BYD Seal U review

This is where the Seal U really begins to claw some ground on its abundant rivals: pricing. MG4 aside, we’ve not really been astounded by the pricing of the electrified Chinese influx, the BYD Seal saloon going toe-to-toe with a Tesla Model 3 on price rather than dramatically undercutting it.

The Seal U tries a different approach. The Boost spec kicks things off at around £34,000, which puts it on par with a smaller Nissan Qashqai e-Power and several grand cheaper than a Hyundai Tucson Hybrid.

Not to mention a whopping ten grand less than a Toyota RAV4 Plug-in or Honda CR-V, two of the key cars benchmarked by BYD. Both favour pragmatism over performance, just like the Seal U. Both are a lot more money. Mid-range Comfort trim is £35,205 and the top-spec Design car is £39,905.

What are the trims like?

They're essentially identical, powertrains aside. Every car gets the 15.6in rotating touchscreen, a pair of wireless charging pads, automatic LED headlights and wipers, powered tailgate, panoramic sunroof, vegan leather seats, 360-degree parking camera, intelligent cruise control, a 10-speaker Infinity hi-fi and natty 19in alloy wheels. The front seats in all models are heated, ventilated and electrically adjustable too. 

The only difference between the three models is that the top-spec Design gets a few extra drive modes to go along with its fancy AWD setup.

Which one should I go for? 

We’d really only recommend that someone got themselves a PHEV if they were able to charge at home – juicing up on public sockets just doesn’t make any sense when you’re only getting 2.0 mi/kWh out of a car. At any rate we’d bin off the extra power and four-wheel drive of the top-spec car and go for the extra electric range of the Design model.

As for warranties, all Seal U models are covered overall for six years/150,000km (93,750 miles) by its manufacturer, while the battery is guaranteed for eight years/200,000km (125,000 miles).