Any BYD Seal Owners or Critics?
- Thread starter Mysterae_
- Start date
Waiting for it? And then what?
It's going to be the one that brings jpaul into the fold of course! Once he's then worked out his mobile signal, charger on a stick placement, the moon and planets all align and you stop ruining any stock you buy...yeah maybe it's not.
The day he buys an EV, we'll have quantum computing, flying cars and fusion all sorted on the same day.
I bought my Seal Excellence ex-demo at 4 months old with 4k miles on it for £36k; a brand new one has a list price of almost £49k, so this gives you an idea of the depreciation that this and other EVs suffer (Taycan ouch!) which is a big negative, why I've never bought a new car. All cars depreciate though and if you're planning on keeping it for a while or leasing it one way or another it becomes less of a factor.
It's four months later and the car has just over 8k miles on it and nothing's fallen off, broken or stopped working
. Totally trouble free. It has almost all the 'extras' that other manufacturers charge a premium for and they work as intended (with the exception high beam assist which sucks). It's been a great car, bags of room for the rear passengers although the boot could do with being a smidge bigger for taking more luggage on those rare occasions. I agree with @panthro, a hatchback version would be nice, extending the boot more.The Seal feels solid, well built with no rattles or squeaks to be heard of. It certainly feels planted because of it's weight but the drivetrain makes light work of the perception of weight.
One negative is the suspension is a bit on the firm side and I'm used to BMWs
. It's certainly not 'crashy' it just isn't compliant enough for a family car on some roads but not an issue on most. I've gotten used to it tbh and it's only when I hit a really poor bit of our publicly funded road surface that I'm remined of it. Talking of roads, this car is quite susceptible to tyre noise on less than smooth surfaces and it'll be interesting to see/hear if changing the Continental tyres that came with changes that. My advice would be to test drive one above 60mph on a variety of surfaces to see if it would bother you.You probably know the Seal has three driving modes, Eco, Normal and Sport. In Sport the acceleration is nuts. To give it a stupid comparison:
Of course straight line acceleration is one thing and handling is another entirely. The Seal's handling is good but it's no supercar despite it's 523hp; I've never gotten it out of shape on some of the twisty B roads I've driven on as it's handling and control are predictable but I wouldn't push it at my skill level. Mental note - never switch on automatic cruise control when in Sport mode and following another car on bendy B roads - because when it looses track of the car in front the car will gladly launch you in to a hedge! In fact, forget about ACC altogether. Not that it's bad on the Seal, I just don't like the idea of it.
Anyway, to me, the power and acceleration is more about safe overtaking which I do regularly on single carriageway roads because of the amount of HGVs, caravans and old grannies that dodder around here. The speed you can achieve just as you pass shouldn't be stated here, it's effortlessly quick. However Sport mode isn't all great - forget trying small manoeuvres in Sport mode, such as parking. It's too twitchy and you'll end up in the wall or parked car in front of you. Put it in to Eco mode where it's much more subdued and smoother. In fact, the car is much nicer and smoother to drive generally in Eco or Normal mode, less rabid dog pulling at the leash and more sedate sea creature
. Your passengers will thank you for it too.I set the regenerative braking to it's lowest setting as I don't like feeling of artificial retardation, the lowest setting is more like traditional engine braking to me. I prefer the feeling of lesser braking over a longer distance rather than harder braking in a shorter distance, it's more pleasant for me and my passengers. This also stops the insane break light disco mode that EVs have with high regen braking - you'll know what I mean if you've ever been behind car with it. They look neurotic
.Range - I was getting around 300 miles on a full charge when driving intentionally smoother but that's dropping as I start driving in colder and darker nights and mornings. At a rough guess I'd say about 275 miles ish at the moment and expect it to fall to 250 or less perhaps in the winter. Pre-heating the car from the app while plugged in at home should improve this as you'll use less "range miles", so I've read. The heated seats are great at retaining the heat, so much so I double checked that I'd switch it off. I charge to 100% when I can because it's okay with the LFP battery. The highest charge rate I've seen on a public 150kW charger is around 125kW and that wasn't for long but was averaging around 90kW and tailing down as the battery filled up.
The Dynaudio sound system is good although it certainly needed adjusting from the deaf RnB mode the showroom had it set to. Apple Carplay is wirelss and Spotify, Audible, Waze and the Electroverse apps all work great on the big centre screen. In fact, the Waze and Electroverse integration is perfect at finding a charger, seeing the details and availability of it then navigating you to there. If only the navigation info displayed on the HUD as well, that would be great. The big centre screen is cool for watching movies or internet browsing while you charge and there's a secret "camp mode" you can set if you need to eh, camp in the car
.I've yet to receive the latest OTA update which brings an interface refresh and a battery pre-heating function for when DC charging. Both screens can be a bit keen to darken when you've the lights set to auto which I think is changed with the update. I've set the brightness to a level that's acceptable in both day/night until the update lands. The large centre screen can also be turned off for while driving at night if it's glare bothers you, as long as you don't need the satnav (again, I wish it was on the HUD!).
