ESCAPE TO THE COUNTRY

A new Tesla rival? We drive BYD’s Seal from Birmingham to Castle Combe to find out more

Words Ben Barry | Photography Alex Tapley

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The light turns green, I squeeze the throttle and the all-electric BYD Seal surges effortlessly forward, feeling every bit as urgent as its 3.8-second 0-62mph sprint suggests.

We’re in Birmingham, navigating the morning rush and our 0-30mph run gives a tantalisingly glimpse of what’s to come, when we road trip to Castle Combe to go for a series-production electric car record at the Wiltshire circuit.

In fact, new-to-the-UK BYD has already been setting records – this global Chinese brand sold more than three million EVs during 2023 and registered more cars than Californian rival Tesla during the final quarter of last year.

Parked up earlier, some interested commuters show their curiosity in the aerodynamic saloon but only one person knows that BYD is a challenger to Tesla’s EV crown. (They even point us to BYD’s new dealership down the road on High Street, one of 24 in the UK and growing!)

And no-one yet knows that BYD was founded in 1995, making it only eight years older than Tesla, and that BYD is short for Build Your Dreams. But if the company meets its European growth ambitions, all that will change – and fast.

UP TO 354 MILES OF ELECTRIC RANGE

BYD quotes 26 minutes for a 30-80% charge on a 150kW charger, and after topping the Seal’s 82.5kWh ‘Blade’ battery to full at the Bullring Shopping Centre car park, we settle into the plush diamond-quilted leather seats of our Excellence AWD (all-wheel drive) model and press the start button.

Graphical bubbles rise and ripples cascade out from the centre of the 15.6-inch infotainment screen, and the 10.25-inch driver’s digital instrument binnacle shows more than enough range for our circa 100-mile trip – the readout is 323 miles. The rear-wheel drive model manages 354 miles in comparison.

I set the sat-nav using voice control (good so long as you enunciate clearly) then push a screen icon to rotate the entire infotainment screen through 90º from landscape to portrait format (BYD’s snazzy calling card but also a more natural way to read a map). Then it’s time to strike out into the morning rush.

EMISSIONS-FREE DRIVING IN THE CITY

Few places embody the clean energy transition quite like Birmingham. Its canal network once transported coal from nearby Black Country mines to local industry, but today the canals are for pleasure cruises and walks, and the city’s Clean Air Zone aims to reduce both pollution and congestion for locals – while the most heavily polluting vehicles are charged to access the zone, we waft about both emissions- and fee-free in the BYD Seal.

In fact, BYD is already making a direct positive impact on local air quality, beyond the Seal and its Dolphin hatchback and Atto 3 crossover siblings. That’s because when BYD began life back in 1995 as a battery manufacturer, it soon branched out into everything electric from forklift trucks to buses.

Today it still does all that stuff, and bus operator National Express West Midlands has ordered 170 fully electric BYD AD Environ400EV buses to be delivered by the end of 2024 – we see plenty of the grey and blue double deckers already silently ferrying Brummies into the city centre.

Buses! Phones! Find out more about BYD here

We’re heading away from the commute, with the Seal’s excellent sat-nav taking us through the back routes like a local towards the A435 south and Evesham, our speed increasing as traffic thins.

HOW’S THE Seal FEEL ON THE GO?

The Seal makes for a relaxing companion with its effortless acceleration, little in the way of tyre- or wind-noise (the latter thanks partly to double-glazed front glass) and a 12-speaker Dynaudio Performance Audio system to fill the vacuum of noise.

Rear-seat passengers are similarly pampered – the floor is flat because there are fewer mechanical bits to squeeze underneath, and more importantly there is absolutely masses of space. Not to mention 400 litres of room in the boot for our gear, and a 53-litre bonus storage area under the bonnet, despite the nose having a motor also tucked in there for extra power and traction.

For all the comfort, I’m sure the last Seal I tested was more relaxed – that was the entry-level Design RWD model, which starts at £45,695. This time we’re testing the top-spec Excellence AWD, adding a further £3k to the price and that performance boost split over both axles, perhaps explaining the stiffer chassis settings.

The entry-level Seal Design starts from £45,695. This is the top-spec Excellence AWD adding a load more performance

Whichever one you pick, the factory specification goes full trolley-dash – keyless entry and start, 19-inch alloys, a glass roof, 360º camera, electric memory seats and a load more are all standard. The Excellence AWD has some significant chassis revisions majoring on performance: iTAC Intelligent Torque Adaption Control which juggles torque delivery to all four wheels, variable frequency dampers and a driver’s head-up display.

