- Doors and Seats
4 doors, 5 seats
- Engine
Perm Magnet, LI
- Engine Power
NA
- Fuel
650km range
- Manufacturer
RWD
- Transmission
Red'n Gear
- Warranty
6 Yr, 150000 KMs
- Ancap Safety
5/5 star (2023)
2024 BYD Seal Premium review
BYD’s mid-range, mid-size sedan is a blend of style, refinement and technology that might change your mind about the brand.
- Styling impresses in-person
- Sharply priced for the segment
- Impressive comfort and refinement
- Inconsistent driveline calibration
- Real-world range is not quite there
- Warranty exclusions
2024 BYD Seal Premium Extended Range
BYD blazed into the hyper-competitive Australian market in 2021, telling us it was the future of affordable electric motoring in Australia. And with very few competitors, its Atto 3 compact SUV impressed despite its weird interior.
The road between then and now has not been free of speed humps and potholes, but the end result is that many BYD Atto 3s are finding their way onto Australian roads and for good reason.
Now, the question is: will the BYD Seal mid-size sedan trod the same path to success as its mid-size SUV sibling?
Let's find out.
How much is a BYD Seal?
BYD is in the business of grabbing attention, and did so again when it launched the Seal. The three-car range starts at a mildly startling $49,888 for the Dynamic entry-level model, reaching $68,748 for the dual-motor 390kW monster that is the Performance.
In the middle is the Premium Extended Range (the only one dubbed long range) for $58,798 before on-roads. This fires it into the EV battlefield among the Tesla Model 3, Polestar 2, Hyundai’s Ioniq 5 and Ioniq 6 pairing, and the Kia EV6. For an EV, the Dynamic is cheap, while this Premium mid-spec is very good value.
It’s not as individualistic as its rivals, but at the same time is a pretty non-threatening kind of car, looking and feeling like the sedans we used to buy en masse in this country.
For your money you get 19-inch alloys, a leather interior (replacing the fake leather of the Dynamic), a massive glass roof, satellite navigation, a 15.6-inch media screen, a 10.25-inch dash screen, a head-up display, 12 speaker Dynaudio sound system, twin wireless phone chargers, power heated and ventilated front seats, leather steering wheel, keyless entry and start (as well as an NFC card key), auto LED headlights with auto high beam, auto wipers, ambient lighting and a tyre repair kit.
That list is around what you’ll get from Kia and Hyundai, more than the Polestar and Volvo options, and way ahead of the sparsely equipped Model 3. The Korean pair are more expensive, however, so that gap is worth examining.
Key details | 2024 BYD Seal Premium |
Price | $58,798 plus on-road costs |
Colour of test car | Aurora White |
Options | None |
Price as tested | $58,798 plus on-road costs |
Drive-away price | $61,791 (NSW) |
Rivals | Tesla Model 3 | Polestar 2 | Hyundai Ioniq 6 |
How big is a BYD Seal?
Stepping into a Seal after an Atto 3, you can see they’re sort of related, but the Seal is a much more sensible overall design than the smaller car. The Atto looks like it’s upholstered in Smurf skin, which I found a bit unsettling (the colour, I don’t actually think Papa Smurf was captured). The Seal is also absent of all the silly gimmicks of the Atto 3, which made me feel a bit more confident in its longevity.
Behind the Seal’s powered boot lid is a shallow but wide boot that BYD says is 400 litres. That’s not a lot of boot for a 4.8m car, but it is an EV. The boot floor is high-ish for the type of car it is too. Obviously, the battery and motor gubbins don’t reach all the way to the bumper structure, so there’s a kind of tube slotted in behind all the EV gear. What looks to be about a 50-litre section under the floor has plenty of room for the home charging cable, and then underneath that is a tyre repair kit as there is no spare tyre in the Seal.
The boot itself will do fine for most uses such as shopping or slinging a pram. There’s another 50-litre tub under the bonnet that, again, would easily hold the charging cable and its bespoke bag. Alternatively, it's not a bad place for wet towels or muddy shoes.
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The rear seats are reasonably comfortable, with plenty of leg room and knee room, which is handy because even dainty feet won’t easily fit under the front seats. Head room is good too, but even if you’re my height (180cm), your head will feel close to the huge glass roof. I am not a fan of these big glass canopies, because they’re not really appropriate for our climate or my Gen X sun-scarred head. I’d spend six months of the year driving in a hat despite the heavy tinting.
