BYD Seal Review The Porsche Taycan Alternative That Saves £43000

In 2012, Top Gear ran a piece on Chinese cars in which Jeremy Clarkson and James May went to China to evaluate past and present models to judge whether they posed a threat to European cars. In their verdict they suggested that, given the pace of advancement, within ten years people might very well be driving Chinese cars. Thirteen years on and they are swamping the market with buyers opting for Jaecoos, BYDs, and others instead of Range Rovers, BMWs, and Porsches.

One of the chief drivers of this shift is that not only do some of these cars resemble their rivals — the Jaecoo 7 borrows cues from the Range Rover — but they are considerably less expensive.

However, it isn’t only Jaecoo looking towards Europe. After a short drive of one in May, I noticed the BYD Seal bears a passing resemblance to the Porsche Taycan and wondered if it could rival the BMW i4 I’d driven just days earlier.

What would happen if I took the Seal for a swim and how does it fare in the choppy waters of today’s car market?

Introduction

Let’s begin with the essentials. The car I tested was a 2025 BYD Seal Excellence. The distinction between this and other Seal variants is that, unlike the Design trim, the Excellence has AWD, meaning drive is delivered to all four wheels.

In terms of output there is a substantial amount. Convert the 530PS to horsepower and you get just over 500hp, which is more than a 1980s Group B rally car or a 1970s Formula One car — in a vehicle you can use to nip to the shops.

The WLTP range is roughly 323 miles, which is very close to the BMW i4, the EV I had most recently driven at the time of writing. Where the two diverge significantly, as so often happens between European and Chinese engineering, is price.

Cost

Whereas the base price of the BMW G26 i4 M50 is about £69,995, the BYD Seal Excellence sits lower at roughly £45,695 according to Autotrader. That means at the starting line the BMW is ahead on performance but also about £24,000 higher in price, though this depends on specification.

Compare the Seal to the car it resembles, the Porsche Taycan, and the financial picture looks even more advantageous. The RRP of a Porsche, per its website, is £88,200.

But while the Porsche is over £40,000 pricier, it offers greater range, more power, and extra equipment. So, despite their visual likeness, it wouldn’t be fair to equate the Seal with the highly capable Taycan.

They’re both able contenders, but for now you won’t see them squaring off directly. To borrow a boxing analogy, however, it is the i4 M50 that the Seal most closely matches in terms of similar range, footprint, and price. The closest BMW rival to Porsche’s Taycan is the larger i5.

Interior

Inside, the Seal is a wash — if you’ll forgive the pun — of leather and plastic that feels of lower grade than the i4, but still decent, robust, and comfortable. The dash is dominated by a vast iPad-like touchscreen.

Situated ahead of that is a wireless charging pad for your phone and a row of physical buttons for the parking brake, gear selection, driving modes, stereo volume, and hazard lights. Behind that sits a very deep storage cubby.

The driver isn’t wholly ignored, though, with a smaller screen behind the steering wheel showing the usual readouts and whether various driver aids are engaged. The steering wheel gives the Seal an edge over the i4 in that its rim is thinner, making it nicer to grip on straights and through bends.

Sit in the rear and you find seats that can accommodate people of different heights and a couple of storage bins and charging ports, but it’s not exactly a Gameboy back there.

Performance

This is where the Seal surprises, because it carries its mass — 2,185kg or about 2.1 tonnes — better than the similarly heavy i4. Through bends and over bumps it feels more nimble, which makes you forget just how much you’re lugging around.

Moreover, it offers three driving settings (Sport, Normal, and Eco) that alter the car’s power delivery according to the road and handling characteristics.

Furthermore, you can set how much regenerative braking (a system where the brakes help recharge the battery) you want, enabling one-pedal driving. There’s a separate adjuster for the steering to change how much feedback you get when hustling the Seal through corners.

However, in those corners something rather odd occurs. The BYD provides excellent steering feedback at low and motorway speeds. There’s plenty of communication through the wheel about what the tyres are doing, but when you plant the throttle out of a corner that feel vanishes.

What I mean is that into and through a corner you have that connection, you sense the vibration, but as you accelerate out of the bend it disappears. It’s like abruptly losing your sense of taste just as you start to chew some food.

The feedback returns once the car is back in a straight line, but the sensation repeats as you enter the next corner and again apply the throttle.

While a peculiar quirk, this doesn’t spoil the experience. You simply have to tackle corners differently — waiting until the car is Roman-road-straight before nailing the throttle so you’re not all over the place on slick surfaces.

Not an immediate deal-breaker, but worth addressing for the midlife update. Also, on a run down to Brighton, similar to the one I did in the i4, the BYD didn’t feel as efficient.

On the BMW I gained range on my way down to the popular seaside city despite high temperatures and heavy load, but in the BYD I saw no such increases despite cooler ambient conditions and nothing more than a coat and a camera stand. Unusual? Perhaps, but an intriguing comparison.

Practicality

On the surface the BYD has some strong cards to play in the practicality stakes. It offers a 400-litre rear boot and a 53-litre front boot (or frunk in America). That equates to an overall estimated carrying capacity of a healthy 453 litres. However, there are a few factors that limit its usability.

At the front the frunk is a touch smaller than you might expect given there’s no heavy combustion engine in the way. There’s space for a couple of shopping bags, but not much more.

Meanwhile, at the rear, unlike the BMW i4 — where the rear bodywork and glass lift to create a hatchback — only the rear bodywork opens when you pop the boot.

You therefore couldn’t easily load large or bulky items inside, and even if you could you wouldn’t be able to exploit the full volume available. That’s because, while the rear seats fold down, the parcel shelf can’t be removed since it houses speakers.

As a result, you’re more constrained by the size and shape of what you can carry. Granted that’s true of every car or van, but I wouldn’t have been able to use the Seal in the same way I used the i4 when that had the task of carrying my bicycle and lots of luggage for a weekend away in the South Downs.

While the Seal is less handy for unusual cargo, it scores points back for having a usable touchscreen interface.

These systems will never trump physical switches when it comes to quick shortcuts, but the Seal does a decent job of placing key functions and shortcuts close to the driver and including a few buttons on the wheel and centre console to toggle between driving modes (Eco, Sport, and Normal).

Canada is currently reviewing its stance on Chinese EV tariffs, a move that could further influence the market for cars like the BYD Seal.

Conclusion

All told, the BYD Seal is an attractive alternative to the likes of the BMW i4 and even, if a few faults are resolved, the Porsche Taycan and Audi e-Tron Quattro down the line.

It handles well, it’s fairly straightforward to live with, and you get the impression of a strong first effort. Buyers may be deterred by the lack of practicality (see parcel shelf and front trunk) and may choose models with longer ranges and better efficiency.

Moreover, it’s impossible to ignore the price gap between this and some rivals. In a climate where the cost of living and socialising is rising, being able to buy a car with similar performance and range that’s, in some cases, over £10,000 cheaper than its competitors makes the Seal a persuasive option.

At the end of my week with the Seal I’d grown fond of it. Does that mean I’d buy one today if I had the cash? No, but if they ironed out the kinks and boosted the range for the facelift, then I might well choose this charming underdog.