BYD Seal (left-hand-drive model shown)Credit: BYD
Order books for the BYD Seal – the third electric car to be released by the Chinese EV giant in Australia – were opened in late 2023, with first deliveries beginning early this year.
They are already selling well. In May alone just over 1,000 units were sold, capturing almost 27 per cent of the sub-$60k medium passenger car bracket, ICE cars included. BYD is generally seen as BYD’s challenge to the Tesla Model 3, but given it is in the same price bracket as Toyota’s biggest selling passenger car, it might turn out to be a Camry killer instead, or also.
In terms of comfort, specification, driving range and performance, the BYD Seal is a worthy competitor for the passenger sedan buyer’s attention. For people looking to make the switch from ICE to electric, the Seal is definitely worth putting at the top of the list of BEVs (battery electric vehicles) to check out.
On price alone, the Dynamic variant is perhaps the pick of the bunch. For those wanting the longest range for easy interstate trips – the Premium would then be the choice. However, for that extra $10k you would have to really need that driving range as the few extra ‘goodies’ alone in the Premium would not be worth shelling out the extra for.
As for the Performance version: Well, it may not have quite the performance figures of the Tesla 3 performance, but it isn’t far off. If you are wanting a performance vehicle, at around $69k on the road for the BYD, versus $81k for the Tesla, I would try both and then ask myself if the $12,000 difference was better in my pocket or Elon’s …
The BYD Seal is the third Australian full battery EV (BEV) passenger car offering from Chinese manufacturer, BYD. Built on the same dedicated electric car platform as its stablemate the Atto 3 SUV (e-platform 3.0), the Seal is the largest possible size to still fit into the ‘medium passenger sedan’ category.
Like all BYD vehicles, the Seal can only be purchased online (as do Polestar and Tesla). Also, like Tesla and Polestar, BYD ‘experience centres’ for viewing and test-drives are opening up in most state/territory capitals (See BYD website for locations). Servicing and warranty work is done through BYD service centres as well as the independent mycar network.
The Seal comes in three variants: Dynamic, Premium and Performance. The main differences between the three are shown in table 1 above.
The version test driven here was the Premium riding on 19 inch wheels and 235/45 Continental tyres. BYD have taken advantage of the low profile sedan shape to come up with the very low coefficient of drag (Cd) figure of 0.219. This includes electrically retractable door handles that fit flush with the panel work when closed.
That number in part explains the high WLTP numbers for a car that is around two tonnes in weight. With its sleek appearance and lower non-SUV height of 1,460 mm, the Seal does by the way look smaller than it really is. At 4.8 metres long, it is around 100 mm longer than a Tesla Model 3, 200 mm longer than a Polestar 2 and only 55m shorter than a Hyundai Ioniq 6.
Exterior colour choice is limited to a simple set of muted colours – black, white, blue and mid-grey, plus an additional light-grey option for the performance version.
Interestingly, the Seal has been the first BEV for some time where people stopped me in the street to ask questions/comment on how they liked its looks. It seems with the Seal, BYD have struck a chord in producing one of the nicer looking vehicles (BEV or otherwise) in recent times.
Many of these people had also heard of its longer driving range. It would appear that something approaching 600 km is what the buying public perceive as equivalent to an ICE vehicle.
(As an aside: this is despite the fact that most people do way less than this in their day-to-day lives. For instance the average Melbourne commute is around 30 km a day – meaning many people are looking to buy cars with bigger batteries than they will ever need).
The three versions differ considerably in their power, torque and zero to 100 km/h times. The performance version in particular offers an almost rocket-ship time of 3.8 seconds: although neither the Premium nor Dynamic versions could be called slouches off the line.
One does have to wonder though just how much of this is for bragging rights and/or comparisons with competitors rather than usefulness. I tried the Premium in Sport mode once for a test take-off from the traffic lights … and it quite frankly scared me!
Thankfully, both the Premium and Performance versions come with ventilated AND drilled brake discs in the front, so they should be able to handle the heat if you prefer to more heavily use the brakes instead of letting the regenerative braking do the work.
On the topic of regenerative braking (‘regen’) – even in in the higher of the two settings it wasn’t all that powerful as compared to some other BEVs. In fact the higher regen setting still only felt like slightly heavier ICE engine braking.
Mind-you, this is likely a design choice by BYD. The regen settings in the Seal would help first-time BEV buyers feel more at home in their personal transition from ICE to BEV.
Two battery options are available: 61.5 kWh (usable) in the Dynamic and 82.5kWh (usable) in the Premium and Performance. As shown in Table 1, the WLTP range is best for the Premium, whilst the Performance eats into the range due to its greater power and all-wheel drive.
As for range – as per usual, I found the around town the WLTP number of 570 km to not be far off the mark – although it did seem to reduce slightly faster than expected on the highway. Perhaps look for around 470 to 500 km for highway travel in the Seal depending on how much you use the climate control. (Being a cold week in Melbourne – I did use the heater for a lot of the time though!).
