BYD Seal Premium 2024 Review

Sitting in the middle of the three-tiered range, the 2024 BYD Seal Premium just sneaks under $60K at $58,798 plus on-road costs.

This is well under the luxury car tax (LCT) threshold, making it eligible for all the various tax advantages.

Its most obvious rival is the Tesla Model 3, which it did undercut until Elon took a hacksaw to prices.

There are plenty of electric SUV options around the $60K price point – BYD Atto 3, Volvo EX30, Tesla Model Y, to name just three – but only the latter could really rival the Seal for space.

It may sit in the middle of the range but the 2024 BYD Seal Premium certainly doesn’t skimp on equipment.

Over the base Dynamic (from $49,888 plus ORCs), the Premium scores some important mechanical upgrades like a bigger battery with faster charging, more powerful electric motor, 19-inch alloy wheels with Continental tyres and ventilated and drilled front brake discs with fixed rear callipers for stronger braking performance.

Standard kit includes keyless entry/start (though a button must be pushed), power-adjustable leather front seats (eight-way driver, six-way passenger) with heating, ventilation and position memory, dual-zone climate control, LED lighting at both ends, electric boot and a full-length glass roof.

Every colour – black, white, grey and blue – is a no-cost option, with the only extra an Ocean Blue interior at $1500.

BYD’s warranty is technically six years/150,000km but read the fine print as various vehicle components have differing coverage. The battery is covered for eight years.

BYD service intervals are 12 months or 20,000km at a total cost of $2390 over eight years or 160,000km.

Top marks from ANCAP for the 2024 BYD Seal Premium with a five-star rating under the latest and most stringent testing requirements.

Crash safety is particularly strong, the Seal scoring 89 per cent from ANCAP for adult occupant protection and 87 per cent for children, rounded out with 82 per cent for road user protection and 75 per cent for safety assists. More on this in the driving section.

It has bulk airbags, including one between the front passengers, and every possible active safety acronym. There’s front and rear cross traffic alert and auto braking, lane departure warning and prevention, traffic sign recognition with automatic speed control, active cruise control, blind spot warning and driver monitoring.

Parking is assisted by two-zone front sensors, four-zone rear sensors and a 360-degree camera.

The tech showpiece of the 2024 BYD Seal Premium is the giant 15.6-inch rotating infotainment display that can switch from landscape to portrait orientation at the touch of a button.

It’s somewhat of a gimmick, though some may prefer to have the screen horizontal or vertical.

At first, the screen feels a bit unintuitive but with some practice you find where things are hidden. A couple of examples: swipe down and there are a lot of one-touch buttons for loads of handy functions; swipe left and there is a much more comprehensive home screen, though you can also use voice activation.

Android Auto is wireless but Apple CarPlay is wired, there are some native apps like Spotify as well as in-built sat-nav, Bluetooth and FM/DAB radio (no AM).

It all plays through a 12-speaker Dynaudio stereo and you have the choice of dual wireless charging pads or a USB-A and -C point in the front and rear.

A head-up display is also standard in the Premium and the car can incorporate over-the-air (OTA) updates.

A powerful 230kW/360Nm rear electric motor propels the 2024 BYD Seal Premium, jetting it from 0-100km/h in a claimed 5.9sec.

One reason to step up to the 2024 BYD Seal Premium from the base Dynamic is an increase in battery capacity from 61.44kWh to 82.56kWh, increasing the claimed maximum range from 460km to 570km (WLTP).

It also facilitates a faster DC charging speed of 150kW (up from 110kW), while the maximum AC charging rate is 7kW. As such, you’re looking at a best-case scenario of 12 hours on an AC plug from 0-100 per cent, while a 0-80 per cent top-up at 150kW should take around 30min.

The Seal also has vehicle-to-load (V2L) functionality to power external devices.

In general, the 2024 BYD Seal Premium is very pleasant. It is quiet and refined, the soft suspension soaks up bumps and lumps, it’s impressively quick and a real-world range of 500km or so should be easily achievable in most (urban) circumstances.

For an undemanding buyer it will be enough, but ask more of the Seal and cracks appear.

Despite the very soft suspension the car can still fidget over pockmarked surfaces, yet the dampers are so relaxed that it’ll crash clumsily into its bump stops over speed humps and the like.

At speed, the steering is strangely wooden. It’s not particularly heavy but feels resistant to input and not particularly natural.

But by far the Seal’s biggest flaw is the calibration of its safety systems.

Lane keep assist is extremely overbearing, often reacting strongly to situations that require no reaction at all, but its most worrying habit is to assess oncoming traffic on your typical two-way street as a threat and try and sharply steer out of the way.

Whether this behaviour can be rectified by an OTA update remains to be seen, but it does need to be rectified.

You can always turn the systems off, but then what’s the point in having them?

One of the selling points of the 2024 BYD Seal Premium over the Tesla Model 3 is its conventional interior. If you can’t wrap your head around the Tesla’s ultra-minimalist decor, you’ll feel much more at home in the Seal.

You press a button to start it, select gears with a lever, there are labelled buttons on the steering wheel… it’s just like a normal car, really.

The seats are very comfortable, there is plenty of storage, the materials all feel more than adequate at this price point and the Seal’s extra-long wheelbase gives it limousine-like rear legroom, along with a very comfy rear bench.

This is a nice car in which to ride in the back.

A 400-litre boot isn’t massive, but it is supplemented by an extra 50 litres in the nose.

If you happen to have already read our recent BYD Seal Premium v Tesla Model 3 comparison test, you know the Tesla took a fairly decisive win – and that was before it had the sizeable price advantage it has now.

This shouldn’t automatically rule out the BYD.

It has ample space, plenty of power, excellent range, lots of equipment and the Premium avoids the sporting pretensions of the Performance that only lead to disappointment.

Further fine tuning of the suspension and, in particular, the active safety systems would definitely make it easier to recommend, but even so it could be worth a look if you’re not the Tesla type.

2024 BYD Seal Premium at a glance:
Price: $58,798 (plus on-road costs)
Available: Now
Powertrain: Single rear permanent magnet synchronous motor
Output: 230kW/360Nm
Transmission: Single-speed reduction gear
Battery: 82.56kWh LFP lithium-ion
Range: 570km (WLTP)
Energy consumption: 16.6kWh/100km (WLTP)
Safety rating: Five-star (ANCAP 2023)