Need advice BYD Seal excellence or Tesla Y

Not the place to come for unbiased opinions you know. But I will say the Y is bigger than a Seal. Seal is more comparable to Model 3

Hardly unbiased, I've got a seal with some pretty openly trans plates on it, but are you comfortable supporting Tesla and being seen to? Kinda simplified it for me when I was looking

Yes I know, weird as I had this post stopped by moderators on the general ev cars channel for some reason? But thanks I agree it’s a bigger car, but wondering whether it I have the same price offer as the BYD it’s worth going for. I just have a real concern about a car which has all the controls I see, in the centre screen that’s all. Plus the simplicity of the cabin too etc

They do seem to have a bad rep. I’m even seeing here in the uk the 3 model massively reduced in price on the lease market. Seems so cheap, like £190 + vat per month with 12 months down. Was tempted by that as well

Mate, what are your needs other than the car drives well? I own a Seal Excellence and I fucking love this car, the comfort, the build quality, the way it drives. The charging speed is good but nothing crazy. 15% > 80% in 35 min. The car doesn't reach 150kw at Tesla's charger, I suspect Tesla of limiting the output because the Seal easily reach 150kw at Ionity's. In term of consumption? The Seal isn't good imo. In summer, in mix use (city/highway) I am around 20-22kwh/100km. In winter, it's more around 25kwh. The only time I managed to reach 16kwh, was on country side road, mixed with village crossing (in France), max speed at 80k/h; the consumption was 15.8kwh.

Different class of cars. Sealion 7 is closer to a Tesla Y than a Seal. Me? I'd get the Seal Excellence unless the Y Performance is in the budget because I personally really love that cars look and design at which point the Y performance will be all the car you'll ever need really. Otherwise the Seal is an excellence choice and closer to your 5 series...in terms of space it'll give you somewhere between a 3 and 5 series in space. The questions you need to ask yourself is: 1. Do you care about Tesla's reputation? Not just the Musk circus but the painful anti-consumer approach to everything. 2. Do you want a saloon or an SUV? Does boot space matter to you? It matters to me because I have a family that'll travel in the car often. 3. Is the 3.8s to 60 something you care about? For me? Yes. Absolutely.

To be honest, I agree, test Overend it’s insane and more fun than my i5 which I have to send back soon. I don’t really need that much space and then even the 3 model has come up at a really cheap price here in the uk. Tempted to save around £70 less on the 3 model but I’m concerned I might hate it. There’s no local Tesla garages around here either!

Some good points and your right about the concerns of Tesla as a brand/consumer etc.

Oh man, the 530hp kicking your ass when you insert yourself on the auto-bahn .... I am living in Germany and what a pleasure to be able to use this car at it's "full" potential. From times to times, I drive to France and this is so frustrating ahaha. But gladly the adaptative cruise control is working perfectly! And you don't have to do anything aside steering the wheel.

Two things: \-Even tho China isn't the country of free speech and freedom, their leader didn't do a nazi salute or neither openly support the Trump. But again, China isn't the nice kid here. \-I really dislike Tesla's car for their inside design, nothing has changed since then, no indicator stalks, no HUD, no screen in front of you, no physical "gear shift", everything happens on the main screen. The Seal has a beautiful design has so much character in my opinion. The inside feels a bit more classy and premium than Tesla, but that is very subjective. Again, I think in term of power consumption, Tesla is better. But BYD is doing great and they are using LFP batteries, which is a win in my opinion regarding battery degradation.

I think that’s one of the main things is the simplicity inside the cabin that I’ve seen from all the reviews and photos just feels a bit weird if that makes sense? Also, you’re right not having a physical screen in front of you. I don’t even think it’s particularly safe either? And am I right in thinking that when you wanna put the car in reverse or something it’s a bit of a technical technology piece of work to just do that? My only other thing is if I get this now on a three year lease are they likely to bring a completely new shape out on the seal from BYD imminently? Just seems like a lot of discount discounted offers going on for it here in the UK at the moment.

