It’s hard not just to keep up with the flow of new electric models flooding onto the market; but also with the list of new Chinese manufacturers making them, and looking for UK customers.
One of the latest is XPENG, there’s also Omoda, Ora, Jaecoo, Leapmotor, Haval and so on; unless you’re an avid devourer of motoring magazines, you might not be too familiar with any of them.
One of the latest is BYD, short for Build Your Dreams, which started selling into the UK two years ago this month. In fact it’s been celebrating a year of amazing growth here, increasing its volume by 658 per cent to over 8,700 cars in 2024, making it the UK’s fastest growing car brand. So definitely a dream for some.
We drove their Seal, which comes in two different forms; the Design which is rear-wheel drive and the Excellence which is all-wheel-drive, with two electric motors, with impressive ranges of 354 and 323 miles, respectively.
The Seal is a sleek, slippery-looking car with a low profile, not exactly attention-grabbing but nevertheless packed with many small, quirky features that often get left out on the way to full production, after initially being dreamed up on the designer’s computer screen. Of which more later.
Entirely electric, with the ‘Blade Batteries’ built, they say, seamlessly into the car’s body to form a strong ‘sandwich’ structure in a ‘Cell-to-Body’ process, casual observers might mistake it for an equally streamlined Tesla, or even Hyundai’s Ioniq 6, but it is very much its own car.
Inside job
The Seal Design is a good-looking motor and that continues inside, where the sumptuous-looking diamond stitched upholstery on the neatly sculpted seats does a good job of catching your eye, as do the well-chosen materials and the theatrical 15.6-inch infotainment screen which - a great ‘show off’ point - swivels electronically from landscape to portrait at the push of a button. Handy, sometimes, for map-reading.
As ever, however, with cars that have minimal switchgear, most functions being devolved to the main screen, it can be tricky finding the ‘right’ control, sometimes necessitating several icon pushes for even simple commands. Especially if you need to navigate out of Apple CarPlay first, and then back again.
There’s a decent central storage ‘bin’ though, sufficient room in the door pockets and plenty of cabin room for four adults, even if it is so low-slung that getting in and out requires agility and leg strength. OK for its presumably young designers then.
Rear boot space is reasonable at around 400 litres and there’s a little more space under the bonnet for charging cables or small odds and ends, too.
On the road the Seal instantly feels premium, swish, smooth and, of course, being electric, very quiet. Road noise is well controlled at low speeds and, around town, the ride is notably smooth, even over speed humps. At higher speeds some road noise intrudes on rougher surfaces, where the ride quality can also become a little fidgety.
The steering feels direct (overly so sometimes; it tends to dart into corners at speed, matters improving slightly in Sport mode). This car is fast, very fast, as befits a sports saloon. The 312 bhp motor unleashes 0-60 mph in just 5.9 seconds while the top speed is 11mph. Plump for the costlier £48,695 530bhp Excellence, and the corresponding figures are a super-whizzy 3.8 seconds and, still, 111 mph.
Straight and narrow
Is it fun to drive? Up to a point. Irritatingly, the brakes are very grabby, especially when cold, and especially at lower, town speeds. Fortunately this improves at higher speeds. It handles neatly on twisty roads (although it can be hard to judge its width on narrow ones because of the low-slung seating) and sits nicely on straight motorways and A-roads. Like most electric cars it feels somewhat clinical compared to an internal combustion engined car. That, it seems, is often the nature of the electric beast.
Back inside, there’s a surprising amount of space on the rear floor (you might use it for walking boots dog paraphernalia and so on when you don’t have passengers). And those quirks? Strangely-contoured speaker grilles, little BYD logos on the electrically-extending door handles, swoopy panels in the front doors and almost ‘80s-like stylised air vents in the external bodywork. It feels as though it’s been created by a young, enthusiastic - talented - designer brimming with fresh ideas. I suspect he didn’t spend a lot of time sitting in the back however; it’s spacious enough but the rear seats are not especially supportive, particularly under the thighs.
Oddly, the front cabin vents can’t be angled, as in almost all other cars I’ve ever driven, although in practice this didn’t seem to be too much of a problem. A nice touch was the physical, central ‘roller’ for volume control and a ‘quick’ button on the steering wheel to get the great reversing cameras up on-screen. Just as well too, as vision out of the rear, for reversing, is very restricted. Talking of reversing, the stylish wheels might not stay stylish for long, at least not in London where we constantly have to park up against the kerb, as they are not sufficiently protected by protruding tyre rubber. They stick out, a little. Asking for trouble, that.
Generally, there is a feeling of quality throughout the car and I’ll put the fact that the plastic trim around the internal rear-view mirror came off in my hand, down to bad luck. It snapped back into place, no problem, and stayed there.
While on the subject of vision, though, the steeply sloping front pillars - either side of the windscreen - don’t help at junctions. I found myself having to double-check - and check again. Just to be safe, as they create something of a blind spot.
Nice touches are that the heating can be controlled from the steering wheel (how quirky that it goes straight from 18-degrees C to ‘Low’, instead of to 17, 16, and then 15, as with other cars) while the centre console houses twin wireless phone-charging pads, which fitted my iPhone 15 Pro Max very nicely indeed. The gearshift is very neatly and stylishly designed, adding to the feeling of high-tech luxury.
The Seal is a fun, bold statement from BYD and while flawed in some respects, is full of interesting flourishes, style and, to an extent, glamour. BYD is one to keep your eyes on.
The Facts
BYD Seal Design
Price: £45,695
Top speed: 111 mph
0-60 mph: 5.9 seconds
Range: 354 miles
Emissions: 0 g/km
