BYD Seal - Premium or Performance

Performance for sure! In theory fast charger will degrade the battery faster but it will take ages to show if there are any at all, the BYD E6 taxis I saw in China are approaching 1Mkm and they only use fast chargers, I was told their battery still has more than 80% capacity. Some Tesla chargers are open to non Teslas and public with CCS connection (pretty 99% of the chargers out there) will work with the seal!

Woolworths charger (22kw AC) are the same output as the max you can do at home (7kw). Seal only charges on one of three phases used to make the 22kw. Similar type to what your work will install, it's what I have too. The supplied 'granny' charger is ~2kw Battery's are pretty rugged these days, constantly using the DC fast chargers (50/75/100/150kw ones) will probably degrade the battery slightly faster. They're as expensive as petrol potentially though (49 cents and up per kW). Home for me is 29 cents. The LFP batteries in the Seal need a under 10% to 100% charge every few months, so plan for that (maybe car has a sleep over at work?) Can use any public charger, need an account. Some Tesla charger may be Tesla only. Premium vs Performance depends how fast you want to accelerate. Test drive both and see.

We’ve got the Premium (as well as a Tesla 3). Easily Get over 500km range so shouldn’t have any qualms there if you’re gonna charge at work. As for public chargers, yes you can use any of them - there was/is an issue with pre-March 2024 Seals not charging at the newer Tesla superchargers but a fix should be out imminently form BYD. As for killing battery, na plus 6 year 150,000km warranty. Batteries do degrade over time, but as does engine power for example

If your daily trip is 50km, you will be fine. My premium would use about 7.5kWh for that, performance would use a little more. A typical home charger installation charges at 7kW, meaning you'd only need to charge for about an hour if work were to install it for you. The car actually comes with a basic home charger (they post it to you about a week after you get your car), though an electrician needs to install it. The car also comes with a portable trickle charger, 1.5kW from memory, which can plug into a regular power outlet. This would take 5hrs to recharge your daily trip. You can buy up to 2.4kW portable chargers which will be slightly faster. If you can plug in at home or work you may not need a permanent charger installation - just the portable charger, and use a public charger if you're doing extra driving here or there. Yes you can use most public chargers. 22kW chargers probably won't hurt battery life much, but the super fast DC chargers (50kW+) would, so best for occasional use only.

I'm moving from a 2020 Golf (comfortline, nothing fancy) to the Seal premium. Delivery is in about 2 weeks. I'm happy with my decision, but I'll miss the nimbleness of my Golf. And physical dials for volume, aircon etc. The Performance is going to give you some extra oomph and better handling, too.

Yep, car engines lose power and efficiency over time. But when it comes to the Seal, even with 80% battery after 500,000 km (that's 15 years+ of ownership at 33k kms per year), you're still looking at 430km to the charge. I'm keen.

Do the batteries last that long? Is that a BYD timeline of 80% after 500,000km?

One of the comments above mention taxis in China reaching close to 1 million km with 80% capacity remaining on the battery. EDIT: this [site](https://latamobility.com/en/byd-expert-this-way-you-can-extend-the-lifetime-of-your-battery/) *"BYD electric batteries have a warranty of 8 years or 500,000 km and after that, they will have 60% of their original capacity".*

Honestly I'd never have purchased an EV without having a house + solar. You get all.the nuisance of a slow charge with none of the benefit of it being full when you leave home. Get the golf (or something better like a civic, Megane, i30n etc). Edit - sorry just saw the work comment, that sounds ok actually. Range wise they're fine but they're not as fun as a good performance ICE. They're good cars though.

Best thing you can do if only charging from fast charger is simply epso from low states of charge. It's just chemistry.

[deleted]

You won't have an issue. I charge at work as we have a couple of staff only charging stations. Which I do a couple times a week, whilst i could charge at home might as well use works electricity if it's available. Jolt offer free 7kw of charge a day which I think is upto about 40km driving range. I have the Premium, I didn't see the need for the extra accelartaion or heated steering wheel as required. Premium in sports mode is quick enough (turn off the auro brake hold for faster off the mark)

I myself upgraded from a 2019 Golf R to a Seal Premium - 3 months in and I wouldn't change a thing. If there's going to be a fast charger (7kw) available at work you'll be laughing, but frankly even being able to hook the trickle charger up at work to a standard oulet will be a benefit. There will be battery degradation over time regardless of what charging method you use, just like there is engine degradation over time in an ICE vehicle. The benefit of a BYD is that if the battery drops below 70% functionality within the warranty period, you get a new battery. You can safely charge it on public fast (50-75kw) chargers while you do your shopping, no sweat.

Also worth mentioning that unlike Ford, Toyota, Porsche, etc who are established car companies who have turned to making batteries, BYD is an established *battery* company that has turned to making cars.

Now they have three finger touch on screen for temp and fan speed its all good. Also you have scroll wheel for volume.

The Seal in Performance factory spec will will out perform any similarly priced factory spec ICE car, so there's that.

It does depend on your definition of performance but yes if that's 0-100 absolutely. The suspension isn't totally sorted and they are very heavy cars on eco focussed tyres so throwing them at corners isn't always totally confidence inspiring.

I’ve never heard of the 10-100% charge requirement before, where did you hear this?

Page 92 of the owners manual. *During daily use, please fully charge the vehicle on a regular basis (at least once a week), and fully charge it from a low battery level (<10% SOC) once every three to six months.*

Just for reference look at how a [older gen NMC battery](https://youtu.be/doAcNVuTnXU?feature=shared)(that is not built to be as durable as a LFP battery in the Seal) has held up after being driven way further than any ordinary person would drive a petrol car with the original transmission or engine.

I’ve been so excited to share this—my review of the BYD Seal is live! I talk about its pricing, features, and comparisons with other EVs. Check it out via the link! [https://youtu.be/HXjpAxBODcA](https://youtu.be/HXjpAxBODcA)

We were told this when we picked the car up originally

Did you feel much of a dip in performance going from the golf R to the seal premium? probably only on the freeway haha

Not even on the freeway man. The instant power delivery in the seal is exceptional. There's two things I miss about the Golf: - The lane-keep assist. It stuck between the lines like it was running on train tracks, truly the best driving assistance I've ever experienced. - Not needing to put any thought into long-distance trips.

That’s really interesting that you enjoy it just as much as the golf r! I’ve always loved the look and performance figures on paper of the golf GTIs and Rs so I’m excited to hear that you like the seal premium just as much! I’m thinking they will fix the lane assist in an OTA soon. Yeah the long distance drives will take a bit of getting used to but worth it I reckon!

I was pleasantly surprised too. When cruising on the freeway behind a dual can ute doing 10km/h below the speed limit in the overtaking lane, a flick of the wheel into sports mode and you're into the left, past him and back into the fast lane before he has a chance to floor it and block you. Because it's always a flog in a dual cab ute.

Ranger danger hahahaha. Totally get you. It’s always a bloody Ute.