BYD Seal Dynamic 100 kW (Cat A) Review: Singing Victory

What we like:

Great optional extras as standard, still

Supple ride and sweet handling

Sufficient power for daily activities

What we dislike:

The infotainment user interface looks a little dated compared to the rest of the car

We all knew this was coming. After the BYD Atto 3 was first released as a Cat B car, which already racked up commendable sales numbers, the Cat A version was released which opened the floodgates of interest. The same is now happening with the BYD Seal, whose Cat A version is 100 kW - just within the bounds of the COE meant for lesser powered vehicles.

Is the Cat A BYD Seal model slow?

Driving the Cat A BYD Seal, you’d never really guess that it’s the base car. On paper, it does the 0-100 km/h print in 10 seconds flat, a full 4.1 seconds slower than the next quickest Seal. But on Singapore roads, it feels faster than the figures would suggest. There is still ample 310 Nm of torque that would keep up with traffic easily. In fact, having less power gives the opportunity to go full throttle more without ever breaking the law. The acceleration also feels more natural and less nauseating. All of the power goes to the rear wheels which gives the Seal an inherent sportiness. It’s quite satisfying.

How is the range of the Cat A BYD Seal?

There is a smaller 61.44 kWh battery and so the official WLTP range drops from 570 km in the Premium variant to 460 km in this Dynamic variant. However, this is still very usable and feels sufficient for almost a week’s worth of driving. It’s worth noting though that while AC charging speeds in the Cat A variant is comparable to other Seals at 7 kW, DC charging speed drops to 110 kW instead of 150 kW. That said, a DC charge from 30% to 80% takes the same amount of time (32 minutes) as the more expensive Seals, because the Cat A Seal has the smallest battery.

What are the specification differences of the Cat A BYD Seal compared to more expensive Seals?

Aside from the drivetrain, other specification differences are front ventilated brakes with floating calipers (instead of fixed ventilated and drilled for the higher variants), adaptive shock absorbers and torque vectoring (only the top Performance variant has this), head-up display, auto tilt door mirrors and memory, vegan leather steering and seats (instead of genuine leather) and lack of lumbar and memory adjustment for the driver’s seat. I would think most of these features you would not miss except the mirror and seat functions. The vegan leather actually feels very good, almost like nappa in texture.

More importantly, a lot of the good stuff still remains, including double wishbone front and multi-link rear suspension, 9 airbags, a 360-degree parking camera (that’s just marvellous), a panoramic glass roof, electrical driver (8 way) and passenger (6 way) seats, double-glazed windows, ventilated seats and a Dynaudio sound system. It’s a long and extensive list that goes a long way towards making the Cat A variant feel extremely premium

The BYD Seal is a karaoke lounge?!

But the most impressive feature has got to be the karaoke function. This is the first time BYD gave us a wireless microphone on our test drive to test out our rusty singing skills, and my word, it’s actually really entertaining. Connecting the microphone is seamless via a Bluetooth dongle that connects to the USB port. Open the karaoke app and you can choose from a wide variety of songs. Although not everything I searched was in there, I’d say a good 80% of popular tunes can be found. How the Seal then transforms into a mobile karaoke lounge is nothing short of amazing. I guess passersby and other drivers may look quizzically inside many BYDs with its occupants singing their hearts out (the karaoke function is standard for all BYDs).

The lowest powered BYD Seal remains a very attractive product, arguably even more suited for Singapore driving with most of the desired optional extras intact. This is going to be a march to victory, I’d suspect.

Photos by James Wong

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