The glass roof isn’t particularly effective at repelling heating rays from the sun, and in this mid-spec fake leather-trimmed car, the seats still get pretty hot. It might be worth the lighter-coloured interior in that case, which is unfortunately a further $1500 option.
There is a cover for the glass in the spec sheet, but I couldn’t find it, and a proper roof would be better and, I dunno, cheaper. The Jaguar E-Pace has this type of roof, and the Polestar 2 as well, and I think having one on an Australian-delivered car is mystifyingly silly. I guess customers value these things and I might just be an army of one here.
In the back seat you get an armrest with cupholders, air vents, a slot for holding a phone or smaller device, a soft-open and close panel that hides a USB-A and C charging port, and double pockets on the back of the front seats. There are even little LED lights that light the seat at night.
Those fantastic-looking front seats – BYD likes a bit of a cool front seat, as also seen in the Atto 3 – aren’t as comfortable or huggy as they look, but they did the trick during the week we had the car, which included a mild range test from our home near Sydney Airport up to Medlow Bath and back.
As with the rear seats, you have two cupholders, a USB-C and USB-A port and door pockets. There’s a Tesla-like (and very welcome) double wireless charging pad, which I’m glad is there if only to silence Tesla owners who think that’s the feature that makes their Model 3 the greatest car ever made.
There is also a modestly sized console bin and a clear space under the console where you could fit a small bag, your phone, and where you’ll find the USB ports. The front cupholders are clever in that you can fit a normal-sized coffee cup in there or push down with a longer vessel so it doesn’t get in the way of your elbows. A press of a button returns the base back to normal coffee cup depth.
The dash is dominated by the rotating 15.6-inch touchscreen. It’s powered by some reasonably good software, although I’d like a few more physical buttons for oft-required functions. The dash rotation is really more about your personal preference, and as a Polestar 2 has taught me, I prefer landscape to portrait. It’s a lovely screen to look at and Apple CarPlay (and presumably Android Auto) fills the screen making it absurdly easy to use on the move.
Weirdly, the screen feels far less gimmicky than the similar unit in the Atto 3, although that’s partly due to a vast improvement in the software. The screens in the Attos I’ve driven feel like they were picked up off AliExpress with just a small update to indicate they actually belong to the car.
2024 BYD Seal Premium | |
Seats | Five |
Boot volume | 400L seats up 50L under bonnet |
Length | 4800mm |
Width | 1875mm |
Height | 1460mm |
Wheelbase | 2920mm |
Does the BYD Seal have Apple CarPlay and Android Auto?
That gloriously large 15.6-inch screen is really a nice departure from the slightly dodgy-looking unit in the Atto 3. That is to say that while the hardware in both is fine, here in the Seal there’s a vastly more convincing software package that looks like it was made for, or by, BYD rather than just a bunch of apps found on a $50 Android tablet.
The orientation of the screen is a mostly personal choice, but Apple CarPlay works best in landscape, filling the screen and looking top-notch while doing it. The 12-speaker Dynaudio-branded sound system was a bit muddy to my ears until I fiddled with the equalisation presets.
On start-up, the initial presentation is pretty slick, with three big circles acting as shortcuts to various functions. The car’s onboard 4G connection will stream Spotify to the screen. I found the Spotify app itself really irritating to use, and its insistence I listen to some creep called Joe Rogan ground my teeth a bit. It would also just play whatever it wanted when you tapped on something that you preferred. The voice search was laughably bad, but I don’t know who to blame for that.
Other interfaces, such as the radio (DAB, FM, and AM) worked well, although the DAB reception was quite spotty. There are a dizzying number of options for climate control, too, so one hopes the screen is reliable or easily replaceable. You can also operate it on a split-screen.
A swipe to the left reveals a phone-style interface for all the other available apps, which is where it suddenly feels a bit generic with some basic Android apps that almost nobody will use.
I’m not a huge fan of the keyboard used for the sat nav input, as it’s a bit finicky to use and the voice control isn’t all that good.
Another 10.25-inch screen acts as the instrument display. Not only is it bigger than other cars in the BYD range, but it’s much better laid out and nothing is too small to read.
Apple CarPlay is through USB-A, while Android Auto is wireless or through the same USB-A port, which is really irritating, particularly given Android owners have been in USB-C nirvana for a lot longer than us grubby iPhone fans.
