BYD Seal U DM-i (2024 - ) review

There’s always something faintly ridiculous about the fuel efficiency claims of any plug-in hybrid vehicle, and the BYD Seal U DM-i is a classic culprit. (We’ll just call It the Seal U from now on, to separate it from the Seal – an electric saloon.) Ain’t nobody, ain’t no how, getting anywhere near 314mpg from this car. But that lofty efficiency claim comes because the Seal U has impressively large electric-only range for a PHEV: up to 78 miles. The caveat is that a basic car has a smaller battery, capable of only 50 miles, or 43 miles with four-wheel drive equipped – but in any case, probably plenty enough to get to work and back using electric-only power. The electric range puts the Seal U in the (very low) 5-8 percent company car tax (BiK) bracket, which coupled with its low list prices means it’s going to be a very cost-effective car to stick on the drive. You can reasonably expect a good 60mpg in real life from it, too.

The Seal U has a very complicated hybrid system – we spent quite some time listening to its engineers trying to explain it and, frankly, left only partly the wiser. Basically, though, it has a battery, an electric motor (or two, if you specify the all-wheel drive version) and a petrol motor that combine to get electric power driving the wheels as often as possible; the petrol engine acts as a generator to charge the battery when it’s not driving the wheels. It can run on battery power alone for up to 90% of the time you’re driving, according to BYD. You might worry, then, that there’s lots to go wrong here – even without considering just how much of this car is reliant on the software beneath its giant rotating touchscreen. However, while BYD is new to the UK – and relatively new in general, established in 2005 – it has already produced seven million hybrid and electric vehicles worldwide. Nothing so far to suggest reliability will be an issue, and the Seal U comes with a six-year, 94,000-mile warranty, and eight years (125k miles) for the battery itself.

At a time when safety systems are becoming increasingly ‘active’ and frustrating with it – constantly bonging and binging and nudging and flashing – the Seal U’s safety systems are refreshingly unobtrusive. And most of them easily switched off from the massive screen. Despite that, the Seal U achieved a five-star Euro NCAP safety rating in 2023, with excellent test scores across the board. Standard safety kit includes an absolute mass of safety and driver assistance features, including 360-degree parking cameras, lane departure prevention, traffic sign recognition, fatigue recognition, lane-keeping assistant and door-opening warning – a thing that helps prevent you from smacking a passing cyclist with the door. And on a more basic level, the swivelling infotainment screen (portrait or landscape at the touch of a button) is one of the more intuitive on the market, its sheer size enabling larger-than-average icons that are easy to read on the move.

Although the Seal U’s ride quality will be TOO soft and floaty for some, we think the majority of drivers and passengers will appreciate just how relaxing the experience is. The same vibes apply to the steering, which is super light but has less feeling than an AI-generated birthday card. But overall, the Seal U has the comfort of a much more expensive car. The mostly-upmarket cabin ambience helps – we’ll come to that in the next section. Another key feature of the Seal U is the size of the thing. At 4.8 metres long, it feels significantly bigger in the cabin than the myriad crossover SUVs it’s priced to compete with (and almost certainly priced lower than) – namely the Nissan Qashqai, Peugeot 3008, Kia Sportage, ad infinitum. There’s loads of rear leg space. Some boot space is sacrificed – at 425 litres, it’s almost 100 litres down on a Peugeot 3008 – but that’ll be more than enough for most families.

Like the exterior, the interior is far from interesting to look at; inside and out, the Seal U appears like a car designed to be as plainly inoffensive and anonymous as possible. But there’s a veneer of quality and tech here that truly exceeds the price tag: soft-touch plastics where you want them; leather-style seats and dashboard; heated, ventilated and electrically adjustable front seats; a head-up display; a branded 10-speaker stereo; wireless smartphone mirroring and charging; a 16-inch touchscreen; 12-inch digital instrument panel; 19-inch alloy wheels, electric tailgate. It genuinely feels like someone at BYD Product Marketing accidentally pressed ‘select all’ on the options list then sent it to the factory without noticing.

The Seal U doesn’t have trim levels as such (which goes some way to explaining the paragraph above) but instead has three drivetrain options, each with their own name. Boost is a ‘basic’ front-wheel drive model with a 50-mile electric only range. Design has a more powerful 1.5-litre turbo engine and an extra electric motor for all-wheel drive. It’s much quicker (0-62mph in 5.9 seconds), but the range drops to 43 miles. And later in 2024 a ‘Comfort’ spec will come, with the same engine and e-motor setup as Boost spec, but with a bigger battery for an electric range of more than 70 miles. Having tried both Boost and Design versions, we’d suggest that the former, cheaper, option is your best bet. Neither version feels very interesting to drive – there’s a significant amount of engine drone during hard acceleration, and the Design version never feels as rapid as that 0-62mph time suggests. But at low speeds this is a very refined and quiet, if quite characterless, car. One that you'll get a good fuel efficiency from. in day-to-day driving, and with the possibility of using no fuel at all if you only do short trips - amazing for such a big family car. The Seal U is a thing that's difficult to love but extremely easy to recommend.