BYD Seal U Review 2024

For a new brand that’s recently launched three ranges of electric cars in the UK, it seems odd that BYD's fourth model would be a plug-in hybrid, especially as almost every other manufacturer has done it the other way round. Is this integration of ‘old’ technology a wrong turn or a smart move? Read our comprehensive BYD Seal U review to find out.

Lest we forget, BYD stands for Build Your Dreams — a Chinese giant that’s the world’s biggest electric car brand and which sells a vast array of automotive tech to other manufacturers, EV batteries being top of that list. 

In truth, its DM-i PHEV system has been around for a while on the Chinese market while elsewhere in the world the Seal U is also available in fully electric form, with UK sales expected in the future.

Given the convulsions slowing the pan-European uptake of EVs, unleashing a plug-in hybrid SUV seems like impeccably good timing rather than a strategic misstep.

Thing is, a sizeable raft of family-sized SUV rivals from manufacturers who tackled hybrid before all-electric powertrains - and have therefore had plenty of time to get them working rather well - now awaits the BYD Seal U.

Among a long list of rivals are plug-in hybrid offerings such as the Ford Kuga, the recently facelifted and still striking Hyundai Tucson, plus its close cousin the very popular Kia Sportage.

Of particular interest elshere are both the Honda CR-V — available in PHEV form for the first time despite its maker’s long history of hybrids - and from that even more vocal exponent of the self-charging hybrid system’s virtues, the Toyota RAV4 Plug-in.

Why those two? They were the two key benchmarks for BYD when deciding how to position its plug-in hybrid in this busy marketplace. Like the Seal U, both the Honda CR-V and the Toyota RAV4 favour practicality over performance, yet both also cost a good deal more than the BYD.

Not that BYD will have it all its own way in the value stakes as it arrives in the UK at around the same time as an all-new generation of the MG HS plug-in hybrid — its predecessor found many fans and not just among those being cost-conscious.

Strictly speaking - and in keeping with the company’s Ocean Aesthetics design language - we reckon this car should have been called the Walrus - sort of like a BYD Seal saloon but with considerable added lard. And before you scoff, BYD’s next SUV is going to be called Sealion…

Happily, though, the BYD Seal U doesn’t have the words 'Build Your Dreams' written large in chrome letters across its tailgate.

At almost 4.8 metres, the BYD Seal U is longer than many of its key rivals and most of that extra length has gone into the wheelbase, so the feeling of space up front is echoed in the rear seats. Some boot space has been sacrificed for the benefit of those sat in the back but customers are unlikely to complain about that.

There are two trim levels on offer to begin with, featuring identical levels of equipment, as the differences are limited to the engine and number of electric motors that are installed. In front-wheel drive format, the BYD Seal U has an electric range of 50 miles, dropping slightly to 43 miles in all-wheel drive guise.

In 2025 a larger batteried version of the FWD model is expected with an electric driving range of 77 miles. No word yet on the range of the fully electric BYD Seal U nor when it might land on these shores.

Nevertheless, BYD claims that customers will find the Seal U remains in EV mode around 90% of the time, although the engine alone can drive the front wheels when the battery is depleted making this a plug-in hybrid and not a range extender electric car.

So, with an entry-level price of a little over £33,000 for an efficient plug-in hybrid SUV, the BYD Seal U will turn the heads of plenty of would-be buyers. Read on to find out if you should be among them.

Tipping the scales at 1940kg and 2100kg respectively, both the front- and all-wheel drive versions of the BYD Seal U are more than somewhat porky. So it’s probably a good thing that the suspension has been set up with the emphasis on a comfortable ride. 

Allied to light steering and pretty good all-round visibility - a 360-degree camera compensates for the small rear screen - this makes for a pleasing machine in which to trundle around town, despatching sleeping policemen with a squishy contempt displayed by few other rival vehicles. 

Only occasionally does the undercarriage get caught out by a nasty ridge or pothole and only then does the resultant crash and shudder remind you of how much the car weighs.

But as speeds rise the car bounces about like Tigger in a sand pit on all but billiard table surfaces, refusing to settle in a manner that can become as wearing as a toddler in a sweet shop. Lob in vague steering and you certainly don’t have a recipe for any form of entertainment behind the wheel. The brakes, however, are excellent - just as well given the need to slow two tonnes. 

Even on a smooth surface that weight and the disinterested steering gang up to make trying to link sweeping corners together smoothly feel more of a chore than a pleasure. It’s not hard to drive, it’s just no pleasure to.

