22 minutes ago, VocalNeal said:

We have a few Chinese car dealerships in town. So far at the traffic lights the much touted electric car acceleration is not in evidence.

 

Probably because the EV drivers don't want to show-off, leave the petrol cars setting in the dust, etc. 

1 hour ago, Pib said:

Probably because the EV drivers don't want to show-off, leave the petrol cars setting in the dust, etc. 

 

They can't leave anyone in the dust unless they are on the front row. Not usual. It is usually a local yokel who is not in a hurry.

The 18-wheel trucks usually out drag the cars away from the lights.

 

 

Strangely, Spotify has started working again even though there's 0 bytes left of my monthly allowance.

6 minutes ago, JBChiangRai said:

Strangely, Spotify has started working again even though there's 0 bytes left of my monthly allowance.

That is unusual, are you sure it is not picking up wi-fi or reverted to your phone hotspot by default ?

Yes I checked, no WiFi connection 

11 hours ago, JBChiangRai said:

Strangely, Spotify has started working again even though there's 0 bytes left of my monthly allowance.

 

maybe byd china also reads aseannow and had mercy on you, giving you a few extra MB for your Spotify .... 

I think it’s the secret connection to the CCP for command, control & espionage that’s leaking bandwidth to Spotify.

 

Actually we can only play the album we were listening to last, so I think it’s downloaded to Spotify’s cache.

 

We're out at a coffee shop for lunch and I’m doing the software update so I think the data limit doesn’t apply to updates .

37 minutes ago, JBChiangRai said:

I think it’s the secret connection to the CCP for command, control & espionage that’s leaking bandwidth to Spotify.

 

Actually we can only play the album we were listening to last, so I think it’s downloaded to Spotify’s cache.

 

We're out at a coffee shop for lunch and I’m doing the software update so I think the data limit doesn’t apply to updates .

Dangerous stuff as CCP now know your secret affection for K-Pop !!

 

Is that the V1.4.1 ? and yes I think you are correct updates do not use data allocation.

1 hour ago, JBChiangRai said:

I think it’s the secret connection to the CCP for command, control & espionage

I mentioned this in some other EV car thread and got an ear bashing,

seems no one is concerned about CCP or anyone else for that matter

harvesting all their data...they all have "nothing to hide"  😋

Did the V1.4.1 update today, a small update which takes 9 minutes or thereabouts.

 

 

Not sure if we will see any changes ?

On 8/27/2025 at 5:53 PM, Andrew Dwyer said:

Did the V1.4.1 update today, a small update which takes 9 minutes or thereabouts.

 

 

Not sure if we will see any changes ?

There was speculation on an Australian forum that it will change to use WLTP instead of the NEDC base to make range estimates. Not seen anything change myself. 

17 minutes ago, mistral53 said:

There was speculation on an Australian forum that it will change to use WLTP instead of the NEDC base to make range estimates. Not seen anything change myself. 

Yeah, early days but i am not seeing any difference in the range estimate.

 

 

That equates to 655 km so if anything is going the wrong way !!

( NEDC is 650 km on my Seal Premium, in reality 500-520 km range ).

It's sad to be cut off from what is really happening in the cutting-edge ADAS sphere - I wonder whether we will ever get these features released in our neck of the woods, it feels like we are driving horse buggies compared to this:

 

 

9 minutes ago, mistral53 said:

It's sad to be cut off from what is really happening in the cutting-edge ADAS sphere - I wonder whether we will ever get these features released in our neck of the woods, it feels like we are driving horse buggies compared to this:

 

 

It does seem like the home grown market is ahead of the rest but tbh I would be a nervous wreck without my hands on the wheel.

Hopefully we won’t see this here in my lifetime.

this is rather not suitable for thailand, the car automatically does "Honks and flashes high beam when someone cuts you off" ... 

 

from my past life in another place it was normal for me to give a short honk in reckless or dangerous situations.

in thailand this can be risky or even life-threatening, but honestly i find it very hard to get rid of my honking habit,

because it feels like a natural reaction to me, the same way i would do an emergency brake if a dog runs into the street ...

 

Took my Sealion 7 for a check up while out shopping.

I asked them to load Google Maps into the system as I like it better than the BYD version.

