China’s ambitious electric car maker BYD has extended its recent price cuts to its premium sports sedan, the BYD Seal, seeking to boost sales as it tries to chase down the sector-leading Tesla EVs, and particularly the Model 3.
BYD has revealed it has cut prices on the two long-range variants of the Seal, as part of the BYD Seal Drive Away Campaign, effectively including the on-road costs in its asking price.
On its website, the brand says the BYD Seal Premium and Performance variants now start at $58,798 and $68,748 drive-away respectively, instead of before on roads.
The move is just the latest salvo in an intensifying price war across the board in the EV market, from the top-end Lotus, through the middle-range Peugeot, Renault and Polestars and the lower end MG4, BYD Dolphin and GWM Ora.
Tesla has also announced multiple price cuts to both its Model Y and Model 3 EVs, and while they still have the top two spots on the leaderboard, the BYD Seal is catching up with 1,002 sales for the month of May, compared to the 1609 for the Model Y and 1,958 for the Model 3. BYD has ambitions of overtaking Tesla, both in Australia and on the global market.
The BYD offer of on-road costs now include registration fees and stamp duty, which varies depending on the part of the country the vehicle is purchased.
A bigger 82.56 kWh battery pack is also on offer on both these Premium and Performance variants. In the Premium variant, the range is bumped up to 570 km on the WLTP cycle while the Performance can achieve up to 520 km on a single charge.
This battery can also charge at up to 150 kW at the right DC charger and AC charging is limited to 7 kW. For comparison, Tesla’s Long Range and Performance models can charge at up to 250 kW and also offer 11 kW of AC charging.
Other upgrades on the Seal Premium variant over the entry-level Dynamic include a new motor with 230 kW of power and 360 Nm of torque. This gets the car an acceleration time of 5.9 seconds from zero to 100 km/h.
The top-spec Performance model adds an all-wheel-drive powertrain that delivers up to 390 kW and 670 Nm of torque. This helps this variant sprint from 0-100 km/h in 3.8 seconds.
This sedan has been a very popular model that started customer deliveries in December 2023. Since then, the brand has sold just over 3,800 Seal vehicles over 6 months in the Australian market.
This offer is valid from June 1st – 30th which will likely help BYD sell more Seal sedans than in May.
BYD SEAL Premium Specs
- Ultra-Safe BYD Blade Battery – 82.56 kWh
- Maximum Power – 230 kW
- Maximum Torque – 360 Nm
- Up to 650km range NEDC – 570km WLTP
- AC Charging 7kW
- DC Charging 150kW
- Heads-up display
- Genuine leather-wrapped steering wheel and seats
- Premium 19 inch Alloy rims
- 0-100km/h in 5.9s
- Rear-wheel drive
BYD SEAL Performance Specs
- Ultra-Safe BYD Blade Battery – 82.56 kWh
- 0-100km/h in 3.8s
- Maximum Power – 390 kW
- Maximum Torque – 670 Nm
- AC Charging 7kW
- DC Charging 150kW
- Heads-up display
- Genuine leather-wrapped steering wheel and seats
- Premium 19 inch Alloy rims
- Frequency Selective Dampening (FSD)
- Intelligence Torque Adaption Control (ITAC)
- AWD dual motor system
- Up to 580km range NEDC – 520km WLTP
Riz is the founder of carloop based in Melbourne, specialising in Australian EV data, insight reports and trends. He is a mechanical engineer who spent the first 7 years of his career building transport infrastructure before starting carloop. He has a passion for cars, particularly EVs and wants to help reduce transport emissions in Australia. He currently drives a red Tesla Model 3.