It is made by BYD aka Build Your Dreams. Hope it comes here and that they change the name before it does,
This could really challenge the Tesla Model 3.
It looks great inside and out
No word yet on an Irish press launch date. I think Dolphin is next but they could do both on the same day.
There’s a Dolphin on foreign plates (possibly Spanish, I haven’t gotten a good look) driving around my local area, I’ve spotted it twice while out for walks. Doesn’t look too bad, not particularly modern looking but non-offensive.
Interested to see what the Seal looks like in the metal.
I'm keen on a RWD for the second EV in our house (we have an EV6 since Jan 2022 and it is a fabulous car).
People are extremely brave to order Seals without the chance to see just how annoyingly BYD have chosen to implement their ADAS. The reviews are not positive in that regard and having read the user manual for the car, it appears that turning off annoying systems via the steering wheel will not be possible (other than "Intelligent" Cruise Control). As a result, there will be a significant amount of touch screen tapping required every time the car is switched on or there will be alot of beeping to be suffered. It appears that the car will also beep at you anytime it detects you are over the speed limit and potentially everytime you move from one limit to another also, if true that would become really annoying rather than an assistance.
For comparison, my EV6 turns lane keep assist on by default each time the car is switched on, however pressing and holding a button the steering wheel for 3 seconds turns it off everytime. Having to go into touch screens each time to do that would be really annoying. Lane keeping is great on the motorway, I always turn it back on for motorway use, however it is definitely not something you want switched on whilst on Ireland's non motorway road network. The EV6 shows the current speed limit on the dash, which is really helpful, I like having no penalty points, but thankfully it doesn't beep if I go over the limit.
As an example of terrible assistance system implementation, I test drove a new Kona recently and it beeped relentlessly, I've never been in a more distracting and annoying car, no way I'd recommend it to anyone. On the test drive it beeped everytime the speed limit changed, it beeped at me for being 1km/h over the limit, beeped at me for taking my eyes off the road to adjust the heating (a steering column mounted camera was monitoring me), beeped at me to take a coffee break and finally beeped because it determined that we were going to hit the car in front when we were no closer than adaptive cruise control would keep you. It was laughable for a finish, even the salesman was roaring laughing. Some, perhaps even all, of that could be turned off via touch screen menus every time the car was switched on according to the salesman but he wasn't sure how. In any case, we had seen enough to know that we didn't need this kind of nonsense everyday!
Let's hope that the reports of BYD's really poor implementation of ADAS aren't true or it will ruin the ownership experience. I'm looking forward to a test drive!
The deposit is fully refundable.
I've read about the issues you mention. It's definitely my main concern. I've not owned an EV before. I'll test drive a couple others for comparison when I get a chance to drive this. Would I be correct in saying some of these issues could be lessened with software updates in time.
Where there are bugs in the software, yes, updates should fix them. For example, there are plenty of reports of the cameras picking up incorrect speed limits and lane keep assist tugging at the wheel when drivers were between the lines.
However, expect the overall experience to be as you see on test drive.
Apart from a few minor issues, the Seal gets high praise from Thomas. He says the interior is comparable to the EQE, more interior space than the Model 3. I love the interior and the HUD. I wish they made an Estate version.
Autogefuhl is my favourite motor YouTube channel. Praise from Caesar indeed.
No.
But I bought a BMW i4 without test driving it too.
Deposit is fully refundable as pointed out by others
Agreed the reviews all mention too much beeping etc but that can be fixed via software and I reckon BYD will push fixes a lot more often and quicker than the legacy automakers.
I've had two i4s and I can count on one hand the number of updates I had.
Looking forward to a test drive anyway.
No word yet on a date. Waiting on enough cars to arrive for a press launch
My biggest concern is their version of smart cruise control. One member of the FB group got his car replaced as it “seemly” caused it to crash.
I was in with BYD on Friday and there is a delay with the Seal.
Looking like Nov for test drives now.
For anyone interested in having a towbar, I found some information on the BYD Denmark site.
This is not on the Irish site, or some other sites, but if is being sold with this spec within the EU, why not here?
Towing capacity 750 kg with RWD and 1500 kg with AWD
BYD SEAL—Side 4 (bydauto.dk)
Google Translate is some craic 😄
Would love if they brought the Han over. Probably out of my price range though.
BYD Seal Australian prices announced.
Design: €35,367 Excellence AWD: €41,382
Tesla M3 costs about 15% more here than there, VRT etc, but BYD are charging 25% extra here.
OZ has no import tariffs, EU has 10%. it's 10k nautical miles from Shanghai to Dublin via Suez, whereas it's 4-4600NM to Perth or Sydney, so less shipping costs passed to customer. We charge 23% VAT on EV's whereas OZ charge 10% VAT, OZ have another tax called Luxury car tax @33% but only applies to the price difference above 60k AUD. They have other local registration taxes, anywhere from 800-2000AUD depending on the state. We have MSL tax(+€2000), OZ probably don't as BYD have their own dealership network there.
Not expecting prices to be the same here as Oz, but Teslas are also built in China. The only factor different between Tesla and BYD is the MSL tax, which seems to be more like €3500.
I think you ignored the travel costs between China and Ireland compared to Auz.
Yep fair enough. I decided to do a little more digging to satisfy my curiosity. China shipping info not so easy to find, so I substituted data from Nagoya Japan, virtually the same distance as Shanghai China.
Volume: 13.14 m^3 BYD Seal
US$146 per m^3 CHN to IRL.
US$ 74 per m^3 CHN to AUS.
Shipping cost
Seal CHN to IRL = €1813
Seal CHN to AUS = € 919
=€894 difference
Edit: That does not account for the price difference, as Tesla are also paying equivalent transport costs.
I was not comparing car prices in Oz to those in Ireland. I was comparing the extra cost in Ireland over Oz between Tesla and BYD. For Tesla that's about 15%, for BYD about 25%. Both cars are made in China, take the same shipping routes and are subject to the same taxes.
I still think someone is sitting on fat margins. The relevance of all this is scope for haggling with the dealer.
Does it really matter how much the car costs elsewhere especially given Ireland's history of VRT gouging? It remains quite keenly priced within the Irish market considering the huge spec and warranty on offer. Hopefully in the future, BYD sets up a proper dealership which will bring prices down again.
I would say that's about right as when I got my machine last year the shipping cost for it was €1630 Euro and its a lot smaller than a BYD Seal.
Car dealers aren’t making fat margins , distributor maybe but you aren’t dealing with them.
The man in Cork told me yesterday he has deposits taken on 30 cars. €46,000 on the road price.
Same for Dublin. €51k for the AWD.
PlanetAuto have posted a short YouTube clip, (full review video coming soon), of a Seal on UK plates so I expect we'll see lots of videos coming soon from the UK press day.
a different type of review but still very positive.
Fresh from the car park that is the M50
It looks amazing
That's some job fair play to ya. Looks fantastic, hopefully we can all get a test drive in soon and compare notes 😀
It looks great, I am a fan but it has to kick Tesla Model 3 in the ass in terms of fit and performance, remote App functionality, price and if there's nothing in it after that Tesla has the SUC network....