However – unlike the range estimators in most modern EVs, the Seal’s did not come across as entirely trustworthy. After a trip to Lorne and back that was mostly highway travel with the heater on, you would expect a down-rated estimate based on the previous usage … but it still offered 635 km as the potential range from a 100% charge following that trip.
Owners will rapidly come to understand what their personal ‘real’ range is – but I would recommend new Seal owners be a little wary of the range estimator as they start their ownership journey.
Charging for the Seal is 110 kW DC for the 61.5 kW battery and 150 kW for the 82.5 kWh versions. Surprisingly, the AC charge rate is only 7 kW single phase with no three phase charging available. For the average home, this would make no difference. (Unless you have three phase power, which is rare).
However, at some public chargers 7 instead of 11 will mean slower charging than most other BEVs on the market today. Even the BYD Dolphin will charge at 11 kW when plugged into a three phase capable AC charger. Approximate charging times for the Seal are shown in table 3.
The BYD Seal can deliver approximately 2200W of 230V AC power via an adaptor plugged into the AC charge port. BYD currently supply a V2L adaptor as part of the deal.
Important note: This is a Vehicle to Load (V2L) system only. In order to avoid damage to the car or a 240V electrical system, owners must not attempt to use a V2L system to provide power directly into a home or off-grid electrical system. (An extended article on this topic is coming soon).
The interior is well put together and, like the exterior, quietly conservative in appearance. Standard is a dark grey/black throughout. Whist the brochure lists an additional two-tone grey/blue choice, the ordering website does not offer it as an option.
Whilst the interiors of the three look much the same, there are subtle differences in their specifications. For instance, the Dynamic has imitation leather covering the seats and steering wheel whilst the Premium and Performance have genuine leather.
Another example is where the driver’s and passenger’s seats have electric adjustment in all three versions, but only the Premium and Performance have driver’s lumbar adjustment, multiple position memories and an ‘easy entry/exit’ function where the seat slides back to its rearmost position when the car is turned off. Additionally, a heated steering wheel is only available in the Performance.
Similarly, the driver’s display, infotainment system and steering wheel functions are identical in all three versions, but only the Premium and Performance come with a HUD (Heads-Up-Display).
Seating, both front and rear are excellent. The front pair are very comfortable and well locating. In the rear, the outer pair are nicely dished and would be fine for a relaxed long trip for two adults.
On the other hand, the middle rear seat is perhaps best suited to short trips to drop three kids off to school or sport. Anyone scoring that position for a long trip would feel somewhat short-changed compared to the outer two!
As for rear seat room: both leg room and head height are excellent. Being a sedan, those much over 1.8 metres tall in the rear will need to slip forward on the seat slightly to give them enough head clearance – but with the ample leg room on offer, that would be easy to do.
Again, like the Dolphin, the panoramic roof is a nice touch and makes the cabin feel brighter and more open. Unlike the Dolphin though, it does not have a retracted sunshade. Instead it is more heavily tinted to reduce the heat. How effective that is likely to be in the Australian summer, we will have to wait until late this year to find out.
Boot room is 400 litres with the seats up. With a 60/40 split to fold the rear seats that can be expanded to give what should be ample room for luggage and/or longer objects – although the seats do not fold to give an entirely flat floor.
There is also a compartment under the boot floor plus a 53 litre ‘froot’ (front boot) under the bonnet. The latter is well sealed with a lid and would make an ideal space to store the odd charging lead and portable charger.
One thing worth remembering is the Seal is a sedan. As such it has a boot lid size opening. Whilst this is normal for a sedan, it does not offer the functionality that a larger opening hatch gives. If looking for a passenger car with a larger rear opening – buyers might well be better served by something like the Polestar 2.
As per all BYD vehicles so far – the dash layout is both simple and practical. The driver’s display is however larger than the Dolphin’s (and more akin to the Sealion 6 PHEV) and makes for easier viewing of the main data.
The central 39.6 cm (15.6 inch) infotainment touchscreen also performs the BYD ‘party trick’ of being capable of rotating between landscape and portrait. In terms of functionality, the touchscreen reacts quickly and most of the menus are easily found. In fact, the menus seemed better sorted than the Dolphin’s.
Physical buttons for operating several of the major functions are located in a horseshoe shape around the drive selector. Steering wheel adjustments are the usual collection of radio, cruise control and driver’s display screen choices.
Centre console storage is good with a lidded bin under the armrest and space under the ‘flying bridge’ below the drive selector area which includes USB A and C outlets. There are also USB A and C outlets in the rear. Standard too is twin wireless phone charging in the front.
There is a fully functioned inbuilt navigation system and Bluetooth was easy to connect to my Android phone with the speaker and microphone both performing well for easy phone conversation. For those with Apple phones: whilst Apple carplay is supported, it is done only through a hardwired USB connection.
