Australia’s EV market is so much more mature than it was only three years ago. In that time, dozens of new cars and badges have launched down under, including the much-anticipated Tesla Model Y and the once thought to be Tesla-rivalling Polestar 2. Underneath Tesla, however, the heroes of EV uptake have very much been cheaper, competitively priced Chinese models – such as those from rebooted brand MG and new entrant BYD. BYD in particular has been making the most noticeable splash with three models – the most popular of which being the BYD Seal.
The BYD Seal is, to not beat around the bush, a Tesla killer. Not in terms of market share – Tesla is still enjoying an obvious lead in uptake with its extremely popular Model Y and Model 3 – but it’s an easy bet that there are consumers that have fled to the Seal over Tesla’s massively popular electric sedan – despite three discounts this year across the Australian Tesla range. At the time of writing, the Seal is the third most popular EV in Australia, while Tesla has seen a drop in uptake compared to last year, with ground ceded to competitors.
And why wouldn’t it be? It has all the hallmarks that make the Y and 3 attractive (bar the undeniable best perk – access to the entire Tesla supercharger network – and sector-leading WLTP range estimates) and even a bunch of features that make it a more attractive purchase altogether. I enjoyed my time with the new BYD Seal far more than with the new Model 3.
Here’s what I thought of the car.
BYD Seal review
First impressions
Small disclosure – you might recognise me. I’m Zachariah Kelly, I was Gizmodo Australia’s writer focused on Australian EV reviews, uptake, and legislation. That publication has been closed by parent company Nine and I’m now off to bigger and better things (watch this space). Now to the Seal!
The Seal is exciting to me for a bunch of reasons. It has the best infotainment OS I’ve ever seen at the price point it’s sold at, it has an extremely competitive price-to-range ratio, and it’s not a boring SUV. It’s also RWD primarily and AWD in the higher-end model, making it feel so much better on the road than many FWD EVs that it’ll be competing with.
Aesthetically, things feel a bit overdesigned, and I’d say that about any BYD. The letters ‘BYD’ appear constantly around the car, from indentations on the brake lights to plates behind the front wheels. We can obviously live with these design choices, especially given that it doesn’t have the brand’s much-begrudged ‘Build Your Dreams’ spelled out on the back.
Truly the highlight of the Seal is its user interface, and that broadly applies to all BYDs. It’s an Android-based OS, but it’s not Android Automotive as seen in Polestars and Volvos. Rather, it appears to be a skin atop the standard Android build, heavily modified to be more fitting for a car. You’ll find references to Android in the settings app, but functionally it operates just like the phone OS, but for an infotainment system.
And as simple as this might sound, the use of such an obvious Android splint proved a better operating experience than what I’d experienced in any Hyundai, MG, or many other EVs. It might not be as polished as Tesla’s OS, nor Polestar’s or Ford’s, but it does everything perfectly well.
Even if you don’t like the OS, that’s fine, it has full Android Auto and Apple CarPlay support for pairing with your smartphone – a key feature that Teslas lack. But personally, I was using the inbuilt OS much more than Android Auto via my smartphone. I can’t say the same about almost every other EV I’ve ever reviewed.
Driver assistance tech was sound, but it didn’t feel as confident as Polestar’s or Hyundai’s. Lane assistance and adaptive cruise control worked a treat, but lane detection suffered when lines were poorly marked or covered by shadow. Cameras around the car were brilliant, with the car shipping with 3D birds-eye view and a 3D model of the car for getting a greater sense of space (Teslas don’t ship with these, though have a similar feature). The resolution was sound, though I would have liked object detection to be a bit faster.
The car is quite comfortable to sit in, and the moonroof adds a great feeling of space. The inside feels far more premium than the outside.
Here’s a better look at the wheel.
Let’s drill down a bit.
Specifications
| Model | WLTP range | 0-100km/h speed | Charging capacity | Power/Torque | Price (NSW driveaway) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| BYD Seal Dynamic | 460km (61kWh battery) | 7.5 seconds (RWD) | 7kW AC/110kW DC | 150kW/310Nm | $52,727 |
| BYD Seal Premium | 570km (82kWh battery) | 5.9 seconds (RWD) | 7kW AC/150kW DC | 230kW/360Nm | $58,798 |
| BYD Seal Performance | 520km (82kWh battery) | 3.8 seconds (AWD) | 7kW AC/150kW DC | 390kW/670Nm | $68,748 |
Performance
Onto the more technical side of things, the BYD Seal is sold in three tiers – the Dynamic ($52,727 drive away in NSW), the Premium ($58,798), and the Performance ($68,748). Note that, at the time of writing, the Premium and Performance both have discounts applied that slashed the price down by the cost of on-roads. The model I reviewed was the Premium, and to be honest, would probably be my pick of the bunch for its cost and range. It adds some features on top of the Dynamic, such as a heads-up display, a leather steering wheel, leather seats, and 19-inch rims (compared to the Dyanmic’s 18 inches).