Though I am still not 100%, it's made me think twice. I was sure my next lease car would be the Model 3 - direct competitor to the Seal - it's got good space, I quite like the minimalist interior, it is a ton of fun to drive, and has great range, imo it is the best all-rounder saloon available today, it does everything very well and with the software it just works. But Tesla themselves...man...the shit going on with the German factory, the shitty autopilot we get in the UK - which has just been outright stripped in the US - the forced switch to subscription based self-driving. To put it into context, imagine if you were buying the Seal Excellence and BYD turned around and said "sure, but if you want the 3.8s to 60 you need to pay a monthly subscription" it just doesn't sit right to me. That being said, I've always had good experiences with Tesla dealerships, they are always more than happy to answer questions and get you out testing the car. In the Seals favour: - it's smoothly fast - if you don't care about boot space it actually has a lot of passenger room - blade battery <3 - better ride/suspension for long journeys. It gets slated a lot for its ride but the Seal is the only EV I've driven that has similar suspension feel to my Audi and I really like my Audi's suspension. - I think BYD as a mainstream manufacturer are here to stay in the UK and are investing with the flash chargers etc they're planning to install.

AU owner of a Seal here, do you like having an instrument cluster? That was a big deal for me, also I found the Seal more comfortable

I already paid for MY, but still ended up with a seal in the end. I lost the fight against the Tesla service (ordered a swedish or swiss Tesla somehow using the German site) :( Now I would prolly go for the sealion or perhaps seal 6 touring hybrid. BYD only had the seal back then on the new platform. Tesla got a much bigger trunk. Seals trunk can only fit 2 big luggage compared to 4+ of MY.

I'm in the UK with a seal excellence and really enjoy it. I was thinking of getting a Tesla for my previous car but like you I dont really like the super minimalist interior. I like that the seal has quite a few physical buttons for various things.

I guess yes but I know no different. Feels like every car should have an instrument cluster. One thing when I demo’d theseal, my Waze or nav wasn’t showing in front of me, only in the centre screen? Is that right?

Question is, if you were offered the same finance deal Dora seal excellent as a Tesla Y? What would you go for?

I've driven both as part of test drives. As others have mentioned they're slightly different classes of cars, so not exactly comparable. Nevertheless I went for the BYD Seal Excellence after test driving a lot of EVs. The infotainment tech in the Tesla was better, and the on paper specifications had the edge but the BYDs drive was infinitely better. I test drove a load of EVs when making my decision and BYDs was the best, the Tesla, on drive feel alone, was my personal least favoured. The interior quality on the BYD was also much nicer, more robust, less creaky, nicer detailing etc and the infotainment was good but not leading. Nevertheless in my ranking of EVs Tesla actually ended up nearer the bottom, lots of other EVs really surprised me with how much I liked them too, the Skoda was a surprising one and an easy recommend to anyone, Hyundai was also excellent, but the BYD was the car I really fell for, feels like a classic, high quality enjoyable four door saloon. I think BYD engineers have really spent time working out how to build an EV that takes what people find enjoyable and familiar about an ICE car, and combining it with the benefits and EV drive train offers. Happy to answer any questions on it.

Have a look at the sealion 7. We have one I feel the quality is so much better than the latest generation of tesla

Cant help there, I don't use Waze. Google Maps only shows on Center screen though through Carplay

But when u use the built in nav will it show on the instrument cluster?

Sealion 7 is more comparable to model Y. Seal Is like a model 3. On my 2nd model 3 but looking to Change soon and test drove Sealion 7. Lovely car to drive and to look at. Fed up with Tesla owner politics.

The seal is so good looking. Go seal!

Toyota Camry

I’ve owned both a Tesla and a BYD, whilst I can’t comment on these specific models but the Tesla was hands down better quality. The drive was better and the tech worked more seamlessly.

Thanks for this. Yep the only other one which was on special offer here on lease (but now gone back up and I missed the chance) was the Hyundai EV6. Then December last year, the bmw i4 and again I missed the offer but the again, I wasn’t keep the finance down but still have something that feels premium like my i5 which is going back. Tbh, I got back into my iphone 5 after the test drive with the BYD seal and it kind of felt okay but not amazingly better for The hike in Price difference! Also, I don’t really fancy driving around in the Tesla if I’m honest with you as it has a certain stigma I think about it as well? My main priorities are comfort, good traction, premium interior, good range similar to my i5, scheduling the warmup and Call in advance on the app, reasonable camping space in the rear etc. Feels like it has all of this? Only thing I noticed on a test drive is the centre screen when the sunlight hit it was really hard to see but in the BMW‘s they seem to have covered that I don’t know whether it’s because it faces you in the BMW more so perhaps Also, it seemed to dim at the wrong time so it was even worse when I was trying to look at the screen? Could it be just a setting?