Mechanic said they can't load Google Maps on the Sealion 7 but other BYD models they can.

Anyone loaded Google Maps on a Sealion 7?

8 minutes ago, carlyai said:

Took my Sealion 7 for a check up while out shopping.

I asked them to load Google Maps into the system as I like it better than the BYD version.

Mechanic said they can't load Google Maps on the Sealion 7 but other BYD models they can.

Anyone loaded Google Maps on a Sealion 7?

Don’t know about Sealion 7 but here’s my experience on the Seal, applicable also to Atto 3.

A while ago the dealers were loading an app called GBox which allowed you to load more apps to the car, this included Google Maps, YouTube etc etc. which would then run on the central screen.

All was good until around 6 months ago when a pop up when trying to open GBox, long story short, it wasn’t licensed to run in vehicles only phones or tablets.

 

Some months ago the dealers came up with an alternative app, Gpack ( for some reason they don’t advertise this too much, some owners got a text but most got from social media ( Facebook ).

Anyway gpack is better than gbox, allowing all the previous apps but also some charging apps are available.

 

I don’t know if the gpack app is available for Sealion 7 but worth asking at your dealer.

 

Barring that you can run Google Maps from your phone onto the centre screen using CarPlay or Android Auto if you have Google Maps on your phone.

 

In the case of CarPlay ( iPhones ) the Google Maps is a basic version, but will still load your favourite/recent locations and i believe still better than the BYD app.

Plus, i believe anything running via CarPlay/Android Auto will only run in landscape mode, i prefer portrait mode for Google Maps to see farther ahead.

 

Gpack is favourable imho for the better version of Google Maps and portrait mode on the centre screen.

Yea, I recently started using Google Maps via Gpack a few weeks ago....works fine.  I have an Atto.   My BYD dealership installed Gpack (for free, takes very little time for the dealership to install) when the Gbox app (also dealer installed for free) went belly-up.   

 

As Andrew said BYD does "not" seem to widely advertise that they will install for free the Gpack app; nor did they advertise very much the Gpack app.  It seems that "one" dealership somewhere may advertise it on Facebook, Youtube, etc., people start crossfeeding that info on social media and then go to their dealership to get it installed.  

Is the Seal Performance sold out? I went to two dealerships. The first one said they don't have it, but might have a used (test drive car) for sale, but it was not in that shop (I want to look first) and not the color I want. 

 

The second dealership asked me for a 10k deposit which I paid, and the salesman asked me for up to 2 weeks to confirm that they have it. If they don't (which I think will be the case), he said I'll get my deposit back. 

 

I would wait a few months if I knew for sure that the new model is coming, but there are zero confirmations or even rumours about that. 

21 minutes ago, FarangFB said:

Is the Seal Performance sold out? I went to two dealerships. The first one said they don't have it, but might have a used (test drive car) for sale, but it was not in that shop (I want to look first) and not the color I want. 

 

The second dealership asked me for a 10k deposit which I paid, and the salesman asked me for up to 2 weeks to confirm that they have it. If they don't (which I think will be the case), he said I'll get my deposit back. 

 

I would wait a few months if I knew for sure that the new model is coming, but there are zero confirmations or even rumours about that. 

Not sure that it is sold out but more likely stock has been reduced to possibly make way for a minor change Seal, which i believe has been released in Australia under the name Seal 2025. 
If they are offering test drive cars then that also points to a clear out for newer models.

As posted in Electric Vehicles in Thailand thread the sales for the Seal has been very low for the last 3 months.

 

Of course it could be that the onus is now on the latest cars to be released ( SL 7, 6, 5 and the M6 ) and showrooms have to decide which cars to stock ?

 

Out of interest what was the price of the test drive Seal ?

 

While it will be likely a 2023 model the mileage should be low and, in theory, a better bet than buying from an unknown seller which means it could have been in a previous accident or even flooding.

Something to consider if anyone looking for a second hand Seal.

1 hour ago, Andrew Dwyer said:

Not sure that it is sold out but more likely stock has been reduced to possibly make way for a minor change Seal, which i believe has been released in Australia under the name Seal 2025. 
If they are offering test drive cars then that also points to a clear out for newer models.

