2400km winter trip on my BYD seal AWD in Japan

How much range did you get out of the battery in the colder weather?

See you changed from 19 inch to 18 inch wheels there, how are you finding it? Any numbers on the range increase?

I would say the range is the same. I don’t feel any big changes. On average it’s 5.2km/kWh Upd Maybe because now I have stud-less tires, but the tire is narrower than 19inch and the wheel is lighter. So like disadvantage from winter tires, but advantage from narrower and lighter wheel = 0 effect on range

I could do around 380km 100% -> 10%

Great video, thanks for posting. > Overall it was a nice trip, eMP charges throttled as expected, usually 90kwh throttled to 50 and 150kWh to 70-90. OK so if the visitor price is 77 yen per minute, that's about 60 yen per kWh on the "150 kW" chargers which isn't great value but also not atrocious. Compared to a Flash charger that's maybe 1300 yen more for 50 kWh which I guess is sometimes too little to be worth leaving the expressway for. Did you notice the phenomenon where the first 15 minutes aren't too bad but then it suddenly starts throttling or was it all consistently throttled at those speeds? Also looking at the charging curve it looks like the car may not be able to take more than 70-90 kW in any case unless it's below about 44%: https://evkx.net/models/byd/seal/seal_awd/chargingcurve/ Did you ever try the "150 kW" chargers while under 40%?

I took the eMP subscription before my trip and it was worth it. With subscription it’s 27.5 yen per minute. I absolutely felt it. I’ll have more evidence in later videos(I’ll upload them later cos of work). The drop is significant, from 70-80kwh to 50, and it’s 50.1 - 50.3 stable. So I think it’s not from the car’s side. On a flash charger it can do 100kwh for 10+ minutes without any problems and then do 60-70. 150kwh chargers also have this thing when they give you power for 10-15 mins and then it’s a sudden drop, but at least you still can get around 70kwh. And it’s with the condition that I’m the only one connected to the charger. It’s a bummer, but overall stopping every 3 hours for restroom and coffee, these chargers were enough. But of course I would like to see more stable 150 kWh chargers on a highway.

> I took the eMP subscription before my trip and it was worth it. With subscription it’s 27.5 yen per minute. Yeah, I figure the break-even is about 85 minutes per month and you must be way over that on this trip. > 150kwh chargers also have this thing when they give you power for 10-15 mins and then it’s a sudden drop, but at least you still can get around 70kwh. OK nice, so if 70kW is the minimum and you can get the first 15 minutes at more than that by rolling up to a "150 kW" charger with like 30% SOC then I guess that gets the visitor price down to more like 50-55 yen per kWh which is almost looking reasonable.

Yeah, it was around 320 minutes of charging, because sometimes I’ve charged more than 30mins on Service Areas(cos of lines in a food court). If we combine subscription, eMP charging fee and one FLAS charge, the number will be around 15k yen for the whole trip. It would be cheaper without the flash charger. I think its pretty reasonable compared to my previous Audi, where I spent 12k on gas only for 670km trip

Efficiency staying the same makes sense with the winter tyres, mostly looking for a more comfortable ride really. Reckon moving from the 19s to the 18s on the AWD with similar tyres (Ireland, don't really need winter tyres here) would make it a bit more efficient as well. Plus hopefully I won't scuff the rims constantly like the idiot I am.

lol, I got mine with only 360km on it, but somebody already scuffed the rim. For comfort I’m putting a little less pressure in the tires. 2.4 front and 2.8 rear. Fills a little more comfortable, because seal is stiff

That's great, so not much deterioration really.

I want to have more range and charge less or at least faster(In Japan seal is cap to 105kWh) cos I don’t have a home charger, but it is what it is

Ah yeah, electrics are a bit inconvenient if you don't have a home charger, but an absolute dream if you do. I charge at home and it's always full, and never any trips to gas stations any more, it's fantastic.

When accelerating while turning in the snow, does the Seal AWD oversteer or understeer? And how was traction in the snow?

Actually I didn’t fill neither of that. Was very controllable. I was in a snow mode. But in Eco mode wheels were slipping 2 or 3 times, very strange torque control. On snow mode everything was good. Speed was very slow, like 40-60km/h. Traction control worked fine

What was the realistic highway range?

In Japan highways are mostly 100-120km/h. For me it was around 5.2km/kWh or 380 - 390km 100-10%.

Meant to ask, how did you end up pairing the tyre pressure monitors with the new tyres?

Oh, I couldn’t do it. They tried to do it on the dealer, but they said that their computer doesn’t see the sensors, so don’t buy these: https://s.click.aliexpress.com/e/_c43F68ct

Okay thanks for the tip.

I’m really interested in moving down to an 18 inch wheel on the Sealion 7. Various websites say it’s possible, but the dealer says it isn’t. If anything, I’d at least like a narrower tire.