BYD offers a smartphone app to connect to the Seal, with features such as remote locking/unlocking, remote control of the lights and horn, and cabin pre-conditioning.
Is the BYD Seal a safe car?
The Seal nailed a five-star safety rating with the 2023 rules, which are pretty tough. It scored 89 per cent for adult occupant protection, 87 per cent for child occupant protection, 82 per cent for vulnerable road user protection, and curiously just 75 per cent for safety assist systems.
With nine airbags, the crash protection is impressive and lines up well with its obvious rivals from Hyundai Ioniq (5/6), Kia (EV6), Polestar (2), Volvo (C40) and Tesla (Model 3). Each of these cars has a five-star ANCAP rating, with a couple of them featuring older ratings from either 2022 or 2021.
2024 BYD Seal Premium | |
ANCAP rating | Five stars (tested 2023) |
Safety report | Link to ANCAP report |
What safety technology does the BYD Seal have?
BYD has chucked a lot of safety systems at the Seal with mixed results. My colleagues report a more frustrating experience with them than I had.
The safety spec is the same across the range, which is heartening.
None of the other cars in this class feature such lazy calibration of the lane-keep systems. It either wanders around or, worse, wrestles with the driver in too many circumstances to wave them away as edge cases. It’s not nearly as bad as its compatriot, but too many cars out of China have counterproductive safety systems. Kia's and Hyundai’s are the closest, but they’re far more predictable and less intensive.
Like so many speed sign recognition systems, it took readings off the wall, failed to recognise school zone times, and occasionally just got it wrong.
You can switch off the systems to bring the number of gentle pings to a more meaningful level, but it would be nicer if they were just better out of the box. Yes, they help the Seal to a five-star safety rating, but they don’t help the user experience all that much. These sorts of things are fixable with updates, so hopefully BYD gets its act together because, from a tech perspective, this is by far the least convincing part of the package.
Kids are looked after with three top-tether and two ISOFIX points.
Autonomous Emergency Braking (AEB) | Yes | Includes cyclist, junction, night-time awareness |
Adaptive Cruise Control | Yes | Includes traffic jam assist |
Blind Spot Alert | Yes | Alert only |
Rear Cross-Traffic Alert | Yes | Alert and assist functions |
Lane Assistance | Yes | Lane-departure warning, lane-keep assist, lane-centring assist |
Road Sign Recognition | Yes | Includes speed limit assist |
Driver Attention Warning | Yes | Includes fatigue monitor |
Cameras & Sensors | Yes | Front and rear sensors, 360-degree camera |
How much does the BYD Seal cost to run?
BYD Australia’s baffling warranty applies to the Seal. While at first glance six years, 150,000km looks okay (I feel like Uber drivers are being discouraged here), there are a ton of exclusions. They range from the ridiculous (USB charging ports that would cost the BYD juggernaut approximately two tenths of a thousandth of not much) to the multimedia system (er…), wheel bearings (!) and the charge port assembly, all of which are only covered (among other things) for three years/60,000km.
The warranty exclusion list also goes out of its way to mention consumables like wiper blades, brake pads and even tyres for some reason, which are more typical industry-wide warranty exclusions.
Perhaps most concerningly, ball joints and “suspension” are only covered for four years/100,000km. Are they likely to fail? No idea. But if they do, one assumes it won’t be cheap.
Servicing is every 12 months/20,000km, which is common for all but Tesla. As I always say, it’s worth having your two tons of metal and glass inspected every year to make sure all is well. To encourage you to do that, BYD’s servicing pricing on the Seal bounces between $189 and $447, with three of the first eight services hitting that lower number and two hitting you with the big one. Two will set you back $370 working out at around $299 per year for servicing. Not super-cheap, not expensive.
The battery warranty is reasonably generous in company with its rivals, with a greater than 30 per cent degradation considered a problem. Some will allow you to claim at 20 per cent, so keep an eye on that. The Instant Internet Battery Experts will tell you that BYD’s LFP technology means that you’ll never have to use the warranty, but I think it’s fair to say the jury is out until we have cars on the road with this type of chemistry for that long. For what it’s worth, the signs so far are promising, but there’s still a way to go.
