Fully-electric and fully-loaded BYD sportscar is an all-wheel drive 530bhp rocket ship
ANOTHER BYD review for you this week.
You know them, the Chinese car manufacturer called Build Your Dreams that are the world’s biggest producer of electric vehicles — and batteries too.
And the Seal is its most potent model to date.
It’s a four-door volt from the blue and has left me shocked — in a good way.
There are two versions, one with an 230kW electric motor that powers the rear wheels, producing 313bhp.
It has a range of 570km and is good for 0-100kph in 5.9secs.
The Seal that I’m testing, the range-topping dual-motor model, has the same 230kW rear motor plus a 160kW motor up front for a combined 390kW.
That’s 530bhp and 690Nm of instant torque that’s sent through all four wheels.
This means it’s fast, very fast, able to blitz 0-100kph in just 3.8secs, a figure that BYD are so proud of, they stuck a 3.8s badge on the boot.
It’s a great-looking car, and has lots of EV rivals like the BMW i4, Polestar 2, and Tesla Model 3.
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But looks wise its reminiscent of a Porsche Taycan, but a lot cheaper as the Seal starts at €50,025.
And you can have the all-singing, all-dancing, range-topping dual-motor version for €54,025.
That’s a bargain when you compare it to a similar spec AWD Taycan that costs more than €130,000.
But you can’t really compare a Chinese car to a Porsche can you?
Well, the Seal is well put together, the build quality is superb and it’s very luxurious inside.
And it’s Chinese so it comes fully loaded as standard, with sumptuous grey leather sports seats that are heated and air cooled.
And of course there’s a heated steering wheel.
KEY FACTS:
BYD SEAL
Cost: From €50,025
Engine: Rear 230kW and front 160kW electric motors
Power: 530bhp
Torque: 670Nm
0-100kph: 3.8 seconds
Top Speed: 179kph
Battery: 82.5 kWh
Range: 520km
Real world range: 503km
Drivetrain: 1-speed auto - all-wheel drive
Euro NCAP: 5 stars (2023)
Rivals: BMW i4, Polestar 2, Tesla Model 3, Porsche Taycan S, Audi e-tron GT
There’s Alcantara trim, with embroidered BYD logos on all four headrests, and ambient lighting.
It also has the compulsory BYD party trick of a rotating central infotainment screen and in the Seal it’s a huge 15.6-inches, then there’s a 10.25-inch display for the driver but the graphics are small and sometimes hard to see.
The huge panoramic roof lets loads of light into the cabin and the lack of engine noise can easily be cured by playing some banging tunes on the superb 12-speaker Dynaudio sound system.
As well as being luxurious it is ludicrously rapid, there’s no virtual engine sound, just a faint whir from the electric motors as you launch down the road.
It would be interesting to see what G forces you’re pulling when you’re pinned back in your seat, and I don’t know whether it’s gravity or not, but after every launch, you can’t help but smile.
The Seal does a great job of masking its 2,185kg weight and the handling is really good, thanks to double wishbones up front and a five-link rear suspension set-up at the rear.
And on the AWD model, it features a semi-active suspension called Frequency Selective Damping (FSD) that controls the oil flow in the shocks to automatically adjust the softness of stiffness of the ride.
There’s also an Intelligent Torque Adaption Control system (iTAC) that works overtime keeping the Seal’s 530bhp on the road and you have four driving modes to choose from — Eco, Normal, Sport and Snow.
Both Seal models use the same 82.5kWh Blade battery. BYD have been making EV batteries for 27 years so it was great to see that after a full charge, the range I had with the battery at 100 per cent was 503km, only slightly down from the official 520km.
There are a few annoying features though.
The Driver Safety warnings are over-sensitive, it beeps and bongs constantly so why produce a car with such incredible performance if you get your wrists slapped when you dip a fraction over the speed limit?
Everything is operated via the central touchscreen, including the heating, so you have to take your eyes off the road then the car starts going mad at you.
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For some reason the radio reception is really bad — when using Android Auto or Apple CarPlay you no longer have access to the heating controls so you have to go out of the smartphone connection and back into the BYD operating system to adjust the climate, then connect back to your phone.
But they were only a few minor annoyances of an impressive electric rocket ship.