The BYD Seal U comes with a choice of two drive systems, as identified by the trim level. Boost features a 98PS 1.5-litre non-turbo petrol engine paired with a 197PS electric motor for total system power of 218PS driving the front wheels.

Design pairs a 1.5-litre turbo petrol engine producing 131PS with two electric motors - 204PS up front and 163PS at the back - for a 324PS total power output and all-wheel drive. 

The Boost combines 0-62mph acceleration in 8.9 seconds and a 106mph top speed with the all-wheel drive Design posting a 0-62mph time of 5.9 seconds and a 112mph full whack.

Both of these use the petrol engine predominantly to recharge the battery, letting the electric motors do the lion’s share of the work driving the wheels. The petrol engine can power the front wheels directly but the rear motor in the all-wheel drive model in powered by the battery alone.

BYD says the car can act as a pure electric vehicle for 90% of the time, though if battery charge is severely depleted it can also run as a pure petrol car at motorway speeds.

On the road, both front- and all-wheel drive systems are smooth and quiet. Put your foot down and the petrol engine kicks in but it doesn’t ‘moo’ like a classic CVT gearboxed hybrid. Indeed, on a motorway, you’ll rarely hear the engine cutting in, if at all. Unfortunately, that’s largely because wind and tyre noise dominate proceedings at speed.

Euro NCAP's crash testing experts have so far sampled a fully electric BYD Seal U, giving it a five-star rating. It's not yet clear whether the PHEV version will be tested separately but the EV's score is a positive omen.

The BYD Seal U DM-i is fitted as standard with a healthy array of safety and advanced driver assistance systems. All models feature Forward Collision Warning, Autonomous Emergency Braking, Rear Collision Warning, Front and Rear Cross Traffic Alert and Cross Traffic Brake, as well as the hateful Lane Departure Prevention and Emergency Lane Keeping Assist.

Further driver assistance is provided by Adaptive Intelligent Cruise Control, a 360-degree panoramic camera, a Blind-Spot Detection system, Electronic Stability Control, Traction Control, Hill-Descent Control, Automatic Vehicle Hold, Traffic Sign Recognition with Intelligent Speed Control and adaptive front headlights with High-Beam Assist.

The BYD Seal U is 4775mm long, of which a healthy 2765mm sits within the wheelbase, which means there’s stacks of room in the back and six-plus-footers will have no trouble sitting behind themselves.

The driving position gives no cause for complaint, with fine ergonomics abetted by electrically adjustable front seats. Both front and rear seats are comfortable, with the former offering a good degree of lateral support.

The 60/40 split folding rear seats recline for added comfort - via a manual fabric pull strap - and fold almost flat to the loadspace floor. The 425-litre loadspace is smaller than that of key rivals but increases to a useful 1440 litres when the seats are folded down.

Both of these figures are some 20% shy of what you get in the Hyundai Tucson, Kia Sportage or Nissan Qashqai, while the Honda CR-V is roomier still. This shouldn’t constitute a problem for most families and we think it’s eminently sensible to give the lion’s share of available space to rear seat legroom.

The BYD Seal U also rewards its passengers with twin phone charging pads, a cabin littered with USB-C ports and a Vehicle-to-Load (V2L) function so the car can run your wine fridge on picnics from its recharging port.

The BYD Seal U interior build and material quality is surprisingly good. In terms of perception, it very much errs towards the premium, being well thought out and carefully detailed. Scratchy plastics on display are kept to a minimum and soft touch padding protects most of the areas you come into contact with.

The upholstery is stitched together from something called vegan leather. We have no idea what variety of plastic it’s actually made from but, in the tofu versus fillet steak stakes, it’s a deal harder to tell the difference between this and genuine cow hide. It feels and settles under you just like the real deal. Time will tell how durable it will prove.

Overall, then, this is a pleasing interior that has been well built. The materials and finishes look and largely feel a considerable cut above this price bracket and nothing creaks, rattles or groans. We’d recommend opting for a two-tone finish to the vegan leather - it gives a welcome visual lift to the cabin.

BYD’s infotainment trademark is a centre console touchscreen that’s able to rotate between landscape and portrait layouts, with different orientations better for diverse functions. In the case of the BYD Seal U’s 15.6-inch screen, this is an amusing conceit slightly scuppered by the fact that neither Apple CarPlay nor Android Auto can support the portrait format.