A $2429 per year insurance premium is based on a comparative quote for a 35-year-old male driver living in Chatswood, NSW. Insurance estimates may vary based on your location, driving history, and personal circumstances.
That lines up with other cars in this class but you wouldn’t call it cheap.
At a glance | 2024 BYD Seal Premium |
Warranty | Six years or 150,000km |
Battery warranty | 8 years or 160,000km |
Service intervals | 12 months or 20,000km |
Servicing costs | $2390 (8 years) |
What is the range of a BYD Seal?
BYD fits its famous Blade battery to the Seal, with an 82.6kWh lithium iron phosphate (LFP) chemistry battery fitted to the underside of the car. The Blade is an exceedingly clever way to package a battery, with the company claiming that it’s safer in a crash than a traditional set-up. It’s a decent-size battery in any EV on sale today, and given the competitive price per kilowatt-hour, we’re off to a flying start. BYD claims a 650km NEDC range, which is mildly preposterous, so let’s start with the more realistic 570km WLTP figure.
Now more than ever, the phrase 'your mileage may vary' applies. I rarely try to match the WLTP claims of an EV, because only hobbyists are keen to see if the official figures are achievable. Unless I have a car with a sub-300km range, the weekend usually includes a trip up to the Blue Mountains to see how the car copes and how my wife’s range anxiety manifests itself.
When I picked up the car from BYD it had a hugely optimistic 633km range from 98 per cent of battery charge. The car was set to display a dynamic range, so as soon as I got moving it got real and the first 150km saw the range drop to 382km, suggesting the WLTP figures aren’t a galaxy away from reality, at least around town.
A 140km drive up to Medlow Bath then back to the charging station at Lawson took me down to 32 per cent and a 163km remaining range. The M4 Motorway runs and hill climb really took it out of the battery, to which we then added 20 per cent of charge in about 25 minutes off a 50kW charger (we had to share the circuit with a Tesla, hence the slower charge rate of around 40kW per hour), which took us back to 293km. Another hundred-odd kilometres, some of which was very downhill, delivered us home with 39 per cent and 251km left on the range.
That’s a lot of numbers and a long explanation, but it gives you an idea of what you can do with the Seal without worrying too much about charging. While I think it's unlikely you’ll hit 570km unless you stick with city-only driving, if my maths is correct, we covered about 400km in the Seal using roughly 70kW but it was hardly hypermiling.
A 25-minute top-up was hardly an inconvenience, and we wouldn’t have needed it had I plugged the car in overnight. We may even have made it home without charging given the regenerative work of going downhill, but we weren’t keen to change it.
The car suggested we were using a very impressive 14.1kWh per 100 kilometres in the city (the first 150km), and it then climbed to the twenties on the motorway and uphill section, falling back to around 17kWh/100km by the time I returned it to the Drive office. That’s a pretty decent figure for such a varied week of driving, suggesting a range of about 480km, but significantly higher in the city.
Energy efficiency | 2024 BYD Seal Premium |
Energy cons. (claimed) | 16.6kWh/100km |
Energy cons. (on test) | 17.1kWh/100km |
Battery size | 82.6kWh |
Driving range claim (WLTP) | 570km |
Charge time (7kW) | 11h 45min |
Charge time (150kW max rate) | 37min (0–80%) |
What is the BYD Seal like to drive?
The Compared to the entry-level BYD Seal Dynamic the Premium has a larger-capacity, longer-range battery and is quicker as well owing to a more powerful motor mounted between the rear wheels. The 0–100km/h falls to 5.9 seconds from 7.5 seconds.
The base model has 'just' 150kW and 310Nm, while this one has 230kW (up 120kW) and 360Nm (up 50Nm). If you want more, you can get the 3.8-second screamer twin-motor machine with 390kW and 670Nm.
You can see from these figures that the Premium is sensibly quick without being mental while delivering – on paper at least – a vastly better range from its extra 21 kilowatt hours of battery power.
Its single motor is very quiet even for an EV, and that’s a feeling that dominates the Seal. It’s so quiet at most speeds, but it was particularly impressive on Sydney’s motorway network. My wife and I were easily able to hold a conversation, and that was courtesy of a range of sound-deadening measures including acoustic glass.
It’s a very comfortable car to drive, and I can’t tell you how pleased I was to be driving a low-slung sedan for once. That’s another reason it’s so quiet, with BYD claiming a 0.219 drag coefficient, which for the non-car-nerd means 'very, very slippery through the air'.
