BYD Seal 6 review

The new BYD Seal 6 Touring DM-i is a first for the Chinese manufacturer. While BYD has brought over a host of SUVs, small cars, and a saloon to the UK – this is its first estate car to reach our shores.

China isn’t too fussed about estates, but us Europeans love them. The BYD Seal 6 is also available with a saloon body, but it’s expected that the Touring estate version will be the clear favourite of the two in the UK.

BYD Seal 6 review

So what does the Seal 6 have to offer? Well, unlike most BYD models it is not a fully electric car. It’s a plug-in hybrid (PHEV), like the closely-related BYD Seal U DM-i SUV.

The BYD Seal 6 faces competition from PHEV estate rivals such as the VW Passat, and, while the Toyota Corolla Touring Sports is a regular hybrid rather than one you can plug in, it’s a highly impressive estate car which is likely to be cross-shopped with this BYD.

On paper the Seal 6 offers a competitive electric-only range, lots of equipment and, we expect, a low price along with its practical estate body – but how does it stack up on the road?

The Seal 6 is available with two different PHEV setups. Both versions team a 1.5-litre petrol engine with a single electric motor. The entry-level Seal 6 Boost generates a total of 181bhp, enabling  0-62mph in 8.9sec. This version has a 10kWh battery, providing an official fully-electric range of 31 miles for the Touring and 34 miles for the saloon – figures that’ll do nothing to trouble most new PHEV models.

Stepping up to Comfort trim brings a much bigger 19kWh battery that bumps the range up to a much more useful 62 miles (65 miles in the saloon). It unlocks a little more power, too; with 209bhp dropping the 0-62mph time down to 8.5sec. In real-world scenarios, however, the difference is all-but unnoticeable. 

Both versions serve up more than enough performance to keep abreast of urban or motorway traffic. Despite relying on electric power most of the time (the petrol engine only kicks in at higher speeds or when you ask for burst of hard acceleration) there isn’t the instant electric urge that you’ll experience in many PHEVs, such as the BMW 330e. That said, the Seal 6 is prone to spinning its front tyres if you’re a bit too eager on the accelerator. 

The Seal 6 isn’t as quiet to travel in as a Volkswagen Passat PHEV; there’s more noise drummed up from the tyres in particular, with this being enough to drown out the petrol engine most of the time. Mind you, if you put your foot hard down in the Seal 6, the engine sits at high revs for a prolonged and tiresome period, much in the manner of pure-combustion cars with CVT gearboxes. You can hear the suspension working away, too – more so in the Touring, in which the interior noise is a touch boomy compared with that of the saloon.

The ride, though, is the weakest dynamic aspect of the Seal 6. It fidgets annoyingly over shallow surface imperfections (more so with the 18in wheels you get with Comfort trim) at low speeds, and the floaty feeling it develops as speed increases clashes with the abrupt, harsh way that bumps are dealt with. The Passat and Toyota Corolla Touring Sports are much comfier.

The Seal 6 also leans noticeably if you carry some pace through corners. The steering is very light, and that’s great news for easy manoeuvring into parking spaces at low speeds, but it does little to provide a sense of connection to the front wheels which doesn’t give you a lot of confidence to push on.

“It’s helpful being able to hold a state of charge for the battery – but it’s a bit of a faff getting to functions like that on the infotainment screen. Thankfully, the physical buttons and scrollers on the centre console are easier to use to swap between drive modes and choose whether to run the car in hybrid or fully electric mode.” – Lawrence Cheung, New cars editor

It’s very easy to get comfortable in the Seal 6, with lots of adjustment in the steering wheel and electrically adjustable front seats as standard – the view out all around the car is also very good.

Every Seal 6 gets an 8.8in fully digital driver display. While it’s difficult to block the view of it with the steering wheel, the layout of the screen itself can seem a bit chaotic because of the quantity of small numbers and icons on it.

A centrally-mounted touchscreen infotainment system is fitted to all versions of the Seal 6. Boost trim brings a landscape-oriented 12.8in screen with bright graphics and prompt responses to touch inputs. But there are lots of menus and submenus to work your way around, so it isn’t as instinctive to use as the systems of the Corolla or Passat.

It’s also a shame that the row of shortcut icons along the bottom of the screen are so small – they can be tricky to use accurately on the move. BYD does have a handy shortcut to adjust the climate controls – with a three-finger vertical or horizontal swipe anywhere on the screen adjusting the temperature and the fan speed, respectively – but separate physical controls would be far better.

Range-topping Comfort models get a huge 15.6in touchscreen that rotates from landscape to portrait orientation (like in many other BYD models) – although, since it can run Smartphone mirroring only in landscape mode, it seems more of a gimmick than a useful feature.

The Seal 6 impresses, though, when it comes to interior quality. There’s a good mix of soft-touch finishes around the dashboard, doors and centre consoles; it doesn’t look or feel like a cheap interior at all. It’s also solidly put together, rivalling the overall interior quality on offer in the more expensive Passat.

