This BYD Can Drive 800+ Miles Non-Stop! – BYD SEAL 6 DM-i Touring Review
Look at this. It’s a BYD, but it’s an estate car and it’s not an EV. Hello, I’m John Mark. You’re watching Driven, and this is quite an exciting new car. This is a BYD seal, but probably not a seal that you recognize for a number of reasons. Firstly, the shape. This is an estate car. Secondly, it’s not electric. Well, it’s a little bit electric. This is actually a plug-in hybrid with an engine under the bonnet. More on that in a moment. To give it its full name, it’s the BYD Seal 6 DMI. It’s available in two trims. We’ve got boost and we’ve got comfort. Now, I don’t know about you, but I find this bit quite confusing because boost is the entry level and comfort is the more luxurious one. Maybe just me. This is a Boost. It is an entry- level car. I’ll tell you how much it costs in a little bit, but the visual differences from the two aren’t that obvious. We’ve got some smaller wheels, which I quite like because we’ve got big chunky tires and a little bit less tech inside. I’ll explain the differences more in a little bit. But yes, it’s a BYD seal. It’s not electric and it is Chinese. Um, well, no. Actually, I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that it’s probably not okay to be skeptical about Chinese cars. And there’s a good reason for that. To give you an example of it, though, let me make an assumption that maybe you’re of a similar age to me. That’s sort of mid to late 30s. If you are in your mid to late 30s, then do me a favor after you finish watching this video, go and have a chat with your mom or dad and ask them about Japanese cars in the 1960s, ‘7s, and 80s, mainly the 70s. And I predict, assuming that your parents are probably interested in cars in the same way that you are because you’re watching this, they will be able to recall a time when there was a new influx of cars and motorcycles making their way to the European and UK markets from Japan. And it was scary. It was scary for a number of reasons, mainly because they worked. There were motorcycles that didn’t break down every 100 m. There were cars that were reliable and started in the wintertime. And when they did come out at first, brands like British Leland, the Roots Group, all those sort of things, well, they lost out because strictly speaking, they just weren’t as good as what the Japanese were producing. And of course, the irony now is if you or I speak to anybody of our age or slightly younger and ask them their opinion on Japanese cars, well, they’ll celebrate them because they’re excellent. Now, this is where my opinion of Chinese cars gets interesting because I feel like we’re at the time now where certain people of a certain age demographic are a little bit too skeptical of Chinese cars and in all honesty are a bit scared of them. And chances are, give it another 20 or 30 years, we’ll be looking back on this time and saying, “Hey, do you remember when we were all terrified of Chinese cars?” That was a bit silly, wasn’t it? Now, to add to that, it’s probably worth thinking now about some of the impressive sales figures that BYD is able to boast. We’re coming to the end of 2025, just about to start the year 2026. So, in case you are watching this in the future going, “Hey, look, that guy saw it coming.” um you can kind of put the numbers into perspective because up until recently BYYD has been able to celebrate a grand total of 39,000 cars being sold in the UK. 39,000. 12 months ago, almost to the day, BYD were out selling Tesla in the UK. And that’s a massive deal because of course everybody that wants to go and buy an EV, the first brand they think of is Tesla. Well, not anymore. People are now going into BYD dealerships. And on the subject of BYD dealerships, well, there’s loads of them. And by the end of 2026, BYD expects they’ll have 2,000 showrooms in Europe alone. 2,000. [music] Nope. Definitely not. And I’ll prove it to you by opening this. Come and have a look. This or specifically this this is a petrol engine, a 1.5 L petrol engine which independently produces about 100 horsepower. And then over here that is an electric motor. And this is where it all gets a little bit clever. BYD’s hybrid system is called the super hybrid DMI. And the DM stands for dual mode. Now, in most hybrid cars, the engine that sits under the bonnet primarily drives the wheels via a gearbox. And at other times generates a bit of power for a battery, which later on feeds an electric motor. BYD, however, does it slightly differently. The 1.5 L engine in the CL6 DMI is best thought of as a generator that burns conventional petrol to directly send power to the electric motor. There is still a 19 kWh blade battery on board, but that is charged primarily via the cable [music] charger and then topped up with some kinetic regen. For times when a bit of extra power is needed, a clever clutch system can connect the engine to work in tandem [music] with the motor, which is excellent for accelerating to motorway speeds. But the really good news is the overall range because the clever super hybrid DMI system allows in the touring for an overall range of 838 mi. And in the slightly more aerodynamic saloon model, well, that figure jumps up even higher to 935 mi. That’s almost 1,000 mi without any need to stop for fuel or to plug in. So, yes, you might be thinking, well, this all seems a bit new and unusual for BYD because BYD makes electric cars. Except, well, actually, no, because 7.3 million million plug-in hybrid cars like this one have already been made by these guys. Front to back, it’s 4.8 m. It’s 2.1 m wide and about 1.5 m tall. So, long story short, it’s the shape and size of a car. a normal estate car and it’s not a massive oversized blobby SUV and that in itself is worth celebrating. But what about the inside? Come on in. Well, more good news. It’s car sized. So, in here, my driving position, it’s great. Very spacious. Seat is comfortable. As I said outside, this is the more basic version. So, I’m missing a few luxuries like