km of NEDC range, meanwhile, a long-range variant with 200 km of NEDC range is also available.
The Seal was officially launched in its home market less than a year ago back in July 2022 as a pure battery electric vehicle. Many compared it to the Model 3 as its main competitor in China.
The surprise plug in hybrid model is expected to have a starting price of 200,000 RMB which is equivalent to $A41,000, which is around the same price as the full electric model.
One important area of differentiation is that the dimensions of the new hybrid Seal DM-i variant are slightly different. The hybrid variant is 180 mm longer, with the length coming in at 4,980 mm.
According to company reports, BYD sold 8,134 Seal units in June, all of which were pure EVs.
With plans for pure EV models to be introduced in Australia and New Zealand in the coming months, it is unlikely that the new hybrid variant of the Seal will be offered in these markets.
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.