5 things we don’t like about the BYD Seal
The electric vehicle (EV) market in Malaysia is heating up with the presence of various attractive models from all over the world.
The two EV brands currently hotly discussed are Tesla and BYD. The former made its mark in the local market with the launch of the facelifted Model 3 last October.
Meanwhile, the latter has introduced three EVs so far, with Seal being the latest offering to compete directly with the popular Model 3.
During a recent test drive, this writer found that the Seal has the right formula to go toe to toe with its closest rivals, but like most other cars, it still has some weaknesses.
Here are five things we don’t like about the Seal:
Two badges is one too many
For this writer, the Seal is one of the best looking cars, if not the best looking, in its segment. It has a sleek, sporty four-door sedan shape, which is further highlighted by strong character lines, 19-inch wheels, and a rear diffuser, to name a few.
However, BYD unnecessarily placed two ‘BYD’ badges at the rear – one in the centre and another in the bottom corner of the tailgate. The automaker also put a ‘3.8s’ badge under the ‘BYD Seal’ lettering to let the tailgaters know how fast this car can sprint from 0 to 100 km/j. This isn’t necessary and makes the Seal look cheap.
There’s a large panoramic roof, but…
The Seal comes standard with a large panoramic sunroof, which offers great views at night but can turn the cabin into a sauna during the day when the sun is directly overhead.
Surprisingly, the car lacks a power sunshade for the panoramic sunroof. Instead, BYD provides two piece of sunshades that have to be manually placed, which is quite annoying for a car costing nearly RM200,000.
Overly sophisticated controls
This writer is aware that in order to design a clutter-free, minimalist cabin, automakers try to minimise the amount of physical knobs and buttons as much as possible, and integrate the functions into the infotainment system.
But it needs to be said that not all vehicle functions need to be digitised. One good example is the air-conditioning system. In the Seal, even the AC vents adjustment is done via the large display. Sometimes, less is more.
Slow charging
Despite using a 800V architecture commonly found in luxury EV models, Seal only supports fast charging up to 150 kW, which lower than many other 800V EVs on the market.
For AC charging, the Malaysian-spec Seal can only support up to 7 kW, taking approximately 15 hours for a full charge, whereas in Europe, this model comes with an 11 kW AC charger.
Limited boot space
Despite its longer and wider dimensions compared to most C-segment sedans, Seal has a relatively small boot space of only 400 litres. There’s an additional 53-litre storage space under the bonnet but it’s not that spacious.
In comparison, the Model 3 has a whopping 682 litres of boot space while the B-segment sedan Honda City offers 519 litres of storage space in the back.