heated seats and wireless phone charging, but for a little bit more money, and I’ll tell you how much more in a little bit, you can get those luxuries. Um, and what about rear leg room? Well, this is in my driving position. Not going to change anything. Meet me in the back. Welcome to the back. It’s pretty good. I’m not going to profess and say I’m in the most comfortable rear seat I’ve ever sat in, but it’s fine. Space-wise, it’s also fine. Loads of leg room. Foot space is fine. Headroom is fine. I feel like perhaps the seat is maybe a little bit low. That might be a a me problem more than a seat problem because I am quite longlegged, 6’1, 185ish cm. Um, but hey, would I feel happy enough sat in the back of this on a long journey? Yep. I’m comfortable. I’m not cramped. I’ve got an armrest and some cup holders. It’s fine. But what about boot space? Because it is an estate. We need to talk about boot space. Well, it’s more good news. If I open the electronically assisted power tailgate as standard, you will see 675 L of storage space, which is big. It’s really big. We haven’t got any additional space under here because that is blocked by a big bit of foam. And um BYD is very kindly given us the charge cables and things. Interestingly, I feel like BD probably could have been a little bit clever with their storage space because that is just a big block of foam. Um, and it could probably have some cutouts to put the cables in, but then I guess if you would then loaded the boot full of stuff, you wouldn’t be able to get to them. So, maybe there is some logic. If you do need more space, it’s doable. Both of those back seats do fold flat and then you have 1,535 L of overall space, which is massive. Now, bearing in mind I’m in the basic one. This is the Boost. Confusingly basic, even though Boost I personally associate to being better. Hey, not me and my strategy. The Boost is a perfectly pleasant car to drive. I predict, however, that most people are not going to buy this version. They’re going to go and get the comfort because they’re going to want to have things like heated seats. They’re going to want the slightly bigger wheels because they look to the majority a little bit better. And there is an also a slight slight increase in screen size between some of the early boost models and the comfort models. And again, bigger as far as the consumer is concerned is always better. But I’m quite glad I am in the basic one now because I get to see everything in its most raw state. I’m currently driving along at 60 mph just about to join the M25. And well, listen, road rumble is pretty normal. nothing out of the question. I’ve got very little if any wind noise around the car. It feels all in all, both from the way that it drives, the way that it looks, the way that it feels like a really high quality bit of kit. All of the tech is good. You’ve got the ability to talk to the car, to ask the car to do certain things. For example, hi BYD. >> Hi there. >> Open all of the windows. You’re driving pretty fast. Are you sure you want to open the windows that much? >> Yes. >> Sure. >> And that’s clever because it’s not just doing things for the sake of doing things or doing as it’s told. It’s taking into consideration the fact that yeah, when you open the windows, it is going to be quite noisy. Now, I’ve been quite celebratory about this seal, but there is, of course, one thing that you might have noticed in the background that does get a little bit annoying, and that is the driver alertness monitoring system. I might not have quite got the name officially correct, but there is a little camera that looks at me, and I have displayed this before on our social feeds, that’s constantly looking at what I’m doing. So, when I’m taking my eyes off the road to talk to you down the lens after not very long, you get a little noise to say, “Pay attention. Look where you’re going.” Um, but it does more than that. It also monitors what my face is doing. So, here is some GCSE drama acting. I’m just going to yawn. And it’s come up on the screen to say tiredness is detected. Please take a rest. H. How do we feel about that? £35,000, which you might be listening to going, that’s a lot of money. But try and find the equivalent models. other estate cars that do this sort of range, this sort of mileage, have this sort of tech. This is actually on the cheaper side of life. This one is the boost as I said before. So, it is the kind of cheapest in the range. If you want the comfort, which has the better tech, the bigger wheels, the glass panoramic roof, all that sort of stuff, then that’s going to bump up by a couple of thousand. That’s 38 or just shy of £38,000. But strictly speaking, I don’t think valuewise it’s that bad. And in factual fact, if you compare the two on monthlies, once you put a few thousand down as a deposit and then pay your monthlies, it’s only about 10 or 20 pounds between the two. And that, let’s be honest, is what most people will be doing. So, there we have it. The BYD Seal 6 DMI. What do you reckon? Is this the kind of car that you might consider? Might this be crucially the first BYD product that you are considering buying? Because in my opinion, I feel like this is going to be the first for many. Let me know in the comments below and I’ll do my best to reply to as many of you as possible. I have, of course, written a good oldfashioned car review. So, head on over to the website now, driven.site/words, site slashwords and you’ll be able to see my written article about this the BYD seal 6DNI. Thanks for watching. Don’t forget notifications, bells, more videos, website. You’ve heard it all before. Thanks for watching. Bye-bye.
BYD is a company that many will regard as an EV rival to Tesla; however, the Chinese brand has just launched a new PHEV version of the Seal, and John Marcar has driven it.
In this video, John reviews the new BYD Seal 6 DM-i in Boost spec
Read his wirrten review at https://driven.site/words/byd-seal-6-dm-i-touring
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