As posted in Electric Vehicles in Thailand thread the sales for the Seal has been very low for the last 3 months.

 

Of course it could be that the onus is now on the latest cars to be released ( SL 7, 6, 5 and the M6 ) and showrooms have to decide which cars to stock ?

 

Out of interest what was the price of the test drive Seal ?

 

While it will be likely a 2023 model the mileage should be low and, in theory, a better bet than buying from an unknown seller which means it could have been in a previous accident or even flooding.

Something to consider if anyone looking for a second hand Seal.

 

What you said makes sense, if I knew for sure that a new Seal (Performance) is coming I would wait, the new version seems to have improvements like a sunshade for the roof, a better suspension and a stronger AC.

 

The price of the test drive Seal is 1M (200k) discount and it has around 2000km on it, pretty much all of it just driving up and down the street. 

 

My issue would be the color they have (white). My neighbour has a mango tree (or another large tree) that has these nasty orange droplets that are super hard to remove from white car paint.

 

1 hour ago, FarangFB said:

 

What you said makes sense, if I knew for sure that a new Seal (Performance) is coming I would wait, the new version seems to have improvements like a sunshade for the roof, a better suspension and a stronger AC.

 

The price of the test drive Seal is 1M (200k) discount and it has around 2000km on it, pretty much all of it just driving up and down the street. 

 

My issue would be the color they have (white). My neighbour has a mango tree (or another large tree) that has these nasty orange droplets that are super hard to remove from white car paint.

 

Seems like there has been talk of the 2025 Seal forever, Aus have had it since around April !

Selling test drive cars ( or Activity cars as they like to call them) would normally be an indicator that change is coming but with BYD bringing in all the new models maybe it isn’t, maybe just need the room ?

 

I get what you say about the colour, once i have my mind set on a colour it would be difficult to accept an alternative.

 

 

On 9/9/2025 at 5:35 PM, Andrew Dwyer said:

Seems like there has been talk of the 2025 Seal forever, Aus have had it since around April !

Selling test drive cars ( or Activity cars as they like to call them) would normally be an indicator that change is coming but with BYD bringing in all the new models maybe it isn’t, maybe just need the room ?

 

I get what you say about the colour, once i have my mind set on a colour it would be difficult to accept an alternative.

 

I'm guessing I won't be getting this version of the Seal. The dealership seller couldn't find one for me yet, the test drive ones are sold out also.

 

They're trying to push me a Sealion 7 but I want a low sporty car, already got a big family one. 

47 minutes ago, FarangFB said:

 

I'm guessing I won't be getting this version of the Seal. The dealership seller couldn't find one for me yet, the test drive ones are sold out also.

 

They're trying to push me a Sealion 7 but I want a low sporty car, already got a big family one. 

That is strange, I don’t see the Seal being discontinued but no word about the minor change they got in AUS.

 

Perhaps the Seal is to be faded out here ?, selling like hot cakes in the UK ?, and no other sporty sedan in the pipeline i can see.

 

If i am near my local showroom i will pop in to see if they can solve the mystery, the salesman there sold us our MG years ago and has been really friendly in the couple of dealings i have had with him in the BYD showroom.

55 minutes ago, Andrew Dwyer said:

That is strange, I don’t see the Seal being discontinued but no word about the minor change they got in AUS.

 

Perhaps the Seal is to be faded out here ?, selling like hot cakes in the UK ?, and no other sporty sedan in the pipeline i can see.

 

If i am near my local showroom i will pop in to see if they can solve the mystery, the salesman there sold us our MG years ago and has been really friendly in the couple of dealings i have had with him in the BYD showroom.

 

They simply disappeared, up to like a month ago they were being sold in shopping malls, even the supermarket near my house had one on display. 

 

I messaged one guy that works in a Bkk dealership and he said he is confident that he could get me one (not my first pick of color though). So far this month I haven't seen a single shop that actually "has" it. They act like they do at first but when it's time to confirm things then they don't have it. 

V2.0 OTA being rolled out in the UK for the Seal ( and Atto 3 also i believe) the two major changes are the new UI which is now in line with Sealion 7 and Battery Preconditioning. 
 