Both get the 82.5kWh cobalt-free battery, but the heavier all-wheel drive Seal sacrifices 31 miles of range compared with the rear-drive Seal’s 354 miles. That small drop in range seems insignificant given the AWD’s frankly huge amount of extra power courtesy of its extra electric motor on the front axle. It bumps performance from 309bhp to 523bhp while adding the security of all-wheel drive. BYD’s so proud of the 0-62mph time it’s put it on the bootlid – ‘3.8S’.

Even in Eco mode it’s perky, but flick through Normal to Performance and the throttle pedal goes full cattle-prod. Flatten it to the floor and the Seal bursts past dawdling traffic like everyone’s standing still – no gears to worry about, no turbo lag to chew through, just elastic thrust.

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A pitstop in BroadwaY

We stop for lunch in Broadway. Just 36 miles south of the Bullring, this Cotswold village is more plummy than Brummie, and at midday on a late winter Wednesday its main street is humming with window-shopping tourists and Range Rover-driving locals.

Georges Barrett is a French-American who upped sticks to be with his British wife. There’s a Mercedes-Benz EQC 400 in the household but he’s intrigued by the Seal – and he knows BYD is outselling Tesla (which his daughter drives).

‘What model is that?’ he asks. ‘Nice features – the lights are kind of like the Porsche Taycan’s, and is that a panoramic roof? Wow. I imagine the Chinese will be quite like the Americans and just throw in a tonne of equipment with the price.’

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CAR readers and Broadway natives Martin and Joyce Oldman know a Seal when they see one, having watched various YouTube reviews.

They’re both fans of the slinky silhouette (penned by Wolfgang Egger, whose back catalogue includes Alfa Romeo, Audi and Lamborghini) and like the in-vogue ‘crayon’ colour – officially Indigo Grey. They’re also impressed by the Excellence AWD’s 390kW (523bhp) but suspect the base model’s 230kW (308bhp) would be more than enough. Would they consider one? ‘I would actually,’ says Martin.

STACKED WITH SAFETY KIT

A quick bite from a local deli and we’re back on the road, heading south and then west to join the M5 motorway, where I let the Seal’s Intelligent Cruise Control take the strain at a steady 70mph (the better to avoid both admonishments from the law and the Seal’s own overly enthusiastic onboard speed warnings).

In fact, this car is loaded with safety kit – Lane Change Assist, Rear Cross Traffic Alert, Forward and Rear Collision Warning, Blind Spot Detection... it’s all here.

A little over 20 miles later we leave the M5 at the Stroudwater Interchange, and soon we’re cutting over the wide-open grasslands of Minchinhampton Common. It’s a gorgeous spot located high on a limestone plateau with commanding views out over the Cotswolds. From here the only way is down.

CLICK TO VISIT BYD

On the motorway, I let the Seal’s Intelligent Cruise Control take the strain at a steady 70mph

Sure enough a few miles later we’re plunging downhill through a series of sweepers for our first real test of the Seal’s dynamics. The 4.8-metre long saloon allows a decent amount of roll, the steering is accurate and while, like most electric cars, you’re aware of its higher kerbweight compared with combustion cars, its 2185kg mass is evenly distributed across the axles. So it turns in keenly and all that oomph and grip slingshot us out of the turns like a stone from a catapult.

Following cars quickly recede in our rear-view mirror, my neck muscles get a surprisingly fierce workout... it all bodes well for our track session.

Ninety miles and a few hours later, we’re pulling into Leigh Delamere services for a quick recharge of the Seal’s batteries – it’s averaged 2.8 miles per kWh over this mixed route, translating to a real-world total range of 231 miles, which isn’t bad given the wintry temperatures. Expect more from less demanding driving: the official efficiency figure is 3.41 miles on the WLTP test cycle.

Then it’s time to recharge our own batteries with an overnight stop at the Jolly Huntsman, near Chippenham. Tomorrow’s a big day – a lap record attempt at Castle Combe.

road trip: OUR route

We start our journey in Birmingham, with its Clean Air Zone nurtured by BYD electric buses
Lunch in chic Broadway, Worcestershire, often known as the ‘jewel of the Cotswolds’
The roads get twistier as we close in on Minchinhampton Common, an oasis of open space near Stroud
Off the M4 is Leigh Delamere, with 6 potent 350kW Gridserve chargers, which can charge the Seal from 30-80% in 26mins
Our final destination, the location for the Seal’s electric car lap record attempt