I've come from a Y to a Seal U which is a different model to what you're looking at, but in the 4 months of having a Seal and 3 years with a Y I'd list the following : Telsa Pros Size, it's huge inside Infotainment way better than my BYD Connectivity is night and day better on Tesla Steering feels connected. BYD is so light. Range is a pain. Real world about 280 miles. Stereo much better. BYD on mine is intro level. BYD Seal U Interior is much nicer and comfier than Tesla Ride quality is great. Tesla Y 2022 model I had is really firm Much cheaper. Y was £640 a month lease when it first came out, Seal U, £310 for 12k miles For the money, hard to compete with BYD if you don't mind putting up with bad user interface and some other quirks. Edit:forgot to mention Tesla customer service UK are diabolical. My car was off the road for 6 weeks until they finally agreed to send an engineer to unlock the car because the battery and small internal had both drained to nothing.

Seal any day Tesla are just cheap inside

Each to their own on the drive! I absolutely love it and found no other EV quite hit the spot. I can answer your specific use case below though as I reckon we're pretty similar. Comfort is huge for me too, I do up to 20,000 miles a year and spend almost 3 hours a day in it Monday to Friday. The seat and lumbar support is great, I used to have an awful back after a long drive in my old car. Traction is a really strong point of the Seal excellence. I live in a more rural area with some questionably paved lanes that become a leafy mushy quagmire in autumn and a muddy mess in winter. ITAC on the Seal Excellence is a totally underrated feature, it's awesome at boosting traction. The torsional rigidity also benefits the car massively when turning at speed. The interior is awesome too, no complaints, definitely in the top tier alongside the greats. Yes you can schedule warm up, remotely enable the seat heating etc, the app works well no issues at all there. The rear seat space is huge, I managed to get a whole dining chair in the rear passenger footwell such that someone could sit on the chair and be in the seat as long as they didn't mind their legs in an awkward position. The boot access hatch is on the small side given it's a saloon but that's the car shape, with the seats down you have ample space. I go camping regularly and had no issues. Range is good but not stellar in the excellence imo. Driving it how I like to drive it, I get about 200-220 miles in winter, and over 250 if I am more sensible. In warmer weather I can drive it harder and get those 270 ish mile ranges. Screen brightness tends to be slightly too bright for me, not noticed any incorrect dimming, but I've fiddled with the settings to get it to my taste and all is good. Hope that helps, let me know if you have any more questions.

Thanks that’s all really useful! Guess it’s a bit less than my i5

I meant range wise

Yeah BYD tends to be a bit on the heavy side, they use the LFP Battery of it's own design which improves torsional regidity, is safer in a crash, and has better heat management. It's also longer lasting (battery health wise). However it's darned heavy, on efficiency BYD never compares overly favourably to a lot of cars on the market.

Good luck choosing though, I think the EV market is pretty good at the moment. I'm sure you'll get something great!

Ah hadn’t realised about batteries in crashes?

Tesla are massively reduced in the UK, as no one is buying them. They might be a better car, but it matters not; buy one and you are labelling yourself. Not many want to wear an Elon badge anymore. People will judge you if you buy one. A guy in my village got one, he got rid of it within a month due to all the flack he got.

So EVs are safe, and all the data suggests they are safer than ICE cars in terms of the amount they catch fire. However, EV's when they do catch fire can be absolutely catastrophic. A few years ago I had to do some work for a construction firm reviewing car park structural integrity in a fire alongside the local fire brigade, it was really interesting. They burn quick, exceptionally hot, and can be almost impossible to actually put out. Different battery technologies are different in terms of how readily they catch fire and how easy they are to put out etc. LFP batteries are generally less reactive than NMC batteries. The design of the battery also makes a difference. It's a tough one to separate given different tests yield different results, and sometimes manufacturers design to pass the test as opposed to design for real world uses. Nevertheless, tests are what we have. One of the battery safety tests is the nail penetration test. Here is the link to [BYDs run through](https://www.byd.com/uk/blog/BYDs-revolutionary-Blade-Battery-all-you-need-to-know) on it. The Blade Battery platform is actually quite interesting if you want to geek out on EV design. The bottom line is it is designed to make the car much more rigid along it's longitudinal axis, improve heat management, and is safer in a crash. The downside is that it's cold weather performance is lower than rivals and the LFP battery is heavier. Hence why BYDs run heavy.