There's probably more points I've forgotten but it's already bit wordy so here's another picture.
It's a subjective and personal thing but I think the BYD Seal looks better than many EVs available today, inside and out. It has more performance than I'd ever need in a family car, is efficient enough and although reliability is yet to be determined, I'm pretty happy with the car.
Nice write up...I bought my Seal Excellence ex-demo at 4 months old with 4k miles on it for £36k; a brand new one has a list price of almost £49k, so this gives you an idea of the depreciation that this and other EVs suffer (Taycan ouch!) which is a big negative, why I've never bought a new car. All cars depreciate though and if you're planning on keeping it for a while or leasing it one way or another it becomes less of a factor.
It's four months later and the car has just over 8k miles on it and nothing's fallen off, broken or stopped working
The Seal feels solid, well built with no rattles or squeaks to be heard of. It certainly feels planted because of it's weight but the drivetrain makes light work of the perception of weight.
One negative is the suspension is a bit on the firm side and I'm used to BMWs
You probably know the Seal has three driving modes, Eco, Normal and Sport. In Sport the acceleration is nuts. To give it a stupid comparison:
Of course straight line acceleration is one thing and handling is another entirely. The Seal's handling is good but it's no supercar despite it's 523hp; I've never gotten it out of shape on some of the twisty B roads I've driven on as it's handling and control are predictable but I wouldn't push it at my skill level. Mental note - never switch on automatic cruise control when in Sport mode and following another car on bendy B roads - because when it looses track of the car in front the car will gladly launch you in to a hedge! In fact, forget about ACC altogether. Not that it's bad on the Seal, I just don't like the idea of it.
Anyway, to me, the power and acceleration is more about safe overtaking which I do regularly on single carriageway roads because of the amount of HGVs, caravans and old grannies that dodder around here. The speed you can achieve just as you pass shouldn't be stated here, it's effortlessly quick. However Sport mode isn't all great - forget trying small manoeuvres in Sport mode, such as parking. It's too twitchy and you'll end up in the wall or parked car in front of you. Put it in to Eco mode where it's much more subdued and smoother. In fact, the car is much nicer and smoother to drive generally in Eco or Normal mode, less rabid dog pulling at the leash and more sedate sea creature
I set the regenerative braking to it's lowest setting as I don't like feeling of artificial retardation, the lowest setting is more like traditional engine braking to me. I prefer the feeling of lesser braking over a longer distance rather than harder braking in a shorter distance, it's more pleasant for me and my passengers. This also stops the insane break light disco mode that EVs have with high regen braking - you'll know what I mean if you've ever been behind car with it. They look neurotic
Range - I was getting around 300 miles on a full charge when driving intentionally smoother but that's dropping as I start driving in colder and darker nights and mornings. At a rough guess I'd say about 275 miles ish at the moment and expect it to fall to 250 or less perhaps in the winter. Pre-heating the car from the app while plugged in at home should improve this as you'll use less "range miles", so I've read. The heated seats are great at retaining the heat, so much so I double checked that I'd switch it off. I charge to 100% when I can because it's okay with the LFP battery. The highest charge rate I've seen on a public 150kW charger is around 125kW and that wasn't for long but was averaging around 90kW and tailing down as the battery filled up.
The Dynaudio sound system is good although it certainly needed adjusting from the deaf RnB mode the showroom had it set to. Apple Carplay is wirelss and Spotify, Audible, Waze and the Electroverse apps all work great on the big centre screen. In fact, the Waze and Electroverse integration is perfect at finding a charger, seeing the details and availability of it then navigating you to there. If only the navigation info displayed on the HUD as well, that would be great. The big centre screen is cool for watching movies or internet browsing while you charge and there's a secret "camp mode" you can set if you need to eh, camp in the car
I've yet to receive the latest OTA update which brings an interface refresh and a battery pre-heating function for when DC charging. Both screens can be a bit keen to darken when you've the lights set to auto which I think is changed with the update. I've set the brightness to a level that's acceptable in both day/night until the update lands. The large centre screen can also be turned off for while driving at night if it's glare bothers you, as long as you don't need the satnav (again, I wish it was on the HUD!).
There's probably more points I've forgotten but it's already bit wordy so here's another picture.
It's a subjective and personal thing but I think the BYD Seal looks better than many EVs available today, inside and out. It has more performance than I'd ever need in a family car, is efficient enough and although reliability is yet to be determined, I'm pretty happy with the car.