BYD Seal tips, tricks and help

[motdaeng]

yesterday, i took my first long round trip (468 km) in the electric car byd sealion 7 (sl 7). it was a completely new driving experience ... gliding almost silently, without vibrations, almost like floating or flying. the ride was extremely comfortable and enjoyable ... loved it!

 

at first, i thought it was a pity there was no one-pedal drive. but on a hilly and winding route (two-lane with oncoming traffic), the "high" regeneration mode was more than enough. unlike the cars ahead of me, which lit up their brake lights before every curve, i barely needed to use the brake pedal at all. this made driving even more fun and relaxing!

 

although i already knew charging on the way wouldn’t be necessary (driving in eco mode without hammering it), we made two short test charging stops (ptt ev station pluz / pea). once again, no issues and completely stress-free!

 

with every trip, i try or discover new settings. i’m taking my time to test everything and find out which ones i prefer. overall, driving this car is incredibly fun, even in eco mode ... 

[carlyai]

35 minutes ago, motdaeng said:

yesterday, i took my first long round trip (468 km) in the electric car byd sealion 7 (sl 7). it was a completely new driving experience ... gliding almost silently, without vibrations, almost like floating or flying. the ride was extremely comfortable and enjoyable ... loved it!

 

at first, i thought it was a pity there was no one-pedal drive. but on a hilly and winding route (two-lane with oncoming traffic), the "high" regeneration mode was more than enough. unlike the cars ahead of me, which lit up their brake lights before every curve, i barely needed to use the brake pedal at all. this made driving even more fun and relaxing!

 

although i already knew charging on the way wouldn’t be necessary (driving in eco mode without hammering it), we made two short test charging stops (ptt ev station pluz / pea). once again, no issues and completely stress-free!

 

with every trip, i try or discover new settings. i’m taking my time to test everything and find out which ones i prefer. overall, driving this car is incredibly fun, even in eco mode ... 

Great.

Wifey picks up ours on the 19th. Unfortunately I won't be back until 6th March.

She's off to see the BYD Mukdahan salesman as he rang asking for another B20000 to ensure we still want delivery before they get it sent from Bangkok.

Salesman said the vehicle cost price is the same. Bit strange, but if the price we agreed on when I paid the deposit is the same, I think no worries.

Will be interesting to see on the 19th if she's told about driving in the ECO mode initially.

 

[Andrew Dwyer]

12 hours ago, Andrew Dwyer said:

The SIM card is tucked away somewhere in the car, so far has been in a different place for each car ( Atto, Dolphin, Seal etc ) in the Seal is in the bottom of the centre armrest storage area, maybe for Sealion 7 also ?

It will give you some services, Navigation, Spotify and Gbox etc ( Gbox is an app from which you can add other apps like YouTube, Google Maps, Netflix and BYD App etc).

 

This is obviously wrong and the BYD App is downloaded onto your phone.

[motdaeng]

1 hour ago, carlyai said:

Great.

Wifey picks up ours on the 19th. Unfortunately I won't be back until 6th March.

She's off to see the BYD Mukdahan salesman as he rang asking for another B20000 to ensure we still want delivery before they get it sent from Bangkok.

Salesman said the vehicle cost price is the same. Bit strange, but if the price we agreed on when I paid the deposit is the same, I think no worries.

Will be interesting to see on the 19th if she's told about driving in the ECO mode initially.

 

 

i wouldn't worry too much about the additional 20k deposit (byd mukdahan may have had some bad experiences already). it will be deducted from the total end price along with the 10k deposit you already paid. at my dealership, the total price can be paid via bank app or cashier's check.

 

the handover of the car, along with all the information from the salesperson, was overwhelming for my wife. she wouldn’t feel confident enough to drive the new car home alone. maybe postponing the handover until your return is worth considering, so you can get all the important information directly from the byd dealer.

 

glad it worked out for you to get the byd sealion 7 ... 

[Gweiloman]

2 hours ago, motdaeng said:

yesterday, i took my first long round trip (468 km) in the electric car byd sealion 7 (sl 7). it was a completely new driving experience ... gliding almost silently, without vibrations, almost like floating or flying. the ride was extremely comfortable and enjoyable ... loved it!

 

at first, i thought it was a pity there was no one-pedal drive. but on a hilly and winding route (two-lane with oncoming traffic), the "high" regeneration mode was more than enough. unlike the cars ahead of me, which lit up their brake lights before every curve, i barely needed to use the brake pedal at all. this made driving even more fun and relaxing!

 

although i already knew charging on the way wouldn’t be necessary (driving in eco mode without hammering it), we made two short test charging stops (ptt ev station pluz / pea). once again, no issues and completely stress-free!

 

with every trip, i try or discover new settings. i’m taking my time to test everything and find out which ones i prefer. overall, driving this car is incredibly fun, even in eco mode ... 