New UI getting mixed reactions from owners but, imho, will give a cleaner look with the 3 large icons gone and the the other info on Home Screen minimised and moved to the top.

New screen should look like this:

 

 

A new choice of wallpapers or personalise with your own.

The new row of icons are customisable but i believe not all can be removed. You can leave them all and scroll left or right to select if you wish.

 

Battery Preconditioning:

I think this will assist owners in cold climates more than us here but presumably will enable us, via a new button, to bring in battery cooling on our way to the charging point instead of charging creating battery heat so cooling is required ?

Am guessing here about what benefits this has for us or how it will be utilised.

 

This fella explains the battery heating and cooling system in some detail.

 

 

@Andrew Dwyer

Thanks....very interesting video especially the battery thermal management/heating/cooling parts.   In the comments area of the video the video author gave his core reference for the battery stuff.....link below....google translate is your friend for the doc but it translates well.

https://www.163.com/dy/article/IG7G485A05418T7D.html

 

The video tries to make the Seal battery management system sound really different from other BYD models, but it's not....it's basically the same as what is used on the Atto and Dolphin with the exception of the battery cooling plate being on the bottom-outside of the battery whereas for the Atto it's on the upper-inside of battery (ditto for the Dolphin I think).

 

I use to think for a long time that the BYD Atto/Dophin/Seal cooling plate had liquid glycol coolant (i.e., water and antifreeze mixture) running thru the plate, but found out later it uses air conditioner refrigerant (R-134A).  However, Glycol coolant is used to cool the drive motor(s), onboard charger, electronics box, etc.., just like an ICE engine has coolant running thru it. 

 

And I'm of the same opinion as the video author that refrigerant (i.e., like R-134A used by the A/C system)  battery cooling is not as good in "uniformly" cooling the entire battery as glycol coolant (a.k.a., water and antifreeze) does a better job and apparently is more costly to implement in EV battery cooling.   

 

I monitor OBD2 data quite a bit on my Atto like monitoring the temperature of the battery.  The Atto Extended version 60KW battery has 126 blade batteries in series.  A bunch of "daughter BMS" boards along with a master BMS motherboard control and monitor these 126 batteries....each daughter BMS monitors 12 or 14 blade batteries and has "one" temperature probe for those 12-14 batteries.  Although these BMS board can monitor the "cell voltage" of each and every one of the individual 126 batteries the BMS only monitors temp for a 12-14 pack of blade batteries.   So, on my OBD2 readout I can see the battery temp from front to back of the battery pack....10 temperature readouts....each temp readout representing either 12 or 14 batteries.  I expect it's the same way on the Seal..that is, one temperature problem monitoring X-amount of blade batteries.  

 

Active cooling (i.e., the heat pump system letting a serious amount of R-134A refrigerant flow thru the battery cooling plate) only engages when one of the temperature probes reaches 38C for a minute or two although all 9 remaining temp probes for the other blade batteries may be reflecting several degrees lower.  And typically on a warm/hot day it can take around an hour or more of driving continuously at around 80-90KmH below the battery heats-up enough from current flow feeding the drive motor that "part" of the multicell battery pack will reach 38C.    EV batteries are large have a lot of mass which means they heat-up slowly....just doing short trips around town, doing grocery runs, going to Big C 20 kilometers away does not cause the battery to heat up much.

 

Typically, it's the "front of the battery pack" closest to the drive motor that heats up first with the back part (closest to the rear axle) taking longer due to how well (or not so well) the battery cooling plate keeps the entire battery uniformly cooled....at the same battery pack temp.  The best/fastest cooling occurs at the front of the battery and worst/slowest cooling at the rear of the battery.  By "worst/" I do not mean "not good enough" I just mean by the time the R-134 refrigerant has reached the rear of the battery it has absorbed some heat from the front of the battery and is not as cool as when first entering the battery pack, therefore it can't cool the rear part of the battery as good/fast.    This is just like how the video infers and also how the technical docs shows how battery cooling efficiently....plus, it what i've seen over and over in watch OBD data as I drive along on short, medium, and long trips....and when charging.

 

But will all this said for a person who doesn't drive their BYD EV say continuously for around an hour the battery will never reach the temperature (around 38C) where serious battery cooling kicks in....is needed.  

