The Seal is the third new car from Chinese brand BYD to be launched in 2023, and like Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, it will be seen by many as by far the best of the three. With all due respect to the Atto 3 SUV and Dolphin hatchback, the Seal is a big step up from both, and will find itself on a shortlist that could have included the Tesla Model 3, BMW i4, Polestar 2 and Hyundai Ioniq 6. That’s pretty elite company for a brand that won’t have a car on sale in the UK until the summer of 2023.

The Seal, ignoring the slightly odd name that at least comes from the dolphin, presumably on porpoise, comes in two forms – rear-wheel drive and all-wheel drive, with ranges of 354 and 323 miles respectively. The trade-off for the reduced range of the car with motors driving all four wheels is the phenomenal power of 530bhp, compared to the more modest but still potent 313bhp of the rear-drive car.

The BYD saloon has a stylish design that looks like it’s taken inspiration from a number of places, with the front and side profiles a little like Hyundai’s swooping Ioniq 6 saloon and the rear lights not a million miles away from the Peugeot 508. But it works well as a coherent look.

2024 BYD Seal: Range & Specs

Range: 323-354 miles
Efficiency: 3.4-3.7mi/kWh
Battery size: 83kWh
Max charge speed: 150kW
DC charge time: 37mins, 10-80%, 150kW
Charge port location: Right rear
Power output: 313hp / 530hp

The interior is impressive at first glance, with nice suede patches on the door panels in particular, and good combinations of materials throughout the cabin, although there are a few cheap bits where it feels like a missed opportunity – most notably the lever to open the door. Then there’s the huge touchscreen, which has BYD’s party piece of rotating it at the touch of a button, depending on whether you prefer landscape or portrait.

The problems start when you need to use the touchscreen on the move – too many functions go through the big screen, and there aren’t enough old-school physical buttons to make things easier. It takes five or six presses to make a single change, such as turning off the heated seats, and then you’re back to the Apple CarPlay or Android Auto screen you were using for navigation.

2024 BYD Seal: Interior

There’s more originality inside, with the same quirky steering wheel design BYD has used elsewhere, and a rotating 15.6-inch touchscreen – press a button on the steering wheel or screen and it rotates 90 degrees between portrait and landscape.

There’s a full-length panoramic sunroof to increase the sense of space inside. Something BYD claims is already strong, thanks to its ‘blade battery’ mounted on the car’s frame to both increase body stiffness (the equivalent of a supercar’s, we’re told), keep the floor low and increase legroom for passengers (though it’s not noticeably generous).

2024 BYD Seal: Performance

It goes on sale in both rear-wheel-drive and all-wheel-drive iterations, both using the same 82.5kWh battery. The former is £45,695 and offers a 354-mile WLTP range alongside a peak 308bhp for 0-62mph in 5.9 seconds. £3,000 more will get you a dual-engined, AWD version whose power peaks at 523bhp, taking a chunk out of both its range figure (323 miles) and 0-62mph sprint (3.8s).

To drive the point home, this version sports a ‘3.8s’ badge on the boot lid. Gone are the days when a chrome ‘GLX’ was the toast of the company car park.

This isn’t a cheap car from a largely unknown brand: pricing is broadly in line with the Hyundai and above the Tesla, demonstrating that this Chinese marque isn’t interested in being perceived as a budget alternative.

2024 BYD Seal Prices in UAE?

2024 BYD Seal EV, available now in UAE for AED 164,900. This electric vehicle represents the pinnacle of innovation, blending cutting-edge technology with sleek design