South Africa’s most affordable electric sedan officially goes on sale – Pricing and specifications

The new BYD Seal has officially landed on local roads in two flavours with the most affordable entry seeing a window sticker of R999,900.

This makes the Seal the most attainable electric sedan in the country by a formidable margin.

The previous title holder was the Mercedes-Benz EQE350+ which currently sells for R1,727,951, meaning the Chinese four-door undercuts the German by a sizeable R728,051.

The Seal is BYD’s third offering in South Africa alongside the Atto 3 crossover and Dolphin hatchback. The company aims to expand its portfolio with another four models over the next few years including a double-bakkie called the Shark.

Seal specifications

The new Seal is exclusively available in Lux EXT and Lux Performance trims, with the siblings boasting very similar specification sheets.

Like other vehicles in the BYD catalogue the new sedan is generously equipped, bringing luxuries such as keyless entry and start, leather upholstery, electric front seats with heating and ventilation, a leather multifunction steering wheel, a 10.25-inch digital instrument cluster, a heads-up display, dual-zone climate control, two wireless phone chargers, RGB mood lighting, and a panoramic glass roof.

Hanging on the dash is a rotating 15.6-inch infotainment system with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, satellite navigation, and voice assist, hooked up to a 12-speaker Dynaudio stereo.

In terms of safety and assistance functions, both Seal variants come with adaptive cruise control, lane-departure warning and prevention, lane-keep assist, proactive collision warning, traffic sign recognition, intelligent speed limit control, front and rear cross-traffic alert with braking, blind-spot detection, a 360-degree camera system, front and rear parking sensors, hill-hold control, ABS with automatic emergency braking, and seven airbags.

The only feature the Lux Performance brings that its more affordable stablemate doesn’t is electronic child locks on the doors.

Outside, both sedans wear 19-inch alloy wheels, hidden door handles with smart entry abilities, automatic LED headlights with high-beam assist, and sleek LED daytime running lights.

The Seal measures 4,800mm long, 1,875mm wide, and 1,460mm tall with a wheelbase of 2,920mm. The boot swallows up to 400 litres of cargo with the front trunk accommodating another 50 litres.

What really sets apart the Lux EXT from the pricier Lux Performance is its underpinnings.

The base model gets a single e-motor turning the rear wheels that is good for 230kW and 360Nm, propelling it to 100km/h in 5.9 seconds.

Meanwhile, the Performance sees another e-motor up front for a combined potential of 390kW and 670Nm which is laid down on the tarmac through all four tyres, resulting in a sprint time of just 3.8 seconds.

The flagship sedan also comes with two exclusive fitments on account of its more formidable powertrain comprising the Intelligence Torque Adaption Control system which minimises skidding on slippery surfaces and frequency-selective-damping shock absorbers.

Both Seals sport an 82.56kWh battery pack which is good for a driving range of 570km in the Lux EXT and 520km in the Lux Performance, which is based on the more realistic European WLTP range tests instead of the usually optimistic Chinese NEDC standard.

Charging the battery from 30-80% can be done in 26 minutes at a 150kW DC station, and it also supports up to 11kW AC charging for overnight top-ups at home.