 

Now when a person starts charging at a "DC charger" with a LOT of current flowing thru the battery continuously it will heat up a lot fast and the Active Cooling will kick-in a lot sooner than just from normal driving.    And when a BYD EV is just using a low power AC 7KW with their car turned off....like charging at home.... a person will probably never hear their A/C compressor/heat pump system start up to do serious cooling because charging at 7KW/around 30A doesn't cause the battery to heat up much.  And even if it does say reach 38C during that 7KW AC charging  because the temp was already close to 38C from some driving, well, all they will probably hear is the "radiator" fan start running....sometimes slow, sometimes fast and easily heard...along with the glycol/water electric water pump circulating/pumping water thru the onboard charger which is getting hot but there is still no cooling occurring in the battery (unless you just happen to have been close to 38C and the A/C needed to kick on for a few minutes to cool the battery down quickly).  After that quick cool down the 7KW/30A charging rate will not cause the battery to heat-up again and a person will probably just hear a the radiator fan running, sometimes very slowly and quietly....other times fast and easy to hear. 

 

 Cheers.

 

P.S.   I expect whatever "preheat" setting that may show-up in the OTA release will be underwhelming in terms of how helpful it would be for the driver in cold climates.....and all it might really do is direct more heat towards the cabin cooling vs the battery preheating.    And for us EV owners here in the tropics I doubt our EV would ever require battery preheating unless maybe those EV folks in the mountainous northern Thailand one day in the future experience a once in a thousand year blizzard.  😜

 

 

13 hours ago, Pib said:

@Andrew Dwyer

Thanks....very interesting video especially the battery thermal management/heating/cooling parts.   In the comments area of the video the video author gave his core reference for the battery stuff.....link below....google translate is your friend for the doc but it translates well.

https://www.163.com/dy/article/IG7G485A05418T7D.html

 

The video tries to make the Seal battery management system sound really different from other BYD models, but it's not....it's basically the same as what is used on the Atto and Dolphin with the exception of the battery cooling plate being on the bottom-outside of the battery whereas for the Atto it's on the upper-inside of battery (ditto for the Dolphin I think).

 

I use to think for a long time that the BYD Atto/Dophin/Seal cooling plate had liquid glycol coolant (i.e., water and antifreeze mixture) running thru the plate, but found out later it uses air conditioner refrigerant (R-134A).  However, Glycol coolant is used to cool the drive motor(s), onboard charger, electronics box, etc.., just like an ICE engine has coolant running thru it. 

 

And I'm of the same opinion as the video author that refrigerant (i.e., like R-134A used by the A/C system)  battery cooling is not as good in "uniformly" cooling the entire battery as glycol coolant (a.k.a., water and antifreeze) does a better job and apparently is more costly to implement in EV battery cooling.   

 

I monitor OBD2 data quite a bit on my Atto like monitoring the temperature of the battery.  The Atto Extended version 60KW battery has 126 blade batteries in series.  A bunch of "daughter BMS" boards along with a master BMS motherboard control and monitor these 126 batteries....each daughter BMS monitors 12 or 14 blade batteries and has "one" temperature probe for those 12-14 batteries.  Although these BMS board can monitor the "cell voltage" of each and every one of the individual 126 batteries the BMS only monitors temp for a 12-14 pack of blade batteries.   So, on my OBD2 readout I can see the battery temp from front to back of the battery pack....10 temperature readouts....each temp readout representing either 12 or 14 batteries.  I expect it's the same way on the Seal..that is, one temperature problem monitoring X-amount of blade batteries.  

 

Active cooling (i.e., the heat pump system letting a serious amount of R-134A refrigerant flow thru the battery cooling plate) only engages when one of the temperature probes reaches 38C for a minute or two although all 9 remaining temp probes for the other blade batteries may be reflecting several degrees lower.  And typically on a warm/hot day it can take around an hour or more of driving continuously at around 80-90KmH below the battery heats-up enough from current flow feeding the drive motor that "part" of the multicell battery pack will reach 38C.    EV batteries are large have a lot of mass which means they heat-up slowly....just doing short trips around town, doing grocery runs, going to Big C 20 kilometers away does not cause the battery to heat up much.