Now you understand first hand why some of us wax lyrical about EV ownership. There will be some bumps and potholes along the way but the overall experience is heads and shoulders above owning and driving an ICEV.

[Pib]

13 hours ago, Gweiloman said:

... above owning and driving an ICEV.

Since you mentioned ICEV today the wife and I in our BYD Atto are a few cars behind a large ICEV truck where we were making a U-turn.  The ICEV truck was blowing exhaust smoke pretty bad and I expected the my BYD infotainment system PM2.5 detector to display around 300 to 400 as up until the today the highest it had displayed was approx 425 when driving behind another ICEV truck blowing black smoke on an open road.

 

But today since the U-turn was partially under a bridge and also having some high embankments when exiting the U-turn the truck's exhaust was kinda trapped/concentrated and the Atto's PM2.5 indicator reached approx 925 (yes, nine hundred twenty five) for a few seconds before falling back to around 40 over the next 20 seconds or so once the truck was on the open road and several hundred meters ahead of us.   

 

Due to the Atto's PM2.5 filtering system the PM2.5 indication on the "inside" of the car only reached 9 (when it was 925 outside behind the truck) before falling back to around 5 to 7 as the truck got further away from us.     

 

Yeap, saw a PM2.5 reading of 925 today for a few seconds behind that smoke-blowing truck that definitely needed some engine repair.

[carlyai]

7 hours ago, Pib said:

Since you mentioned ICEV today the wife and I in our BYD Atto are a few cars behind a large ICEV truck where we were making a U-turn.  The ICEV truck was blowing exhaust smoke pretty bad and I expected the my BYD infotainment system PM2.5 detector to display around 300 to 400 as up until the today the highest it had displayed was approx 425 when driving behind another ICEV truck blowing black smoke on an open road.

 

But today since the U-turn was partially under a bridge and also having some high embankments when exiting the U-turn the truck's exhaust was kinda trapped/concentrated and the Atto's PM2.5 indicator reached approx 925 (yes, nine hundred twenty five) for a few seconds before falling back to around 40 over the next 20 seconds or so once the truck was on the open road and several hundred meters ahead of us.   

 

Due to the Atto's PM2.5 filtering system the PM2.5 indication on the "inside" of the car only reached 9 (when it was 925 outside behind the truck) before falling back to around 5 to 7 as the truck got further away from us.     

 

Yeap, saw a PM2.5 reading of 925 today for a few seconds behind that smoke-blowing truck that definitely needed some engine repair.

A long time ago the Japanese bought up an easy way to reduce the pollution from those black smoke blowing trucks in Bangkok. All trucks should have their exhaust pipes vertical, like ending above the cab instead of horizontal to the ground. This was not going to solve, but reduce the problem.

They also did extensive studies with a fully automated traffic light system, instead of a few police pushing buttons.

Non of their extensive research findings were implemented.

 

 

[mistral53]

On 2/11/2025 at 5:37 AM, motdaeng said:

yesterday, i took my first long round trip (468 km) in the electric car byd sealion 7 (sl 7). it was a completely new driving experience ... gliding almost silently, without vibrations, almost like floating or flying. the ride was extremely comfortable and enjoyable ... loved it!

 

at first, i thought it was a pity there was no one-pedal drive. but on a hilly and winding route (two-lane with oncoming traffic), the "high" regeneration mode was more than enough. unlike the cars ahead of me, which lit up their brake lights before every curve, i barely needed to use the brake pedal at all. this made driving even more fun and relaxing!

 

although i already knew charging on the way wouldn’t be necessary (driving in eco mode without hammering it), we made two short test charging stops (ptt ev station pluz / pea). once again, no issues and completely stress-free!

 

with every trip, i try or discover new settings. i’m taking my time to test everything and find out which ones i prefer. overall, driving this car is incredibly fun, even in eco mode ... 

 

You might be surprised how often your car's brake lights come on, not stepping on the brake pedal notwithstanding.

 

There is an algo I never figured out how it works, suffice to say that at high decl from regen braking, the brake lights do come on if certain conditions are met. You can check it at night, drive e.g. 75 km/h and step off the accelerator, the brake lights will light up. Its obvious a safety feature to keep other cars from rear ending yours.

[motdaeng]

my byd comes with a sim card that allows up to 2gb per month. i listened to spotify during a long round trip and already used 250mb!

 

what is the simplest solution or best settings to use my phone's data instead of the car's internet?

can i do this without using android auto, using only bluetooth for calls? thanks for your insights.

[Andrew Dwyer]

15 minutes ago, motdaeng said:

my byd comes with a sim card that allows up to 2gb per month. i listened to spotify during a long round trip and already used 250mb!

 

what is the simplest solution or best settings to use my phone's data instead of the car's internet?

can i do this without using android auto, using only bluetooth for calls? thanks for your insights.