From someone who had a seal and a model Y at the same time, take the Seal every day of the week. If you want bigger, get a Sealion7, which I've now swapped my Seal for, both much better cars.

Is BYD isn’t a state owned company. Kind of tough to hold them responsible for everything the PRC does.

Byd is a private company. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BYD\_Company](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BYD_Company) My point is, you can't only blame Tesla and his CEO, because the other option is not all clean too, and BYD got also accused of "slave working conditions" in Brasil. Not much coverage, not a lot of clear sources too, but it might be true.

I understand that but my wife and I used to own a 2014 Model S. I was a big believer in that whole “Elon is a genius for good” bullshit. We moved out of the US and when looking for a new EV we specifically ruled out Tesla because of his crap. At this moment in time I feel like buying a Tesla has significance beyond just the mechanicals of the car.

Yes, it does from the built in satnav, at least on the Seal U

really?!?!? lol... Where do you shop for your ethical clothes that don't involve slavery or sweatshops - presuming you avoid all the major known brands? What do you use instead of Amazon? Which trainer brand do you use? What fruits are you eating in the UK during the winter that aren't shipped in from Slave farms in Spain? Which bank / credit card / mortgage offering have you chosen to use?

I have both. The Seal is the nicer car in terms of cabin noise, interior finish and general looks. But for efficiency, charging and cost to fuel the Y wins. No-one else comes close to the ease and cost of the Tesla supercharging network. Would you choose a car knowing you;d pay double for petrol out and about? No, of course not. Not unless someone else paid for your fuel (or money is no object in which case, why aren't you looking a Porcy Taycan). Also, what's the use case? Do you have a family? The Seal is actually surprisingly large and you'll be able to fit a good amount of luggage in but the Y is massive. I came from a Skoda Superb and there is sooooo much more space than that. It's an absolute doddle to pack for camping / skiing / weekends away for a family of 4. I keep all my work gear in the concealed boot so it's always got an empty boot despite having 2 sets of safety boots, three jackets, waterproof trousers, two hard hats, and a large test and inspection rucksack hidden away. The frunk is also huge. So yeah, for the executive feel, the seal wins hands down. But as my daily work beast doing 20-25k miles, and visiting site a couple of times a week, I'd have the Y every single time. Couple of other points to add, my wife prefers to drive the Y as well. Maybe it's being higher up; it is effectively an SUV after all. The BYD is low if you like that. I also DO NOT get on with the Seal screens. Messy and all over the place. I've really settled on the Tesla system, it's very snappy and everything is one touch away only. I've been pretty impressed tbh. Feel free to shoot with any q's, I'll try to respond in the next day or two.

I don't everything is fucked, this is just fucked in a rather spiteful way it feels even more gross to support >Where do you shop for your ethical clothes that don't involve slavery or sweatshops - presuming you avoid all the major known brands? I have a lot of locally made stuff, obviously not all but I do what I can >What do you use instead of Amazon? I buy stuff from local stores I like, it's nicer to go for a walk than click a button >Which trainer brand do you use? An old pair of steel cap pumas from work >What fruits are you eating in the UK during the winter that aren't shipped in from Slave farms in Spain? None because I don't eat fruit in the UK >Which bank / credit card / mortgage offering have you chosen to use? Local credit union, though mostly because it was a better interest rate Not sure what your point is here

BYD built in NAV is complete rubbish unfortunately (or it least it was last time I used it 2 years ago)

"Not sure what my point is?" I mean, I can try to believe that your responses are genuine (but you're not exactly going to answer differently are you) but the minute you wrote that..... nah mate. Don't take me for a fool. You know my point.

What's your point exactly? Are you surprised an anarchist tries to spend her money somewhat in line with their values?