BYD Seal - Range, charging & running costs

Electric range, battery life and charge time

Let’s cover those off in order. Base rear-drive cars are the most efficient, and claim a maximum 354 miles from an 82.5kWh battery. The extra front motor adds around 130kg, resulting in a near-nine per cent drop in range (323 miles). We didn’t find this to be wildly ambitious either; even on our wet-and-windy test drive, the predicted range readout showed more than 200 miles at 65 per cent of charge. That puts the Seal in the same ballpark as a Tesla Model 3 for efficiency and should enable longer drives without issue.

A peak charge rate of 150kW is slightly down on all the main competitors, especially against the Hyundai Ioniq 6, which can handle up to 233kW. This means the Seal has a relatively slow 10-80 per cent (from roughly 35 miles remaining up to 280 miles) charging time from a suitable rapid charger of nearly 40 minutes, whereas the Ioniq 6 takes under 20 minutes. The Ioniq 6 has a smaller battery pack (74kWh useable), which will take less time to charge than the Seal (82.5kWh usable), but that’s a significant amount of additional time to wait before you can set off again.

Most owners will probably charge the Seal overnight at home via a 7kW wallbox. In the worst-case scenario of refilling a completely flat battery, which few owners will ever do, it will take a little over 13 hours.

The battery is guaranteed to retain 70 percent capacity for eight years or 125,000 miles, which is longer than the warranties on BMW and Tesla battery packs.

Tax

The Seal will make sense to company car drivers because of the low Benefit-in-Kind (BiK) tax band electric cars sit in, at least until 2025. It’ll also be exempt from road tax, and the London Congestion Charge costs until 2025, too.

However, it won’t be exempt from the surcharge that applies to cars cost over £40,000 when new. It’s presently set at £410, and is charged annually from the second time the vehicle is taxed for a total of five years (between years two to six). This tax will apply to many of its rivals, except for the entry-level rear-wheel-drive Tesla Model 3, which just sneaks in under this threshold.

Insurance groups

Unfortunately, insurance is likely to be costly. The entry-level Design model is in group 48, which is considerably higher than the Hyundai Ioniq 6 in group 36, and the BMW i4 and Volkswagen ID.7, which both start in group 38. 

The top-of-the-range Excellence AWD is in the highest group 50 ranking, which is higher than the most potent M50 version of i4, and is also above that of the even faster Kia EV6 GT, which is in group 45.

Depreciation

Residual values for the Seal are likely to be in between its main rivals. Our expert data suggests that after three years and 36,000 miles, the Seal will maintain around 53 per cent of its resale value, putting it above the Ioniq 6, which ranges from 48 per cent for the Ultimate AWD model up to 53 per cent for the Premium RWD, and slap-bang in the middle of the BMW i4 between the 50 per cent for the M50 and 55 per cent for the eDrive35 Sport. The Seal can’t quite reach the heights of the Tesla Model 3, which is likely to be worth up to 56 per cent in standard rear-wheel drive form – and that version is cheaper than the Seal.