BYD Seal U review

Seals and petrol are not a great combination in the natural world, but when it comes to cars it can work – as the BYD Seal U shows.

Let’s explain. While the BYD Seal is an electric saloon, the Seal U DM-i is a family SUV available exclusively as a petrol plug-in hybrid in the UK. China and some European countries will get a fully electric Seal U but it won't be available with right-hand drive.

It’s the first of many PHEVs that BYD is planning to sell here and it looks like the Chinese car maker wants to make a statement.

BYD Seal U video review

Indeed, its electric-only range looks good on paper, its pricing is competitive and its standard equipment list is long. Even entry-level cars get ventilated seats, for example.

So how does the BYD Seal U fare in practice against other rival family SUVs, including the Hyundai Tucson and Kia Sportage – not to mention our current favourite PHEV, the MG HS PHEV? Read on to find out…

There are three versions of the BYD Seal U, starting with the Boost model – which despite the name is the slowest option available. It has front-wheel drive and gets a 1.5-litre four-cylinder petrol engine plus an electric motor and an 18.3kWh battery.

The Boost model's maximum power output is 214bhp, delivering a 0-62mph time of 8.9 seconds, and the official range when running on electricity alone is 50 miles. In our real-world testing, it managed 45 miles.

Then there’s a Comfort model, which gets the same set-up but a bigger 26.6kWh battery offering an excellent 78-mile range, which is similar to the plug-in hybrid MG HS. It can officially go further on battery power than even the Range Rover Sport P460e – a car that costs more than twice the price of the Seal U.

Topping the line-up is the Design model. That gets a turbocharger for its engine and an extra electric motor on the rear axle, making it four-wheel drive. In all, power adds up to 319bhp for a very brisk 0-62mph time of 5.9 seconds.

The Design gets the smaller of the two batteries so the electric-only range drops to 43 miles. Still, that's similar to the official range of a Kia Sportage PHEV.

The Seal U's plug-in hybrid system itself is quite impressive, switching between electric and petrol power remarkably smoothly as you drive. In fact, it’s only when you accelerate really hard that the engine noise becomes a little more coarse. The rest of the time, it's generally quiet to drive, save for some wind noise at motorway speeds.

Along with Sport, Normal and Eco driving modes, the Seal U has Hybrid and EV modes. EV forces the car to run on electric power if there’s enough juice in the battery, while in Hybrid the car judges when to use electricity or petrol. You can set the battery to keep a minimum amount of charge in reserve so you are guaranteed to be able to drive on electricity alone later in your journey.

While many PHEVs (and electric cars) end up with stiff suspension set-ups to compensate for the added weight of their battery, the Seal U is surprisingly soft. As a result, the ride is a bit of a mixed bag.

It glides around happily at low speeds on decent quality town roads, but it's easily unsettled at higher speeds on undulating country roads, with lots of float to the ride.

Plus, if you drive over an expansion joints or other sharp road imperfection, there's a loud thud and lots of body movement. None of that makes it truly uncomfortable, but the Mazda MX-30 R-EV has a better-controlled ride.

The Seal-U's soft set-up also means it’s not particularly dynamic on a twisty road, with a lot of lean if you carry some pace around a corner. The incredibly light steering does little to provide a sense of connection to the front wheels and doesn’t give you all that much confidence to push on.

Unless you’re driving around town, where the light steering at low speeds is helpful, you’ll want to switch the steering to Sports mode to get a little more feel.

"The official electric-only range of the Seal U certainly is impressive and I was glad to see it got very close to achieving its official figure in the real world." – Dan Jones, Senior Reviewer

If you like SUVs for their high driving position, the BYD Seal U should please you. It’s not Range Rover tall but you sit higher up than in a family hatchback.

It’s really easy to get comfortable behind the wheel because every Seal U has electrically adjustable front seats as standard, with the driver getting eight-way adjustment. Our only real demerit is that the seats – which are made of "vegan" (i.e. synthetic) leather – could do with a little more side support through corners.

Another plus to the elevated driving position is that you have a great view out over the front of the car and at junctions. The rear windscreen is a little shallow, but you get 360-degree cameras to make parking easy.

Every Seal U comes with a 15.6in infotainment touchscreen, a digital driver's display and a head-up display. The touchscreen – like the one in the BYD Seal – can rotate 90 degrees between portrait and landscape mode. All versions have Android Auto and Apple CarPlay smartphone mirroring, but strangely it only works when the screen is in landscape mode.