No matter, because once you’ve swapped the anaemic looking white screen background for black, against which the default pale blue menu writing is actually legible, the system clearly majors on processing power. It’s fast to respond and largely easy to find your way around. BYD also vows to blizzard owners with over-the-air updates too, so things can only get better still.

That having been said, a whiff of fine-tuning wouldn’t go amiss here. Too many menu layers hide important stuff away in the depths and some of the functions - such as switching off all of the Euro NCAP five star essential active safety guff - might sensibly be lumped together under one shortcut icon to save the driver time at every departure. 

As ever, it’s also a shame to see the air-conditioning controls buried within the screen rather than controlled by fast and easy to use physical buttons.

For now, while we wait for the larger battery Comfort option to reach the UK, the BYD Seal U is available in just the two versions - the £33,205, front-wheel drive Boost and the £39,905 all-wheel drive Design. 

Comparing only rival plug-in hybrid machines, you’ll need to conjure another five grand or so to find the asking price of even the cheapest rival - the £38,565 Ford Kuga. While £39,275 will afford you entry to the world of the Hyundai Tucson and £40,575 that of the Kia Sportage. 

Thereafter, things get even dearer — the Toyota RAV4 Plug-in Hybrid will set you back a minimum of £44,175 and the Honda CR-V a whopping £53,995 (no — the £45,920 CR-V ain’t a PHEV). Interesting, then, that BYD should have benchmarked the Seal U’s two most expensive rivals.

All of which means that the BYD Seal U PHEV is only really challenged by the less well-turned out and less well equipped £31,495 MG HS Plug-in Hybrid in terms of value.

And this BYD is very well equipped - all variants come with the spinning touchscreen, LEDs lights all round and alloy wheels, plus such creature comforts as a head-up display, twin phone charging pads, a panoramic sunroof and a high-end Infinity stereo. 

So if you do settle on a BYD Seal U, make sure you ask yourself if you really want to spend an extra £6700 getting to 62mph three seconds faster (or just like the idea of it), or plan to loiter overmuch on wet gymkhana grass.

If not, you probably don’t need the Design trim level with its extra grunt and all-wheel drive system - settle for the Boost.

In Boost guise, the BYD Seal has a claimed electric-only range of 49.7 miles and 671 miles on a full tank of petrol with the battery pack charged to 100%. WLTP Combined fuel consumption is quoted as a pie-in-sky 313.9mpg and CO2 emissions as 20.5g/km.

The all-wheel drive Design version claims an electric only range of 43.5 miles and 540.6 miles in total, with WLTP fuel consumption of 235.4mpg and CO2 emissions of 26g/km.

Of course, those astonishing fuel efficiency figures are weighted with the hybrid system at its most efficient setting. Usefully and rather boldly, BYD also provides figures for when only the engine is hauling the Seal U DM-i around - on the WLTP Combined cycle they’re quoted at 44.1mpg for the Boost and 38.2mpg for the Design.

Back in the real world, based on first-hand experience of both, we reckon the single-motor Boost version good for up to around 90mpg using a mix of electric and petrol power - which is pretty amazing - and about 45mpg for the dual-motor Design under similar driving conditions.

Both use an 18.3kWh battery which can be charged with three-phase 11kW AC power from 15% to 100% in two hours and with 18kW DC power from 30% to 80% in 35 minutes.

That third trim level waiting in the wings — Comfort — will host the same drive system as the Boost version but boast a larger 26.6kWh battery for 77 miles of electric-only driving range. 

As the BYD Seal U DM-i’s initial two trim levels are all about the drive systems. So, unless you want a faster car with all-wheel drive and a couple of extra driving modes, you’ll gain nothing in toys paying extra for the more expensive model.

With that in mind, standard equipment for both the BYD Seal U DM-i Boost and Design models includes 19-inch alloy wheels, all-LED exterior lights, front an drear parking sensors, a 360-degree camera, heated and electrically adjustable door mirrors, keyless entry and start, vegan leather upholstery, electric windows, electrically adjustable front seats that are both heated and ventilated, a 12.3-inch instrument panel screen, a 15.6-inch rotatable infotainment touchscreen, Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, voice control, head-up display, a 10-speaker Infinity audio system, twin smartphone charging pads, four USB-C charging ports, a panoramic sunroof and a Vehicle-to-Load (V2L) function.

Option choices are restricted to a selection of five sombre paint colours and two interior colourways — an all-black version or a black and brown alternative.