 

Typically, it's the "front of the battery pack" closest to the drive motor that heats up first with the back part (closest to the rear axle) taking longer due to how well (or not so well) the battery cooling plate keeps the entire battery uniformly cooled....at the same battery pack temp.  The best/fastest cooling occurs at the front of the battery and worst/slowest cooling at the rear of the battery.  By "worst/" I do not mean "not good enough" I just mean by the time the R-134 refrigerant has reached the rear of the battery it has absorbed some heat from the front of the battery and is not as cool as when first entering the battery pack, therefore it can't cool the rear part of the battery as good/fast.    This is just like how the video infers and also how the technical docs shows how battery cooling efficiently....plus, it what i've seen over and over in watch OBD data as I drive along on short, medium, and long trips....and when charging.

 

But will all this said for a person who doesn't drive their BYD EV say continuously for around an hour the battery will never reach the temperature (around 38C) where serious battery cooling kicks in....is needed.  

 

Now when a person starts charging at a "DC charger" with a LOT of current flowing thru the battery continuously it will heat up a lot fast and the Active Cooling will kick-in a lot sooner than just from normal driving.    And when a BYD EV is just using a low power AC 7KW with their car turned off....like charging at home.... a person will probably never hear their A/C compressor/heat pump system start up to do serious cooling because charging at 7KW/around 30A doesn't cause the battery to heat up much.  And even if it does say reach 38C during that 7KW AC charging  because the temp was already close to 38C from some driving, well, all they will probably hear is the "radiator" fan start running....sometimes slow, sometimes fast and easily heard...along with the glycol/water electric water pump circulating/pumping water thru the onboard charger which is getting hot but there is still no cooling occurring in the battery (unless you just happen to have been close to 38C and the A/C needed to kick on for a few minutes to cool the battery down quickly).  After that quick cool down the 7KW/30A charging rate will not cause the battery to heat-up again and a person will probably just hear a the radiator fan running, sometimes very slowly and quietly....other times fast and easy to hear. 

 

 Cheers.

 

P.S.   I expect whatever "preheat" setting that may show-up in the OTA release will be underwhelming in terms of how helpful it would be for the driver in cold climates.....and all it might really do is direct more heat towards the cabin cooling vs the battery preheating.    And for us EV owners here in the tropics I doubt our EV would ever require battery preheating unless maybe those EV folks in the mountainous northern Thailand one day in the future experience a once in a thousand year blizzard.  😜

 

 

 

I wonder whether it is just a guess or whether the 'Electric Seal' got inside information about the cost savings of direct cooling vs. liquid-coolant cooling - I would guess the opposite to be true due to the much higher pressure of R134 refrigerant operating range. Also, maintenance and repairs are much more involved due to the refrigerant handling. 

 

Solving the uneven temperature of the battery is not a difficult task technically, as is proven by the SL7 max charge power of 230 kW - maybe they split the cooling plate into 2 or 3 sections? Overall, BYD is more of a Toyota style conservative company, aiming to build reliable, not envelop pushing cars.

 

This latest OTA is a good sign that we are not left standing in the rain as early adopters, there is a lot of potential still in our cars and I hope BYD keeps the updates coming. 

My wife is wanting an EV car and wants a BYD or MG
I have convinced her to get a seal mainly because if i end up driving it i do not want to drive one of those Goodcat ev that she also likes
Much prefer a used Seal for 800k+  than one of those.

i also have noticed that the Seal has dropped in sales and after my wife phoned a local BYD to see if they have a test drive one they said they dont have any or any stock and not sure when they will get more ?

Makes me think a new sedan that's even quicker will be coming soon or the newer version that's already in Aus

Is there a similar sedan Ev with similar performance to a Seal ?
 

On 9/11/2025 at 11:29 AM, FarangFB said:

 

I'm guessing I won't be getting this version of the Seal. The dealership seller couldn't find one for me yet, the test drive ones are sold out also.

 

They're trying to push me a Sealion 7 but I want a low sporty car, already got a big family one. 

The same thing happened to me they said the Sealion 7 is a newer model and better 
I asked my wife if they can get the Seal but they kept pushing the sealion which is not want i am after