Tips for a new owner

Don't stress about battery life - the LFP battery is good for at least 2000 cycles before reaching 80% - or ~20 years if you charge weekly. It also doesn't care about being charged to 100%. Be aware you now drive a quiet car, and can sneak up on pedestrians who are subconsciously used to listening out for engines. Given a few a fright in car parks. 😂 If you're on Facebook, the BYD Seal Australia group has lots of information and answers for specifics about the car. You'll also find a checklist for pick up day on there (some cars had issues with mismatched paint on the 'filler' door for example).

This might be controversial, but don't rush to get a charger installed unless you're a heavy user, the car doesn't need to be at 100% all the time. I've found the wall charger does well to keep charged and saved a few grand.

Interesting! I’m not overly worried about the battery, I do about 60kms a day for work, then maybe 120kms on a busy weekend (maybe once a month), 10kms on a quiet one, so most weeks I think I can get away with one charge. I’m getting some quotes for a 7kw charger at home, just so I have something faster than the trickle charger.

^This. I've had a Seal since August 24 and I've only used the wall charger at home, and occasionally using public chargers for larger battery top ups.

Honestly this, I got a 7kw charger intalstalled at home and tbh with me working from home 95% of the time, I could have gotten by with just the granny charger

Not controversial as I havent bothered either, but I saw YouTube from couple of sparkies showing long term use of the wall socket to pull more than a normal device draw over long periods can damage it(wall socket), and be a potential risk.

I only use the granny charger unless travelling and I use DC charging. Yeah it’s annoying the odd time you run it down to 10% on a return trip, but I do less than 15km a day so doesn’t matter. The 10-100% charge is annoying because you are without a car all weekend but that’s actually not too bad if you plan around it.

I wouldn’t feel obligated to rush into the fast charger. I have a Seal Premium and have had no trouble keeping it charged with the standard granny charger it comes with. I do about 500 km a week. The Blade battery is also not bothered by partial charging or charging to 100% so you can put it on charge whenever is convenient to you. Occasionally you may be prompted to let it get below 10% and charge to 100%, but this is only to recalibrate the car to more accurately predict the remaining distance.

That’s my biggest concern, most weekends, that’s when I’m out running errands such as groceries etc. I live alone and am away from home for work from about 6am - 6pm Monday to Friday, and living on the Gold Coast not a lot of options for shops etc open late at night, so I try and squeeze in my groceries etc on a Saturday. Every 3 weekends or so I do a trip to Brisbane to visit family (about 175kms round trip) so if I just used the wall charger, I will essentially have to top it up each night through the week, as I drive around 60kms a day for work. My other concern is my place is a little older (built in the 70s) and I bought it a year ago, whilst I haven’t had issues yet, I can’t be positive the wiring is amazing.

See, sub 10% terrifies me! I’m the type of guy that refills my ice car at 50% just incase. I’m sure I’ll adjust as I learn to trust it.

Have they given you a delivery date? I placed an order for my Premium late January, and they’ve just said they expect my vehicle to come to stock March - April. Then they’ll give me a delivery date 😢

So when I was in the dealer ordering they said they were expecting April (Premium in Shark Grey), but when the guy put the actual order through, he said oh, it says Feb/March… must be one in that colour on the boat already that’s not allocated. I’m saying that, when I log into the website and view my order, it just says we’ll contact you when it arrives in Australia, the impatient person in me hears that and thinks I could be in the next couple of weeks, but in reality, probably 6 weeks or so, as long as it’s before end of April, I won’t be pissed.

It has only once prompted me to let it drop below 10%, but there is no need to rush it, you’ll just need to be aware of the probable error in the range calculated. The only time I’ve been caught out was when I was aiming to get below my 10% and the range that I swear was showing 200 km when I set off on my ~100 km work round trip, 10 km into the trip, suddenly changed to 80 km. I could probably have charged after work, but I had never used a commercial charger. Between the nav system in the car and an app I had downloaded just in case, I was able to put $9 of electricity back and call work to say I’d be slightly late as it took about half an hour.

I have a dynamic with just the granny charger and I’ve had no issues with day-to-day charging, and even for long day trips in VIC. I only travel about 30-50kms a day for work and back, and on weekends around 200kms maybe. Even with the reduced range on the dynamic, I don’t have problems as I charge (the equivalent of a full battery) once a week or every two weeks, using staggered charging. I went to Phillip Island and back without stopping for a charge on my Seal Dynamic, and I live in metro Melbourne. Throughout the life of my Seal, I’ve only supercharged once only to experience it. Regarding battery health, LFP batteries prefer large charges rather than small, frequent ones. As with any lithium battery, it doesn’t like being topped up to full, although it is more tolerant of it than other battery chemistries like NMC. BYD recommends charging to 100% once a week to recalibrate the BMS and dipping to below 10% once every 6 months I believe, to keep the accuracy of battery readings. But during the life of this car, I wouldn’t worry about battery health at all and charge however you need to. Just enjoy your car as much as you can. Let us know how the 2025 Seal feels like to drive with some of the new features. How do you like the design of the new wheels?

I've been at 4%... what a ride ! But still around 50km It's just the % and the RED that gets your blood pumping

Dont be, I was on 13% trying to get it to under 10% for that calibration and it took so long to even get that drop.

