BYD Seal Leaps into Singapore

Singapore - BYD has launched their Tesla Model 3-fighting Seal electric sedan in Singapore, with an event held at the Changi Exhibition Centre.

The event saw BYD inviting customers as well as members of the media to take the Seal through its paces around a temporary circuit and slalom course.

The Seal arrives here with three variants, each with varying battery sizes, power output and range, as illustrated in the table below:

The most powerful version is the Performance, which features a dual-motor, all-wheel-drive setup, and produces 530hp and 670Nm of torque, enabling it to go from 0-100km/h in a Tesla-rivalling 3.8 seconds.

Range is quoted at 520km from its 82.56kWh battery, and the car is priced at S$280,888 inclusive of COE at launch.

(Click HERE to read about our track drive in the BYD Seal AWD Performance at the Zhuhai International Circuit)

The entry-level Seal though is the RWD Dynamic model, which features a single motor that produces 203hp and 310Nm of torque, allowing it to go from 0-100km/h in 7.5 seconds.

Its smaller 61.44kWh battery gives it a range of 460km, and the car is priced at a reasonable S$238,888 with COE.

For 10 grand more however there is the mid-range Premium, which is also a single motor RWD setup, but uses the same 82.56kWh battery as the Performance, giving it the longest range of all at 570km.

Performance figures stand at 313hp and 360Nm of torque, with a 0-100km/h sprint time of 5.9 seconds.

All Seals come with an impressively long list of standard equipment, which include 9 airbags, 360 degree camera, adaptive cruise control, automatic emergency braking, land departure warning, lane keeping assist, an NFC card key, panoramic glass roof, and the rotating 15.6-inch central touchscreen display.

The Premium and Performance variants add in extra stuff like a head-up display, driver memory seats, and auto tilt door mirrors, while the Performance version further adds BYD’s Intelligent Torque Adaption Control torque vectoring system.

We managed to get a quick drive of the Seal at the launch event at Changi Exhibition Centre, and first impressions revealed the car’s impressive handling chops, with the car feeling remarkably balanced and composed when cornering at speed and through the slalom.

Down the acceleration run, the Performance model in particular rocketed off the line with the kind of speed that could easily trouble even more expensive EVs like the Porsche Taycan or Audi e-tron GT.

The Seal’s closest competitor locally in terms of pricing is the Tesla Model 3, but the top-spec Performance variant is also within the price range of the entry-level versions of the Polestar 2 and Kia EV6, as well as the recently-launched Hyundai Ioniq 6, making the BYD an incredible value buy in the current EV market in Singapore.

PHOTOS BYD / Lionel Kong / Cheng Yu Hung / Clifford Chow