BYD Seal - Boot space, comfort & practicality
There’s enough room inside for adults, but the saloon bodystyle limits practicality, and some rivals have bigger boots.
The BYD Seal is a four-door saloon that’s slightly bigger than the Tesla Model 3. Thanks to a super-thin ‘blade’ battery pack not taking up too much space under the floor of the car, the BYD feels like a much bigger car inside compared with a traditionally powered petrol or diesel car. Indeed, there’s enough room up front for even taller adults. All versions come with electrically adjustable front seats with electric lumbar support and driver’s side memory settings.
All Seals come with front and rear parking sensors, along with a 360-degree camera system. The latter is often an expensive option on its rivals, and while it has a number of neat tricks, such as being able to generate an image of what’s below the car, the camera quality isn’t as sharp as it could be, however.
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Dimensions | |
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Length |
4,800mm |
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Width |
1,875mm (2,150mm inc. mirrors) |
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Height |
1,460mm |
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Number of seats |
5 |
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Boot space |
400 litres (main), 53 litres (front) |
Dimensions and size
The Seal is actually a little longer than the Model 3, both in terms of its wheelbase and outright length at 4,800mm, plus it’s a little taller at 1,460mm, and a bit wider at 1,875mm. It isn’t as big as the Volkswagen ID.7, which at 4,961mm in length, might become a little tricky to park in a tight multi-storey car park.
Seats, leg room, head room & passenger space
An adult approaching six foot tall can fit in the back in the outer positions, although their head will be quite close to the roof lining. That being said, a Hyundai Ioniq 6 isn’t exactly stellar in this department, especially if you go for a version with a sliding glass sunroof. The Seal comes with ISOFIX child seat mounting points on the front passenger seat, and the outer positions on the rear bench.
Boot space
The BYD Seal’s saloon bodystyle means it gets a narrow boot opening, making it much less versatile than the Volkswagen ID.7 or BMW i4, which both have a hatchback rear end, providing much better access for tall items. The 400-litre capacity of the Seal is some way off the best in this class, and its basic 60/40 split folding rear seat design doesn’t have the flexibility of the 40/20/40 design used on the BMW i4.
The BYD does get some underfloor storage for hiding smaller items away, and there’s a useful 53-litre boot at the front like in the Model 3 for keeping the charge cables away from anything you don’t want getting dirty.