10% buys you around 50km depending on usage. Wait till you're at 11%, almost home and trying to get it to 10% 😂 fun times 🏎️ I have a 7kw charger at home, but because our solar feed in is on the original 44c, so cheaper to charge at night on 29c. But limits my available time window and I do up to 500km a week.

Yet to see the 25 wheels in person, but the photos online look great.

A lot of people are talking about not getting a 7kw wall charger. I disagree and think it hampers the experience of owning the car and having it spend more time charging than able to be used. We’ve found that we drive a lot more with an EV, just casual weekend day trips across town as we don’t think twice about how much petrol it costs to run. But it’s also then easy to run the battery down over the weekend if you need to drive to work on weekdays. I say continue with your plan to get a wall charger put in, cheapest one will do (heard Bunnings now do <$500 ones, we have a $700 Tesla one which was the previous cheapest), and then switch to an EV plan that gives you a cheap tariff overnight to charge the car. Then set the charging schedule to those hours. Saving money not putting in a wall charger only to pay through the nose for peak electricity is a false economy with the huge added downside that you’ll spend more time needing to charge and worrying about how much range is left than actually enjoying the nice new car you paid big bucks for. Plug it in overnight for peanuts on a low tariff and you will never worry about how far you can travel and what % you return with, wake up with ample range everyday.

Given that you can now get wall chargers under $500 and have the whole thing installed under a grand, it tips the scale on that value equation. Add the fact you’ll make the money back by being able to switch to an EV plan and charge on a super low tariff rather than needing more hours in the day to charge and run it on peak power. Just less of a hassle even for a medium use case scenario.

In WA at least there is no need to have a charger to switch to the EV plan.

Ours neither but I meant more in the sense that except in the lightest use case, a portable charger limited to a 6 hour charging window doesn’t put in a whole lot of charge. I’m assuming most people who are getting by fine with the portable charger aren’t limiting it to a charging window but are basically plugging it in when they get home and unplugging it before they leave and having it connected for 12-14 hours a night.

I think I will get it honestly, the price is right, and I would rather get that installed than potentially overload my 50yo wiring in the house pulling 11amps from a random plug in my garage.

You can use a public charger for the 10-100 charge if you wanted to do it quicker. I just take an ipad down to the local charger and watch Netflix/have a snooze for a couple hours if I need too

But the cost per kw on this is around double what I get at home, a couple of years of that, it would cost me more than the 7kw charger installed, not to mention the time I could be doing other things.

Tread carefully on the accelerometer, with instant power available at wheels and while fun can chew the tyres pretty quick.

Very sounds advice from what I’ve been told!

Definitely a consideration, but again only talking about doing that for the 10-100 calibration charge which is every 3-6 months.

See, I didn’t know that was a thing! Good tip.

Absolutely. You’ve spent at least $50k on a new car already, I’d say it’s worth it for convenience and in your case safety benefits if you have older wiring. It’s a one off cost that will benefit any future EVs in your house if you replace the other car, etc and have 2 cars needing to charge.

Exactly my thoughts.

My charging pattern is usually small frequent charges and I have often wondered whether that is shortening the life of the battery. Is this something that should be avoided?

According to research on LFP batteries, large charge-discharge cycles are better for LFP batteries, which is quite different to NMC batteries. But the lifetime and durability of LFP batteries probably means that almost nobody will experience any noticeable reduction in battery life.

thanks, that's encouraging. 👍

Who says not to get a wall charger? They are some really stupid people. $6.40 to charge a car as opposed to 8x the price! Also cheaper air-conditioning and home heating from 12am-6am!

Rest of the people who responded to this thread aha. But they’re referring to using the slow portable charger that comes with the car. And yes I agree the cheap overnight rates has made our winter overnight heating bills plummet! Our electricity bills are cheaper with an EV than with a petrol car.

They spent $50k on a car to skimp out on $2k for a charger.... that hilarious... I've got another 30mins before my Tesla wall charger turns on ready to charge my car.

Get a charging cable to keep in the car. There are public charges where you need to have your own cable.

Thanks! Do you recommend a 3-phase or single-phase one?

The Type 2 cable is only used for AC charging and BYD Seal is limited to 7kw, so a single phase is all that is needed. I did get a 3-phase cable as the prices were very similar and should I upgrade my car in the future I may not need to get another.

Valid point, thank you!

Be careful of your right foot when you first get it. I got a fine in day two. It’s so much fun Wheeeeee

I ordered a premium in shark grey at the end of January, and the company handling my lease emailed BYD's fleet delivery team last week for an update, copying me. They said they are still targeting mid-April, so I'd be surprised if February/March deliveries occur. Let me know if it does, so I can ask the fleet team why they did me dirty 😂

Yea, been a week, haven’t heard anything, and it’s definitely not February now hahahaha. Where in Aus are you, I’m in qld, and I believe they all come in via Brisbane, so pretty quick for me once it’s clears customs

Haha. I'm in Melbourne

Assuming the ship doesn't tip over in this bloody cyclone bearing down on us, I have a feeling second half of march

Fingers crossed!

Patience is not my strong suit hahahaha

Picked my new Seal Premium up this week, the new wheels are very, very nice. Definitely better than the previous ones.