So I just test drove the BYD Seal Excellence AWD, and long story short I pulled the trigger on one the moment I got home, from Tusker. I was impressed to say the least.
A few thoughts.
Interior is great, I've only really owned a succession of decent but fairly ordinary cars, for comparison I have a 70 plate Volvo XC40 and the BYD looks and feels more premium. The seats were much better, the rear seats and space was much much better. It just felt like a nice place to be. That being said the boot was smaller than I expected but I'm not that bothered. The panoramic roof was quite tinted but I liked it.
I had a good go over a variety of roads and I'll start with the 530BHP dual motors. Wow! Just wow! It is by far and away the most rapid car I have ever driven. The first time I stopped on a back road and just floored it I was grinning from ear to ear. A lot of reviews mentioned some lag between flooring it and the acceleration kicking in but it seemed pretty instantaneous to me. But I've never driven an electric before, from the point of view of an ICE driver it was perfect. Once I got used to the power on tap it was really nice to drive. 50-70 was in the blink of an eye and again I really couldn't discern any lag maybe a little but I can remember driving turbo cars back in the 90s (Fiat Uno Turbo etc) and it was nothing like that. For me also, the suspension was fine - not too hard or soft, it seemed to deal with shabby UK back roads comfortably. One problem with the Volvo is that it wallows a bit. The BYD was much better in that respect and felt fixed to the road, I'm not really much of an expert but it just felt fine. Frankly it was a better drive than the XC40 or an older Merc GLA220 which we have.
I was surprised how good the HUD was, actually I think it's a bit of a gamechanger having never seen one before. It was big, bright, really clear and in colour. I never once had to look at the instrument cluster just behind the wheel.
A lot of reviews mention the driver assistance stuff being a real pain but I never noticed it once. You can turn most of it off, and I think the garage had done that prior but I don't think it resets it self as I turned to car off and on halfway through the drive. All I got was a very quiet bong when the speed limits changed. The was no warning if you exceeded the speed limit (ever so slightly, of course) and I tried moving across lane marking etc and it didn't react or anything. From what I could see it was a non issue.
It has a big tablet in the centre and then a smaller screen behind the wheel and these were both fine. The one behind the wheel displays the speed and discharge rate. It didn't look particularly slick in design (the screen itself was fine) and was rendered rather pointless by the excellent HUD. The centre screen/tablet display was also fine but the software is a bit meh. It's perfectly responsive but just feels a bit half baked, that being said it seems to work fine, just doesn't look particularly slick. The onboard nav software seemed to be perfectly functional, with option for seeking out chargers etc but nothing special. There were a lot of menus and setting to delve into. However Apple carplay worked flawlessly and connects wirelessly so I'm not really that bothered, as that is all I'll ever use - it also has android auto. It also has two wireless chargers at the front which worked fine. I have a feeling that the software is something that is continuously improved, so ill see how that goes.
In short I was really impressed - I was going to check out a polestar and maybe a tesla but I'll not bother now, they maybe slightly better, particularly from the software side but for me at least, the BYD is about 20% cheaper via Tusker so it was a no brainer.
