First Drive: BYD Seal

Jek Ray

01/10/2023

The BYD Seal wasn’t just unveiled in the typical new car launch fashion. The Chinese automaker was keen on the local motoring press to sample the car’s capabilities.

Which is why they launched the car at Changi Exhibition Centre in the first place. Here, we’d get to try out all three variants of the BYD Seal, on two separate courses. We had the usual handling course, and a second station designed to showcase the Seal’s prowess on acceleration, braking and directional change.

In all fairness, this probably isn’t a representative First Drive article. No one is going to be driving these cars this hard on real roads. But the key takeaway for me was just how surprisingly quiet the car was on the inside, despite there being obvious under or oversteer (and thus, tyre squeal).

I got to sample the range-topping BYD Seal Performance on the handling course. This dual-motor car has a combined 523 bhp and 670 Nm of torque, and would do the century sprint in just 3.8 seconds. The impressive thing here isn’t really the power output, but the way this power is regulated.

There’s no doubt that this is a mechanically capable car. Though it does feel a tad unnatural to drive. Being electric and dual-motor, the car doesn’t feel as agile as you’d expect from a saloon of its size. BYD has engineered solutions to solve this issue.

Understeer is detectable on turn-in, and whilst that usually means backing off for more front grip, you need to trust the systems and fight your instinct. As the car detects a loss of traction up front, it sends power to the outside wheel, which then pulls the car back onto the intended path of travel. You can lift off to regain front grip of course, but the car solves it in its own way, and it actually feels faster to let the car do its thing.

The BYD Seal Premium was the first of the single motor cars I experienced at the launch event. It felt significantly more agile on track, and without the complex all-wheel torque vectoring of the Performance, you can actually feel the rear end of the car much better.

Having said that, the steering sensations are clearly geared towards a comfortable on-road drive, rather than being a driver’s car. You’ll really only feel the lack of front traction communicated through the wheel after the car has already begun to understeer. The assists do a good job in mitigating an over-exuberant driver, so perhaps the additional feedback probably wouldn’t be what the intended BYD Seal customer would be looking for.

The Dynamic was our chariot for the slalom/acceleration and braking course. It has the least power and the smallest battery of the trio, with just 201 bhp and a 61.4 kWh battery. As a result, it weighs the least, at slightly under two tons. This is noticeable in the slalom, as it felt the most eager to turn of all of the variants.

But it was also noticeably slower than either of its higher-spec cousins. Still, the power figures are respectable, and more than sufficient for use on our roads. All three cars are well insulated, and the leather upholstery in the Premium and Performance cars felt like a step-up from the vegan leather in the base Dynamic too.