“The standard 360deg camera display in the Seal 6 is fantastic – it offers a whole host of different views and the resolution is crystal clear.” – Oliver Young, Reviewer

No one will have a problem with the space on offer up front and there’s plenty of cubbies around for odds and ends, too.

In the back, there’s almost as much rear leg room as you’ll find in the uber-spacious VW Passat; even long-legged adults will be able to stretch out. Whoever draws the short straw and sits in the middle seat will be pleased that there’s no central floor hump to straddle, although foot space under the front seats is a little tight if they’re positioned as low down as they’ll go.

Head room isn’t quite as generous. Most six-footers will just about clear the head lining in any Seal 6; the Touring affords a little more room than the saloon, whose curving roofline affects head room. The panoramic sunroof of Comfort trim brings the ceiling height down a little, but its position is such that the bit of roof where your head goes when your head is against the headrest is largely unaffected. 

The seats don’t slide or recline, though, and the fact that the bench is quite low relative to the floor means rear-seat occupants are forced into a knees-raised posture with no underthigh support.

When it comes to boot space, the Touring offers 500 litres below the parcel shelf (with another 175 litres above). Access to the boot is great thanks to a wide and tall opening at the front, and the height-adjustable boot floor ensures there’s virtually no loading lip in its highest position (although, the difference between its highest and lowest position is minimal, to say the least).

The rear seats have a 60/40 split-fold (there’s a ski hatch in the middle seat) and are easily dropped down via some levers on the walls of the boot’s loadbay, or on top of the seatbacks themselves. With them down, total capacity increases to 1535 litres. Both the Toyota Corolla Touring Sports and Passat have bigger boots.

The saloon’s 491-litre capacity isn’t much less than the Touring’s, but its significantly narrower entrance limits practicality. You do still get 60/40 split-folding seats, but the boot floor is fixed.

“Flat floors in the rear are common in electric cars, but less so in plug-in hybrids – so I think it’s great the Seal 6 offers just that, helping with footspace if you have three people sat in the back” – Stuart Milne, Digital editor

Key to the Seal 6’s appeal is its low price. The entry-level Boost saloon is among the very cheapest PHEVs you can buy; there are currently no other saloon PHEVs anywhere close to the Seal 6’s price, and it substantially undercuts the cheapest (and much smaller) Volkswagen Golf PHEV. Likewise, the Seal 6 Touring estate is only a little more expensive, and it’s a lot cheaper than the rival Volkswagen Passat PHEV or the regular hybrid Toyota Corolla Touring Sport. Comfort trim does narrow the price gap somewhat, but it also doubles the all-electric range and brings a healthy amount more standard kit.

That said, no Seal 6 is meanly equipped; entry-level Boost trim brings such niceties as vegan artificial leather, a 6-way electrically adjustable driver’s seat, the 12.8in touchscreen infotainment system, four USB ports, active cruise control. Comfort brings the bigger 15.6in infotainment screen, the panoramic glass sunroof, a heated steering wheel, multi-coloured ambient lighting, a wireless phone-charging pad, bigger (18in) alloy wheels, an 8-speaker sound system (Boost has only 6 speakers) and a 360deg camera for manoeuvring. 

BYD hasn’t been around in the UK for long enough yet to provide us with any meaningful data when it comes to reliability. But, impressively, the Seal 6 (and every other BYD) comes with a six-year or 93,750-mile warranty as standard – which is far better than the three-year cover offered by Volkswagen and lots of other manufacturers (although Toyota will cover its cars for up to a staggering 10 years if you use one of their dealers for maintenance).

The Seal 6 comes with lots of safety kit as standard, and it received the top 5-star rating when tested by safety experts Euro NCAP, with very high scores in all four test categories (Adult protection, child protection, pedestrian protection and safety assistance).

When it comes to charging up the PHEV batteries, only the bigger unit of Comfort trim can accept fast CCS charging (Boost models can handle nothing more powerful than a 7kW home charger). For Comfort Lite and Comfort models, BYD quotes a 30-80% top up time in 23min at its fastest speed in ideal conditions, accepting a maximum charging rate of 26kW. While it’s good to be able to fast charge using public chargers, that speed isn’t particularly impressive.

As standard, the Seal 6 gets vehicle-to-load capability, which lets you use the car’s battery to power external electrical items (like a laptop or a kettle) via an adapter on the charging port.

“It’s great that the Seal 6 has a big 65-litre fuel tank; which is 20-litres more than what you get in a VW Passat plug-in hybrid. That, along with its electric-only range, promises big distances between fill-ups at petrol stations.” – Dan Jones, Senior reviewer

Buy it if…

- You like the idea of a plug-in hybrid and you’re on a tight budget

- You’re more interested in efficiency than a sporty drive

- A long warranty is important to you

Don’t buy it if…

- You want the smoothest possible ride

- You’re a fan of physical dashboard controls

- You regularly take back seat passengers on long journeys

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