The first impression of the Seal is the silent, smooth take-off and firm but not harsh ride. The second impression when testing the different drive modes is that Sport is definitely not needed for suburban driving. As I noted in the ‘Under the bonnet’ section, why BEVs need hyper-car like performance figures baffles me.
However, the suspension felt quite up to the challenge of that sort of acceleration – so for those who want a willing performer on twisty Sunday afternoon drives, the Premium certainly offers that. In fact, it and made me wonder why anyone would bother paying the extra $10k for the AWD Performance version.
Especially given the only suspension difference in the Premium versus the AWD Performance are ‘frequency selective damping’ shock absorbers.
With all-round cameras and parking sensors that even include distance measurements shown on the screen, parking and locating the Seal is easy in all situations. The ADAS (Advanced Driver Assistance Systems) were generally not intrusive.
Again though, the speed sign recognition system was – like all the test cars I’ve driven this year – constantly wrong. Thankfully, unlike the Kona electric, the ‘bings and bongs’ were subtle, plus the waited a few moments before chiming in. This meant that the warnings only got to the level of visual reminders and the sounds often cancelled themselves before happening.
Road noise at highway speeds was very low and effectively only tyre noise with no wind noise apparent. I found road grip was excellent on all surfaces – although there was no rain during my time with the car.
As this was a Premium version test car, the tyres were Continental brand rather than the lower spec on the Dynamic – so I can’t give a report on what the tyre noise and grip would be in the Dynamic.
Safety
The BYD Seal received a 5 star ANCAP rating in October 2023. It comes with dual frontal, side chest-protecting and side head-protecting airbags as standard.
A centre airbag, which provides added protection to front seat occupants in side impact crashes, is also standard. It also comes with a large suite of Advanced Driver Assistance System (ADAS) features.
These include autonomous emergency braking (car-to-car, vulnerable road user, junction & crossing, backover and head-on), lane support system with lane keep assist (LKA), lane departure warning (LDW), emergency lane keeping (ELK), speed assist system (SAS) and a speed sign recognition system.
Also standard are child presence detection (CPD), driver fatigue monitoring (DFM), blind spot detection (BSD).
On the road pricing in Victoria (effectively without any subsidies) is:
With the different subsidies and incentives applying in each state – that pricing may improve considerably depending on where you live. For instance, in Queensland a $6000 rebate applies. That would reduce the price of the Dynamic there to just under $44k – plus discounted rates for registration and stamp duty.
Servicing is based on 12 month/20,000 km intervals. Pricing for the first 8 years/160,000 km is as follows:
BYD provide the following warranty for the Seal:
The medium passenger sedan segment is not as well served with choice as the SUV one – but it does include two of Australia’s bigger selling models: the Tesla Model 3 and the Toyota Camry. Other BEV options to consider in this category would be the Hyundai Ioniq 6, Polestar 2 and perhaps the BMW i4.
However – buyers of the Seal are probably not the sort of buyer interested in these more premium models (particularly the i4). Instead, they are more the ‘early majority’ buyer wanting to make their first move to BEV and looking for something closer in price to their old ICE choice – the Toyota Camry.
These days, the Camry is offered as a hybrid only and is priced around $43k to $57k on-the-road in Victoria. That means the Seal in Premium and Dynamic guises is competing almost directly on price – especially where state/territory BEV rebates and discounts apply.
In terms of service pricing – the Camry and the BYD are similar after 5 years with the Seal at $1384 and the Camry at $1,025. That service pricing by the way is surprising and something of an indictment on the BYD service plan.
After all, a BEV needs far less service work and way fewer consumables per service than an ICE vehicle, so how BYD justify that pricing schedule is something a lot of BYD owners ask.
Specifications:
Seating: 5
Boot volumes in litres (1 litre = 10 x 10 x 10 cm)
Dimensions:
Battery:
Energy consumption: (WLTP)
Kerb weight:
Charging:
Charge port location:
Drive configuration:
Towing:
Performance:
Bryce Gaton is an expert on electric vehicles and contributor for The Driven and Renew Economy. He has been working in the EV sector since 2008 and is currently working as EV electrical safety trainer/supervisor for the University of Melbourne. He also provides support for the EV Transition to business, government and the public through his EV Transition consultancy EVchoice.
New vehicles under cover spotted at Tesla's test track ahead of possible launch that could…
Northvolt files for bankruptcy in the US in major blow to European hopes to have…
Tom from Ludicrous Feed wraps up the latest EV news from November.
Tesla launches new LeaseMyTesla program in Australia in its latest bid to arrest the slump…
My Evie charging experience has elevated from gritted teeth to top of the class.
Tesla rolls out another important safety features in new software update, making it's cars safer…
View Comments
Fair dinkum (dare I say it as a Tesla investor) when I see the rare BYD Seal on an Aussie road I get goosebumps. I love it!
I love competition - that drives costs down.