BYD Seal Excellence AWD review

BYD Seal

BYD Seal Excellence AWD review.

****
For – handsome, high quality, supercar performance
Against – hopeless in the fast lane
£48,695
Competition – Tesla Model 3, BMW i4, Hyundai Ioniq 6, Kia EV6, Genesis GV60, Polestar2.

Chinese electric vehicles are much cheaper than European ones, look just as good if not better, and appear to have world-class quality. But before you think Europe should roll over and die, they have one big weak spot. 

Chinese EVs are hopeless when cruising at high but legal speeds on motorways.

I’ve just spent a week with the £50,000 BYD Seal and its motorway performance was poor. The regenerative braking didn’t regenerate much either. 

The Seal has an impressively huge 82.5 kWh blade (LFP) battery. It charges right up to its claim of 323 miles. Suspiciously, to my perhaps jaundiced mind, every time I plugged the car into my home charger overnight, it ended up with exactly the same reading every time the next morning – 323 miles. That’s never happened to me before with more than 30 EVs and made me suspect (without a shred of evidence it must be admitted) that the gauge was designed to read 323 miles every time.

This “blade” battery uses lithium iron phosphate (LFP), not the usual nickel-manganese-cobalt chemistry. LFP uses fewer rare earth materials, It has a lower risk of thermal runaway when damaged and is said to last longer. Battery life isn’t shortened by being fully charged or discharged. LFP batteries have less energy density and don’t charge as quickly.

Magnificent performer
The Seal performs magnificently on the highway in terms of performance. Its 523 hp power guarantees that. Acceleration is awesome and the response is instant. We are talking Ferrari supercar stuff, with zero to 60 mph coming up in 3.6 seconds. (For some weird reason the badge at the rear says 3.8S, which turns out to be the time from zero to 62 mph, a stat that makes no sense to anybody). But cruising at legal speeds on motorways the range simply melts away. I recorded that it disappears at a 66% rate, but that’s an underestimate compared with other results which I’ve ignored in a quest to be as fair and generous as possible.

This poor performance is in line with other Chinese EVs I’ve driven. The BYD 60.5 kW Atto 3’s highway cruising penalty was 61.1% (101.2 miles). The MG ZS 44.5 kW negative was 36.2% with a small battery which gave a motorway range of just over 90 miles (motorway range means around an indicated 75 mph in the UK and probably an indicated 85 mph in Europe. No hiding behind trucks in the slow lane). The ORA Funky Cat penalty was 31% and a motorway range of 133 miles. Geely’s Polestar was also at the relegation end of the league with 59%. But the Seal positively dumps its range at high speed. I calculated a 66% rate, restricting motorway cruising range to a ridiculous 110 miles. The class-leading Tesla Model 3 has an average battery capacity of 341 miles but only loses capacity at a 30.2% rate for 239 miles of range.

Poor regenerative braking
The regenerative braking didn’t impress either. I always drive with the highest regenerative setting to maximise so-called one-pedal driving. This means you use the actual brakes less and drive in a smoother way. The electric motor reversing itself is enough to cut the speed most of the time. I expect this at the very least to mean the range offered for an urban or a rural journey will be met. SEAT and VW systems often offer a healthy profit, with the range consumed being less than the distance travelled. A free lunch in fact. The Seal never got close to breaking even. Not even over the gently rolling hills of Sussex’s A272, designed it would seem to boost the natural attributes of an electric car.   

Meanwhile the Seal is a terrific car. It looks handsome, in my opinion, and oozes class and quality. The doors shut with a very German clunk. The interior is lovely. The R, D, N, P selector looks awesome. Handling on fast curves felt very, er, German. The performance is supercar-like. The suspension was on the harsh side. Just fine if you don’t live in a 3^rd world country with badly maintained and pot-holed roads. The rear passengers have a huge amount of room. 

Pointless squawking
There were some niggles. The system squawks at you when you exceed speed limits. That’s all very well if you need reminding. Very annoying if the system is out of sync with reality and moans when you do 30 mph in a 60-mph (or should that be 62 mph?) area. The media system was a mystery. I never did connect properly to Apple CarPlay, although it would turn on unannounced, then disappear mysteriously. The key fob seemed cheap and not very cheerful. You couldn’t tell if you’d actually pressed it hard enough. The double click required to open the trunk worked occasionally. The boot wasn’t very big and failed the golf club test. The rear view was constricted by the sloping roof. 

Prices start at £45,695 for the Design version with rear-wheel drive. This Excellence with all-wheel drive was priced at £48,694. This has an electric motor on the front and rear axles.

What to buy
You could argue that this lack of high-speed motorway range doesn’t really matter. If you accept that EVs can’t charge down motorways from Calais to Barcelona once a year as an ICE vehicle can, an electric car will perform very well for regular motorists. Why not keep a solid old diesel in the garage for once or twice a year long-range use? But on this evidence, it’s clear that EVs can’t perform the all-round job the ICE vehicles can. All the time they cost loads more money than ICE but offer less utility, EV sales will stall. Another example of why a plug-in hybrid is the only sensible way to go. 

BYD Seal