macahoom

Question for AWD Seal owners: What is your estimated driving range, dynamic mode at 100% SOC? Mine seems to have settled at 575-585km; Econ mode, A/C on. That’s driving around Phuket - which often means plenty of pretty heavy, slowish traffic. Unlike a lot of the range anxiety mob, I am not a travelling salesman rushing around Thailand 5 days a week at breakneck speed, so I don’t need such a high range, but it’s still nice to have it. Also interested to hear the dynamic range of Premium owners.

Ha! I just assumed that it didn't have one. To make it work, is it just a matter of setting the temperature on the AC?

I don't believe my software was updated. There was a small change in my front collision setting but, other than that, I didn't notice anything different.

I took my car to the BYD showroom (Phuket now has two!) for its first service - 3 months or 5000 kms. I have 2600kms on the clock. It took two and a quarter hours. When picking the car up, I was presented with a five page report which listed a multitude of things they did - all in Thai, so I have no idea what was done. Interesting that for my MG servicing, someone used to arrive at my house, plug a laptop into the car and was gone in 15 minutes. In four years, I think I had to take the MG to the dealership for a service on only three occasions, but lots of house visits with a laptop.

Yep. I checked and it looks like there’s no regen below 10km/h. This means the mechanical brakes must take over which should ensure that rust doesn’t get a chance to build up. Hopefully!

Good lord! Do try to keep up! So fecking boring!

Sorry, I'd need to see the car in real life to give my verdict.

Oh no! I won't be able to sleep tonight!

I'm on my 3rd BEV; bought my first one four and a half years ago. I still have two. I bought them because they are a joy to drive and they give me a lot of pleasure.

Thanks for commenting on this JB. I'm too old and ugly to be bothered to explain. Yes it looks like the testers, (and Breizh29) don't understand that the brake pedal triggers the regen and the mechanical brakes only come into play under very heavy braking or, as you say, to bring the car to a complete stop from about 5kph. Many reviewers don't seem to understand regen blended braking.

Presumably BYD, as developer and manufacturer of the battery, know what they’re talking about and following their advice for battery longevity is probably a good idea. The charging instructions in the Seal manual are far from straightforward, but doable. My intention is to follow them quite strictly.

Link to these tests, please.

Or that the rust had been building up since the car was new and this was the first time the mechanical brakes had been triggered?

Yeh, but the Seal's mechanical brakes are blended with the regenerative braking, like many EVs. Even when you use the brake pedal, the mechanical brakes only activate when the regeneration can't cope, which seems to be only under extremely heavy braking.

Anyone have any ideas about this? In view of the fact that, at even a 100% SOC, the Seal regeneration still works, this presumably means that the conventional mechanical brakes will only be triggered under extremely heavy braking. I have had my Seal for 3 months and I don’t believe I have ever braked heavily enough for the mechanical brakes to engage. So this means the brake pads/discs are gonna rust and pit because they are never, or rarely, used. Any comments/solutions? Do a high speed emergency brake once a week to keep the pads/discs clean?

It has a ternary (NMC) battery. That rules it out for me. I think in real life it must be a great looking car - longer, wider and less tall than the Seal. Edit: I see in the post below this one that the ternary is only in the top model. The base model has an LFP.

Yes, the Seal has a multitude of bells, whistles and tricks up its sleeve but they somehow failed to provide a simple way to change from seat position one to seat position two - like a simple two-way switch on the driver's door. Bewildering!

No!

I live on a steep hill and when I leave the house with the battery at 100% and drive down the hill, my regen still works. This surprises me as there is nowhere for the regenerated energy to be stored when the battery is at 100%. An EV’s battery management system prevents the battery charger from exceeding 100%. It stands to reason that it would prevent regen from exceeding 100% too. In every other EV I’ve driven or read about, regen is not available when the SOC is 100%, as you would expect. Anyone know what’s going on with the Seal?

I think your wrap and wheels look great. Make your car quite unique. Why does the BYD badge on the back appear to be well off centre? No go faster stripes but I see the boy racer in you couldn’t resist retaining the 3.8S. Re. your comment about having the bumpers wrapped: Do you believe the paint is not up to standard; too thin? I remember reading or seeing an early review by some guy who had been a car sprayer and he was very impressed with the quality of the Seal’s paint job, although he was not pleased about the lack of a clear coat (whatever that is) inside the frunk.

How to tell if your version is the same, or earlier, than the one I had: 1) Your iTAC page will have "iTAC (Intelligence Torture Adaption Control)" instead of Torque. 2) You will have three hilariously loud pedestrian warning sounds. And quite a few other things won't work or will be missing.

Wow! When you compare that to the price of window tint, it seems to be really cheap.

No doubt about it! As long as you do that, there is no problem.

I could be very wrong, but I have a feeling it will be cheaper than might be expected. Anyway, I'm looking forward to seeing your wrapped Seal.

Aha! A bit of a boy racer, eh? What about some go faster stripes? You'll be telling me you're buying a Cyberster next!