Road tested By Hugh Maguire.
Pros:
Incredible range.
Very well equipped.
Excellent warranty. Battery 8 years or 200,000km. Car & engine 6 years 150,000km.
Cons:
Harsh engine when revved.
Bettered by rivals for ride & handling.
Anonymous styling.
BYD have really established themselves very quickly as one of the more premium Chinese brands. They are however more known for their range of electric cars than anything with a petrol engine…….that is until recently.
You see most manufactures now realise that while EV uptake is certainly growing it is not growing as quickly as had been initially anticipated. No surprise to many who predicted this situation, yet governments wanted to force motorists to adopt EV’s almost blindly without considering the facts.
First of all not everyone could afford an EV, then not everyone can charge at home. For example in Ireland it is estimated that some 40% of the motoring public live in housing where home charging is simply not possible. As public charging is hugely expensive that means for them an EV may not be practical. I am not even going to get into the ongoing discussion here as to how “green” or not they really are.
Now with European governments realising their haste to push EV’s on people was misguided they have watered down their ban on petrol engined cars by 2035. The EU has been moving towards revising this date to allow hybrids and low emission combustion engined vehicles to continue after this date. The net result is that many manufacturers are now focusing a huge amount of their investment on petrol hybrids particularly self charging hybrids.
That brings us nicely to BYD’s Seal 6 DMi. DMI stands for Dual Mode Intelligent and this refers to the very clever self charging system in this car.
First of all it is a plug in hybrid but you could actually never plug it in (though this would be very inefficient) and still be able to drive on battery power. The reason for this is that the engine acts primarily as a generator to charge the battery. Therefore always ensuring some battery power is available for electric motoring. Of course plugging in is the best and most efficient way to use this car but its unique feature is that it always has battery power available whether you plug in or not.
In effect a car that drives like an EV most of the time but to give you range the engine is charging the battery when necessary. In other words the electric motor and battery are primary power while the petrol engine is secondary.
The new Seal 6 Dmi is available in two body styles, as a saloon and touring model (read estate) and with two trim levels namely Boost and as tested here the Comfort saloon version.
So how does it look?
I suppose it does not have standout styling that will turn heads but I must say it is an appealing shape nonetheless. I quite like its looks as its a refreshing break from an endless diet of SUV’s.
What’s it like inside?
My first impressions are of a well finished, well designed and indeed attractive interior. There is the now familiar BYD layout of a huge central touchscreen and a smaller digital driver display. The main screen menus are reasonably good but not as intuitive as some European rivals while the smaller drivers display can feel cluttered with rather small hard to read digital data for some functions. Pretty much all functionality is through the touchscreen however I will say with some relief that the voice activation is excellent saving the driver from endless prods of the touchscreen while driving. Something I really consider dangerous and distracting! The one piece electrically adjustable heated front seats look and feel vey comfortable and there is lots of head and legroom both front and rear.
The fit and feel of everything is very good too. The upholstery (faux leather) looks luxurious. Overall then the interior is really roomy, and is superbly equipped as standard. The boot in the Seal 6 is surprisingly big at 491 litres or up to 1,370 litres with the back seats folded down. That means it beats most rivals here on boot space with only the Skoda Superb and Toyota Camry hybrid bettering it.
What’s under the bonnet?
BYD’s own in house engineered highly efficient 1.5 litre petrol, and an electric motor powered by a 19 kWh battery. Drive is to the front wheels. From a full battery up to 105 km range is claimed, I got 88km which is excellent. However the really clever thing here is that the engine acts as a generator constantly recharging the battery thus you are really never at zero electric range. On some trips up 32 km of range was put back in the battery without plugging in. No wonder BYD call it a “Super Hybrid”. Without doubt this is the most efficient PHEV I have ever tested. I returned a fuel consumption of just 5.2 litres per 100km. BYD claim a combined range ( that means starting with a fully charged battery) of some 1,455km. From my tests it will achieve close to 1,300 km quite easily. That really is superb.
How does it drive?
The new Seal 6 is generally quiet and refined unless you prod that accelerator for say rapid overtaking then that engine sounds rather coarse and harsh. It really runs on pure electric power for a vast percentage of driving time and slips seamlessly between both.
Basically the engine really only becomes part of the propulsion when on motorways (even then its in combination with the electric motor reducing fuel consumption) or if it kicks in to recharge the battery. The ride and handling is less impressive with the car becoming unsettled on irregular road surfaces and feeling quite floaty over other surfaces. The steering feel is quite numb too, low on feedback and not engaging. Premium German rivals win out here for sure.
Hugh’s Verdict.
In short the BYD Seal 6 scores hugely over a traditional plug-in-hybrid as the battery never fully depletes so you always have electric propulsion with the benefits of the fuel savings that brings. Range is a non issue as the engine keeps the battery charged no matter what. In my opinion this is what gives this new BYD a huge advantage over other hybrid rivals. Yes it has its flaws. That engine is course when revved and the ride and handling is bettered by rivals. However as an overall package I have to give the Seal 6 the thumbs up. Prices start at €37,490. The Comfort version tested costs €40,990.