Spotify will be your biggest user of data, if you use Google Maps from the GBox app then that will use quite a bit also, BYD Navigation will be on in the background and use a tiny amount.

 

Wifey has Spotify on all the time but as a break from Thai music ( and we all need a break from that !! ) i use CarPlay to play my loaded music. I also use Radioplayer app or BBC Sounds.

I can use Google Maps from CarPlay to save data but it is quite a bit worse than the GBox version.

 

Since the implementation of GBox several have found that excessive usage of YouTube will use your data quickly and some have started using a “ box “ to play apps but this will need a sim and data package.

 

In general i haven’t seen my data get below .9 GB , currently at 1.7 GB halfway through the month, Spotify used 290 mb.

 

You probably won’t use all your data on Spotify and Navigation unless you go on a 1 month road trip but just keep an eye on what is using the most, most likely Spotify and use AA for the other stuff from your phone.

Its a bit of juggling  between the car and your phone but i don’t think you will be in any danger of running out of data unless you are using YouTube or Netflix etc .

[motdaeng]

22 hours ago, Andrew Dwyer said:

Spotify will be your biggest user of data, if you use Google Maps from the GBox app then that will use quite a bit also, BYD Navigation will be on in the background and use a tiny amount.

 

thank you for the detailed explanation. i'm still in the phase of trying things out and learning by experimenting ... 

 

i've never used carplay before, so i'm not familiar with it. i hope to figure out its pros and cons in the coming months and see if it's a good solution for my needs ...

 

to save data on the byd sim card (2gb/month), i did try connecting the sealion to my phone  hotspot (100gb/month). let's see how it works, it looks like i have to reconnect the wifi (to the hotspot) every time when starting the car, but it should be worthwhile for longer trips ...

 

my car system version doesn't have the gbox app yet    i hope for an update soon ...

[JBChiangRai]

I successfully loaded Smart Tube yesterday, now I can watch youtube in the car without adverts.

 

I also loaded Waze and ABRP together with updating Google Maps, I will test them this week.

[Andrew Dwyer]

33 minutes ago, motdaeng said:

 

thank you for the detailed explanation. i'm still in the phase of trying things out and learning by experimenting ... 

 

i've never used carplay before, so i'm not familiar with it. i hope to figure out its pros and cons in the coming months and see if it's a good solution for my needs ...

 

to save data on the byd sim card (2gb/month), i did try connecting the sealion to my phone  hotspot (100gb/month). let's see how it works, it looks like i have to reconnect the wifi (to the hotspot) every time when starting the car, but it should be worthwhile for longer trips ...

 

my car system version doesn't have the gbox app yet    i hope for an update soon ...

I think you mentioned Android Auto previously so presumably you have an Android phone ( CarPlay being the equivalent for iPhones ) but am not familiar with AA so you could test the Google Maps version on AA via your phone, all i know is that on CarPlay it is inferior.

To access CarPlay i click on the Apple CarPlay button and it syncs with my iPhone giving me a new screen with some of the apps on my phone available, presumably AA is the same ?

 

Yup, not sure about the GBox situation on Sealion 7 :

Basically Seal, Atto, Dolphin had a SIM from Singapore and the dealers have been changing these to a True SIM , at the same time they download a few apps including GBox which allows you to add a number of  apps ( Google Maps, YouTube etc.)

Perhaps Sealion 7 doesn’t have this arrangement but i imagine the SIM will be already True and somewhere there should be facility to add additional apps from GBox or Google Play Store, i really don’t know what your system is and am only basing it on my Seal.

[Andrew Dwyer]

42 minutes ago, JBChiangRai said:

I successfully loaded Smart Tube yesterday, now I can watch youtube in the car without adverts.

 

I also loaded Waze and ABRP together with updating Google Maps, I will test them this week.

Presumably these are via GBox ?

 

I tried to add some apps without using GBox and via the old USB ( apk ) and password method as reportedly this was now working but without success.

[JBChiangRai]

59 minutes ago, Andrew Dwyer said:

Presumably these are via GBox ?

 

I tried to add some apps without using GBox and via the old USB ( apk ) and password method as reportedly this was now working but without success.

 

I can't remember whether it was GBox or Aurora Store, I had to install "Downloader by AFTVnews" first then enter the code to get Smart Tube (28544).  It's the same process I followed on a couple of Android TV's.

[motdaeng]

5 hours ago, Andrew Dwyer said:

I think you mentioned Android Auto previously so presumably you have an Android phone ....

 

you are right, i have an android phone, so i will try using android auto ...  thank's  

[carlyai]

9 hours ago, motdaeng said:

 

you are right, i have an android phone, so i will try using android auto ...  thank's  

I am using a rent a car and I needed my phone GPS (as the rent a cars doesn't have them). I plugged in my phone to the USB car female plug, turned it on and also the car entertainment  unit and Android Auto came up on the car screen. I connected and my car gps (Google Maps) displayed on the car screen.