BYD Seal (2023) first drive: the best BYD yet?

• BYD Seal: battery, motors, range and charging
• What’s it like to drive?
• That screen is MASSIVE
• When can I buy one?
• Verdict
• Specs

View all BYD Reviews

► Swoopy electric saloon to hit the UK in 2023
► Up to 354 miles of range from RWD model
► Dual-motor 523bhp variant hits 62mph in 3.8s

At first glance the BYD Seal looks sort of like a Greatest Hits cover version of lots of different electric cars. There are definite shades of Porsche Taycan about the headlights and front end, especially in a dark shade. The shape’s halfway between the smooth curves of a Tesla Model 3 and a Hyundai Ioniq 6, while the rear lightbar features on just about every new EV you can think of.

Fairly anonymous-looking and discreet, even handsome, arguably. Not adjectives one usually uses to describe seals, at least not when they’re on land – but then, a Ford Puma doesn’t much resemble a big cat, nor does a Volkswagen Polo resemble either a posh horse game or a circular mint. So what’s really in a name?

The more important name here is BYD, or Build Your Dreams – a term you won’t be able to forget in the Seal’s case because it’s writ large across the tailgate. A massive brand in its native China, the Seal is the third part of BYD’s product offensive on the UK – acting as a flagship to sit above the Atto 3 SUV, already on sale, and the Dolphin hatchback due in September. That’s three new EVs in one year. But that doesn’t really matter if they’re crap.

The good news is that, on first impressions, the BYD Seal is a long way from crap. With the caveat that our dynamic experience with it extends to two very short tests on a closed track, signs point to the BYD Seal being a genuine rival for cars up to and including the hugely popular Tesla Model 3.

BYD Seal: battery, motors, range and charging

Far from being some far-Eastern startup with big plans and no means, BYD is a giant firm capable of throwing everything it has at the Seal. Last year it sold 1.9 million cars – that’s about 600,000 more than Tesla shifted. The BYD group manufactures almost all of the Seal in-house, including the batteries, motor units and even the semiconductors, so it’s more or less immune to supply chain issues and should mean customers only have to wait a matter of weeks for a factory order rather than the months some manufacturers demand.

Under the skin is BYD’s e-Platform 3.0, a scalable platform that also underpins the Atto 3 and the Dolphin. Here, though, the 82kWh lithium-ion phosphate ‘Blade’ battery is totally structural, the top cover of the battery pack being the body floor. That gives excellent torsional rigidity and a low floor for better interior packaging.

The Seal is available with two motor options. There’s a 308bhp single-motor variant powering the rear wheels – it’s capable of 354 miles of range on the WLTP cycle and 0-62mph in 5.9 seconds. That’s longer and quicker than a base-spec Tesla Model 3, for reference.

There’s also a dual-motor, AWD model with 523bhp and 323 miles of range. Slightly more powerful than a Tesla Model 3, the American contender does beat the BYD to 62mph by around 0.5 seconds and has a little more range.

Maximum charge rates are more impressive than the Atto 3 or the Dolphin, and the Seal will top up at 150kW from a suitably powerful charger. On an AC supply, it’ll charge at up to 11kW.

What’s it like to drive?

We tested both forms of the Seal but in a very limited manner on a Spanish test circuit – a slalom course as well as a drag strip to show off the acceleration of the AWD model.

On the slalom, the Seal impressed with plenty of punch, direct steering with a quick rack, and a general sense of agility. Not physics-busting in the way a BMW i4 is, but tidy handling in general.

The all-wheel drive model is of course much quicker, and clever torque vectoring that prefers to add power to the outside wheel rather than braking the inside means it copes with the power effectively.

BYD’s clearly very proud of the performance of the AWD model – to the point where one of the badges on the rear displays ‘3.8s’, the car’s official 0-62mph time. The quickest we saw on the in-dash drag timer was an impressive 3.6 seconds.

More admirable was the repeatability. The two demonstration Seals on the drag strip had already had repeated full-bore acceleration tests performed by journalists from Ireland and France while the UK rotation tackled the slalom.

By the time we got to the Seals, they’d had at least 20 launches each in rapid succession on a hot day, yet performance was unchanged. Try that in a Tesla Model 3 – you’ll get a quicker launch, twice, and then it’ll overheat.

There’s still a question mark over ride comfort, as we simply couldn’t make any judgement from the silky-smooth track surface where we drove. We’ll look forward to testing both models on UK tarmac.

That screen is MASSIVE

Yes, it is. The Seal’s cabin is dominated by BYD’s 15.6-inch touchscreen infotainment system, complete with pirouetting party piece as it switches from portrait to landscape at the touch of a button. It works less well here than it does in taller vehicles, honestly – in portrait mode, there’s a bit of a letterbox effect as it gets uncomfortably close to the rear-view mirror.

The rest of the interior is largely very successful. It feels suitably premium – moreso than the Model 3, actually, with less Spartan detailing and interesting surfacing. Everything you touch is swathed in either soft-touch plastic or vegan leather, and the switchgear mostly feels good, though the crystalline gear selector is a little gauche.

Space isn’t bad, and there’s loads of legroom for rear passengers. Headroom isn’t quite as generous due to the plunging roofline, but you actually gain a little back thanks to the vast (non-opening) panoramic glass roof.

Boot space is an okay-ish 402 litres, with a similarly narrow loading aperture to the Model 3. We’d have preferred a hatchback, of course. There is a 53-litre frunk that should make tidying up charging cables a little easier, though.

When can I buy one?

The Seal will launch in the UK some time in 2023, after the debut of the Dolphin hatchback around September time.

As for pricing, we’d expect BYD to pitch the Seal just slightly under the equivalent Tesla, relying on similar performance but glitzier specs to convince people to start Building Their Dreams. A starting price of around £40,000 would make sense, possibly getting closer to £50,000 for the AWD performance model.

Verdict

It’s too early to tell if the BYD Seal will perform appropriately on the UK’s tarnished tarmac to make it a convincing proposition against a Model 3 or an Ioniq 6. But the early signs are there, and the rest of the car looks very good indeed.

If it’s priced right, the BYD Seal could be an extremely convincing flagship for the BYD range.

Specs

Keyword: BYD Seal (2023) first drive: the best BYD yet?