The steering is light in pretty much every mode, acceleration smooth and strong, and the ride is for the most part quite easy to live with. There are surfaces and moments where it gets a bit bumpy and noisy, but it is low and quite heavy, so that’s to be expected. Thankfully, the Continental EcoContact tyres have some sidewall in them to help keep things in check.
A weird driveline calibration was one of two things I didn’t like overly much. The first is related to the second. When you flatten the throttle and then lift off after reaching, say, 70km/h, it runs on rather than effecting any sort of regen or engine-braking effect. The car feels like it's making up its own mind for a moment, before you either tap the brake or the regen finally starts to do what you expect.
The three-mode regen itself is much like the Atto 3 – weak, weaker, off. I can’t help thinking a stronger regen would be great for the city range, but also a more familiar EV attribute. I don’t understand why you wouldn’t want one-pedal driving, but here we are.
Being rear-wheel drive, I’d expect a little more chattiness from the steering wheel, but it’s a quiet sort of thing. At least you won’t get any torque steer. At moderate speeds in the bends, the body holds on well, but country roads catch out the vertical body control when it gets bumpy. The tyres are hardly grip monsters, so cornering isn’t as much fun when you’re pushing it. It really is a cruiser, but if you’re moving to something like this from, say, a Kia Stinger GT, you might have to go for the Performance and find someone who’s done some work with springs, dampers and tyres.
There’s no doubting the suspension’s complexity – and therefore genuine possibility – as the Seal is equipped with double wishbones, so there’s likely a fair bit of potential for both BYD and the aftermarket to sort out.
Key details | 2024 BYD Seal Premium |
Engine | Single electric motor |
Power | 230kW |
Torque | 360Nm |
Drive type | Rear-wheel drive |
Transmission | Single-speed |
Power-to-weight ratio | 111.9kW/t |
Weight (kerb) | 2055kg |
Spare tyre type | Tyre repair kit |
Payload | 446kg |
Tow rating | NA |
Turning circle | 11.4m |
Can a BYD Seal tow?
At this stage, it appears you cannot tow with a BYD Seal. The specification sheet on the website does not cite a towing payload and you can’t specify a tow bar. So, no.
Should I buy a BYD Seal?
If you’re entirely or mostly citybound, the Dynamic should do the trick for most buyers and you can save 10 grand while you’re doing it. The Premium adds a useful chunk of driving range for owners wanting to strike out on a weekend away or perhaps a well-planned driving holiday while delivering an impressive bang for the buck.
The Performance feels like a bit of a dragster, because the tyres aren’t any better and the brakes don’t appear to be any different, so it’s not going to be worrying a supercar in the bends. A bit like a Tesla Model Y Performance, then, but rather cheaper…
It's a lovely car in which to spend time, easy on the driver and passenger for extended periods, and is a nice antidote to the SUV madness that shows little sign of abating. As ever with a newcomer brand, there are question marks over the long-term viability of both car and brand, but given its gargantuan home market presence, the latter is reasonably assured.
For me, the weird warranty exclusions are food for thought, if not an actual showstopper.
How do I buy a BYD Seal? The next steps.
The next step on the purchase journey is to check the BYD website for details of your preferred Seal variant. You can secure your Seal with a $1000 deposit after selecting a dealer. You can click here to find BYDs for sale.
Despite being able to order a car online, you can’t see when you’ll be getting the car. A very nice person from BYD told me that a shipment would be arriving in April or May 2024, but there weren’t many Premiums left and virtually no entry-level Dynamics. So, the best case is it'd probably be eight weeks, worst… well… that depends on when you get your order in.
This isn’t an unusual situation for BYD as it continues to scale up here in Australia. The person I spoke to also helpfully mentioned it’s worth ringing around, while also checking if cars with light interiors were available as the extra cost means a lot of folks stick with the darker colour.
We would strongly recommend driving the Seal that best meets your needs, as the price difference between each version is substantial enough to warrant it. The current benchmark is widely considered to be the Model 3, so drive the base model of that range or, if you have a little more to spend, consider the Polestar 2. The Premium is definitely the best all-rounder in the three-variant range, and buyers agree as it’s far and away the most popular.
If you want to stay updated with everything that's happened to this car since our review, you'll find all the latest news here.