BYD's new Seal 07: bigger, faster charging, and far cheaper than the old Seal

The Seal 07 has ballooned into a genuine large sedan: 5,080 mm long, 1,960 mm wide and 1,495 mm tall, up from 4,800 mm, 1,875 mm and 1,460 mm on the car it replaces. That makes it marginally bigger than a late Tesla Model S. And it starts at 149,900 RMB ($22,437) with 775 km of range, against the 259,800 RMB ($38,913) BYD asked for the 700 km version of the original Seal in 2022.

Charging is where the gap is widest. The new car runs 10-70% in five minutes and 10-97% in nine, and can do 10-97% in 12 minutes at -30°C without preconditioning, while the old Seal needed 26 minutes just to get from 30% to 80%. BYD plans 20,000 flash charging stations in operation by the end of the year — more than every DC charging station in the US combined.

BYD got more out of less battery. Capacity dropped by 6.1 kWh from the old 82.5 kWh pack, now at 76.4 kWh, yet range climbed by 75 km to 775 km CLTC on better efficiency. Power is up 15 kW, now at 245 kW (329 hp), and the car weighs 1,975 kg — 80 kg lighter than the 700 km model it replaces — helped by more ultra-high-strength steel in the structure.

Inside, buyers get zero-gravity front seats with heating, ventilation and massage, a center-console refrigerator, a power roof sunshade, more speakers and improved screens and voice controls. Base models carry BYD's God's Eye C with autonomous parking covered by the company, while higher trims step up to LiDAR-based God's Eye B with city navigation. Lower trims run DiSus-C adaptive damping and upper trims get DiSus-M magnetorheological active dampers, with double wishbones up front and a multilink rear. God's Eye C adds 10,000 RMB ($1,498), and the LiDAR flagship lands at 184,900 RMB ($27,694). There is no AWD version.

Tesla's standard RWD Model 3 is the obvious yardstick, and it comes up short on paper. It measures 4,720 mm, starts at 225,500 RMB, and manages 634 km CLTC (612 km on optional 19-inch wheels). Adding Enhanced Driver Assistance costs 32,000 RMB, while Tesla Driver Assist adds 64,000 RMB ($9,586); equipping a base Model 3 close to a top-spec Seal 07 reaches 307,500 RMB ($46,057). A Long Range RWD with paint, 19s and Driver Assist hits 331,500 RMB ($49,652) for 800 km, though its ternary battery shouldn't be regularly charged to 100%, unlike the LFP second-generation Blade Battery in the BYD.

The Seal 07 now sits in a crowded BYD house. The smaller Seal 06 runs 119,900-159,900 RMB ($17,958-$23,950), the Seal 08 spans 196,900-239,900 RMB ($29,492-$35,932), the sportier Fang Cheng Bao Formula S goes 189,900-229,900 RMB and the Denza Z9S 255,800-325,800 RMB ($38,313-$48,798) — none of which existed when the original Seal launched. Rivals include XPENG's Mona M03 and Next P7, Xiaomi's SU7, Zeekr's 7X and Nio's ET5. New Chinese rules barring below-cost sales and the old register-then-export-as-zero-mile-used-car trick will make inventory harder to manage, so a clear read on BYD's sedan sales in China may not arrive until next year, and the three new Seal models aren't offered outside China yet. BYD tends to bring current models abroad late and at a premium, though the Seagull (ATTO 1) recently hit Australia at $19,990 AUD ($13,752).