The Performance then adds Frequency Selective Dampening, Torque Adaption Control, and the prized feature, AWD.
BYD quotes NEDC ranges beside WLTP ranges on its website, but WLTP range estimations are more commonly used among EV makers in Australia. The Dynamic can travel up to 460km WLTP, the Premium 570km WLTP, and the Performance 520km WLTP.
These range estimations, like any EV, fare better in the city, as EVs consume far more energy on highway driving (for me, it was a difference between 16kWh/100km and 21kWh/100km), though it does have a fairly competent DC charging capacity of 110kW (150kW on the Premium and Performance). This matters because it translates to faster charging speeds when using public chargers, such as those on the Evie and Chargefox networks (home charging, which is AC, maxes out at 7kW, which isn’t very high compared to many competitors that tend to stick to 11kW).
In my week with the Seal, I took the car North from Sydney’s Inner West to Newcastle and back, getting a good 250km travel in before recharging at the Cameron Park Evie charger. That trip brought the car down from 100 per cent to 52 per cent, which then recharged to 92 per cent in 27 minutes.
I wasn’t there very long compared to if I was driving a much slower DC charging car (such as the BYD Dolphin at 80kW or the Renault Megane E-Tech, also 80kW), thanks to the 110kW charging capacity paired with a 350kW max DC charger, and this was the only time I charged the car.
It doesn’t come with an included home wall plug charger, but does come with a Type 2 to Type 2 charger, meaning for home charging, a homeowner would likely need to install a charger, rather than relying on an (admittedly slow) 2.4kW socket charger for an Australian outlet.
It’s a worrying trend for me to see EVs no longer including the outlet charger – of my recent reviews, the 2024 Model 3, the Abarth 500e, and now the Seal have ditched it, though the 500e and Seal did include a Type 2 to Type 2 charger for BYO cable charging (such BYO chargers aren’t too common on Australia’s east coast just yet, but as curbside chargers roll out we’ll likely see more).
Erring more critically, 110kW DC charging for the base model isn’t too exceptional when you compare it to more expensive heavy hitters. The entry-level Model 3 goes to 170kW, while the mid-range goes to 250kW and Performance to 210kW. More exceptionally, Hyundai and Kia’s Ioniq and EVX models go up to 350kW.
Bringing it down to one of the Seal’s more direct competitors, the MG4 (which is still my EV of choice), that car caps out at 150kW (88kW on the entry-level trim, which is intended to be a budget inner-city pick).
With these things in mind, it’s hard to not see the Premium as the pick of the bunch – but we’re not done yet.
That’s a bit Sealy
I can’t not talk about the spinning centre screen. The infotainment display can, with the tap of an icon, rotate from landscape to portrait. It serves absolutely no purpose, and I’d actually say it causes more problems than it solves.
Firstly, it’s more difficult to see the portrait display in direct sunlight than in landscape, especially if you’re wearing sunglasses. There are also apps that simply won’t work in portrait mode, such as Android Auto. Not to get alarmist, but a rotation button also presents an obvious extra point of failure over the alternative: not having the feature altogether.
The car also has dynamic lighting throughout the cabin, though despite my best efforts, I could not find a way to change the colour through the infotainment system. Going online, the solution I found was… Using the voice assistant to change the lighting. It’s probably a non-issue – you’ll probably stick with one colour for months on end – but just… Why is it like this? There’s no good reason for this.
Additionally, while I’ll praise the Android-based operating system for getting more things right than wrong, I can’t say it’s all good. The inbuilt maps are extremely prickly, detecting congestion and speed cameras that simply aren’t there, and speed limits that are completely wrong (you can disable alerts for all of these, but I would rather that it just got them right).
The settings can be a bit difficult to navigate too, and having two app windows open on one screen isn’t a very aesthetically pleasing experience, with both apps given an equal share of the display, and a gigantic adjustment line placed right in the middle. I’d also like the climate control settings to be more adjustable without needing to open a separate climate window app, and it’d be handy if a phone app was among the top three on the home screen.
There’s also not much boot space compared to competitors, and rear vision was a bit of a letdown.
Here’s a look out the rear window.
Who is the BYD Seal for?
The BYD Seal is a car that I can easily recommend if you’re after a Tesla that’s not built by Tesla – but I recommend it more if you want a quality EV without spending too much money. Make no mistake, there are obvious disadvantages to buying the Seal over premium rivals from such carmakers as Polestar and Ford, such as DC charging speed and infotainment finickiness, but those issues are easily alleviated by saving so much money.
It’s nice to see another strong rival electric sedan in Australia, with the Ioniq 6 often inaccessibly priced and the Model 3 being potentially offputting to some drivers for its lack of similarity to traditional cars (lacking an instrument cluster, stalks, a shifter, and many physical buttons, for example).
This is an EV that might be great enough to get you to switch. Alternatives to consider alongside the Seal are the MG4 and the base-model Tesla Model 3.
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