The touchscreen is reasonably responsive and has been quite well thought out. While there are loads of menus and sub-menus, you can add shortcuts to your favourite sections within a pull-down menu, making it easier to get around the system. Without that, finding whatever you’re after can be a bit of a mission, especially when driving.

As with many new cars, you use the Seal U's touchscreen for most functions, with few physical buttons available – even for adjusting the climate controls. Luckily, there are some gestures you can learn to make life a bit easier (dragging three fingers across the screen, for example). You can also use the voice-control feature, but it’s hit and miss.

Many family SUVs have the same lack of physical controls, but the Hyundai Tucson and Nissan Qashqai are more user-friendly, with some proper dials or buttons.

As for quality, the Seal U's interior doesn't feel like it's at the budget end of its class. There are plenty of soft-touch materials, and while the plastics feel quite cheap, they also feel solid. That goes for the metal-effect pieces of trim too. The MG HS feels a tiny bit plusher, while the Mazda MX-30 R-EV feels a cut above both of them.

"Despite its price tag, I found the interior quality of the BYD Seal U quite impressive, especially with it sitting at the cheaper end of the market." – Dan Jones, Senior Reviewer

The BYD Seal U's front seats are very accommodating and the wide interior will mean you certainly won’t be rubbing shoulders with the front passenger.

Storage is impressive too, with a cavernous cubby under the central armrest, another generous compartment under the centre console – which includes wireless phone-charging for two smartphones – and good-sized door bins for drinks bottles.

The distance between the front and rear wheels is shorter than in the BYD Seal electric saloon – which therefore suggests interior space is ultimately less. But don’t let that put you off, because leg room in the back of the Seal U is very good for tall adults.

Head room is a little less impressive. If you don’t have the rear seats reclined all the way back, a six-footer will likely find their head very close to the roof. At least the rear is quite wide, making it pretty easy to fit three adults sitting side by side. Better still, the flat floor means the middle passenger will have plenty of space to put their feet.

Overall, in terms of practicality the Seal U is leaps ahead of the cramped Mazda MX-30 R-EV and slightly better than the MG HS. For even more interior space, take a look at the Hyundai Tucson and Kia Sportage.

The Seal U has 425 litres of boot space under the parcel shelf. We managed to fit in six carry-on suitcases when we tested it, beating the Jaecoo 7 (five cases) but not the MG HS PHEV (seven). The Kia Sportage PHEV offers more boot space than all of them.

The Seal U’s boot has a height-adjustable floor, but don’t get too excited – the difference between the highest setting and the lowest is a matter of millimetres. With the boot floor in its highest position, there’s no loading lip, and if you fold down the 60/40 split rear seat backs, they lie flush to create a flat load bay.

"Considering the BYD Seal U is an SUV that rubs shoulders with the Tucson and Sportage, rear space is a little disappointing. I’m not 6ft tall and my head was close to the roof, especially with the seat upright." – Dan Jones, Senior Reviewer

As a cash purchase, the BYD Seal U undercuts the equivalent Hyundai Tucson and Kia Sportage but costs a little more than a Mazda MX-30 R-EV or MG HS PHEV.

Better still, the Seal U is predicted to depreciate more slowly than all those rivals, which should mean you pay less each month if you use PCP finance. You can keep an eye on prices by checking our New Car Deals pages.

Company car drivers will be best off with the Comfort version because its long electric-only range puts it in a fairly low BIK tax bracket (the HS PHEV sits in the same bracket). It’s worth noting that a fully electric car will attract even less tax.

The level of standard equipment you get with the Seal U is genuinely impressive. The Boost, Comfort and Design versions all get the same kit, including heated and ventilated front seats, a heated steering wheel, a 360-degree parking camera, adaptive cruise control with steering assistance and a head-up display.

You get V2L as standard, so you can use an adaptor to turn the car into a power source and charge up a laptop or boil a kettle if you’re out camping.

The Seal U has lots of safety equipment – helping it secure the maximum five-star rating from safety experts Euro NCAP – and it comes with a competitive six-year or 93,750-mile warranty.

When it comes to charging up, the Seal U can accept a maximum charging speed of 18kW. At its maximum speed, a 30-80% top-up takes 35 minutes, or 55 minutes if you’ve got the bigger battery in the Comfort model. From an 11kW home EV charger you can expect a 15-100% charge in two hours.

"You can’t argue with the amount of standard equipment you get with the Seal U. I don’t think I’ve ever seen an entry-level car at the BYD’s price that has a 360-degree camera, heated and ventilated electric seats and wireless phone-charging as standard." – Dan Jones, Senior Reviewer

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