BYD Seal U Review & Prices

The Seal U is one of a multitude of BYD SUVs on sale in the UK. Its standout features include a terrific hybrid engine, plenty of standard kit and budget-friendly price, but this comes at the expense of drive comfort, a cheap-feeling cabin and fairly generic styling.

That duality means the Seal U feels a bit like something from the middle aisle of Lidl. It’s very useful and impressive in some ways, especially for the price, but then you realise it’s lacking the fit and finish of its more expensive alternatives.

A Volkswagen Tiguan or Hyundai Tucson is a far more premium offering, though far pricier, as the Seal U is priced in line with a mid-spec Volkswagen Golf or Toyota Corolla hatchback. Other SUVs are nipping at the Seal U’s flippers, however, with the fantastic Citroen C5 Aircross available for not much more than the BYD.

There are other Chinese options to consider, such as the MG HS which offers a similar value-for-money proposition, and there’s an internal choice to make between the Seal U and the brand-new BYD Sealion 5.

The Seal U’s looks are a bit of let down, because we really like the styling of BYD’s other cars. The Seal saloon is particularly easy on the eye, as are the Seal 6 Touring estate and funky little Dolphin Surf. Ping the badges off the Seal U and you could be looking at a car from any number of brands, even if it features some nifty touches in the intricate taillights and bonnet bulge.

A BYD’s cabin is often more interesting to look at than its exterior, and the Seal U is no different. The dashboard is handsome, with an upright panel that integrates the neat air vents and a nifty - if gimmicky - rotating 15.6-inch touchscreen in the middle. It’s enormous, responsive to your inputs and features crisp, clear graphics - though the menus are a bit confusing. Many more expensive European alternatives still lag behind in the touchscreen stakes

You’ll find it easy to get comfortable in the Seal U thanks to the masses of space available inside. There’s plenty of room to accommodate six-foot tall passengers in every seat, though if you’re much taller than that you’ll ruffle your hair against the roof in the back. The 425-litre boot lets it down a touch. It’s a deep and wide load bay, though a bit too shallow in height, and smaller than all of its key alternatives.

The sole engine option is a 1.5-litre hybrid, and it’s really very impressive. It’s very efficient and offers impressive range, whether fitted with the smaller battery (50 miles to a charge) or the larger one (good for 78 miles) in Comfort trim.

It’s just a shame the hybrid system isn’t backed up by a car that’s good to drive. Around town the Seal U is never settled down, shuddering through potholes and wobbling about over corners and speed bumps. It settles down a touch on the motorway, but it still feels unnerving over dips at high speed, and it’s even worse on a country lane; loads of body lean and overly light steering robbing you of any confidence on a fun road.

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For all of its faults, there’s no denying that the BYD is cracking value if you’re most interested in practicality and equipment levels. The entry-level Boost comes fitted with a panoramic sunroof, 19-inch alloy wheels, leatherette interior and Infinity sound system - which means it’s better-appointed than the Citroen C5 Aircross and even the Volkswagen Tiguan, on paper.

The Comfort model is a couple thousand pounds more expensive but comes with a larger 26.6kWh battery (versus 18.3kWh in the Boost) which gives it more electric range. The top-spec Design model features all-wheel drive and more power, but strangely it’s fitted with the smaller battery from the Comfort model - yet costs £40,000.

The hybrid engine is impressively quiet and refined, but otherwise the BYD Seal U is disappointing to drive

In town

The BYD Seal U is really easy to drive around town because the suspension is incredibly soft and the steering is really light, so it’s little effort to nip about in traffic. However, that soft suspension means that the car never really settles and feels like it’s always wobbling around over undulations in the road. Then if you hit a pothole or a small speed bump it sends a shudder through the cabin.

Fortunately the hybrid system is excellent – the Seal U drives like an electric car, because if you’ve got a good amount of charge you’ll barely use the petrol engine, and when it does kick in to help top the battery up, you can hardly hear a thing. Often this type of hybrid is accompanied by an annoyingly noisy petrol engine that distracts from the smooth EV-like driving experience, so this really is impressive for the Seal U.

Visibility is good looking forward, but the rear window is quite small and the view over your shoulder is poor. Assistance kit is hugely impressive though, with front and rear parking sensors and a 360-degree camera making it easier to park in a tight spot.

On the motorway

Once up to speed on the motorway the cabin is generally pretty hushed; though a bit of tyre noise is noticeable it’s not too intrusive. Like at town speeds, when the petrol engine is called upon it is really quiet, even when you’re accelerating quickly down a motorway slip road or pulling off an overtake.

The suspension is less annoying at higher speeds, but you still get that odd sensation that the car takes a while to settle after undulations in the road. The steering gets a bit heavier at higher speeds, but it feels unnatural, like you have a hint of resistance to push through, which can make smooth lane changes a bit of a challenge.

Again though, standard equipment is impressive, with adaptive cruise control that can maintain your speed and distance to the car in front, and a system that keeps you centred in your lane, taking the strain out of longer drives. Yet even this has its issues - the adaptive cruise control tends to pulse the power on and off, making for a positively sickness-inducing experience. We only managed about 10 miles before we had to turn it off.

On a twisty road

The BYD Seal U isn’t great to drive around town or on the motorway, but it does at least have redeeming features if you’re not too worried about how well a car drives. However, if you want to enjoy taking the scenic route home on a twisty, then this is one SUV to avoid.

The steering is so light that you have no idea what the front wheels are doing, meaning it’s difficult to judge where you are on the road, how much steering input is required, and how much grip you have. The body also leans a lot in corners, which is really unnerving. The Ford Kuga is considerably more expensive, but lightyears ahead in terms of driver enjoyment.

Cabin storage isn’t amazing, but the BYD Seal U has really roomy back seats and a decent-sized boot

The BYD Seal U is pretty roomy for those in the front, and there’s a decent amount of adjustability in the driver’s seat and steering wheel to get a comfortable driving position.

Storage is fine but it’s about the minimum you would expect – the door bins are okay but you might struggle to fit a big bottle inside, and the glovebox is an average size. The cubby hole under the armrest is really deep though, making it a great place to hide things out of sight. You get two cup holders ahead of this with grips on the edge so your drink doesn’t fall over, and a pair of wireless phone charging pads beneath the screen.

Space in the back seats

Rear seat space is similarly impressive. If you’re over six-feet tall you might start to feel your head is brushing the headlining surrounding the panoramic glass roof, but it’s fine for most, and even your lankiest friends will have no complaints about kneeroom. The upside of that is the fact that you will be able to fit even the bulkiest of child seats in the back with ISOFIX mounting points in the outer seats. As with the front, though, storage isn’t fantastic, thanks to fairly small door bins and not a lot else.

Boot space

At 425 litres the BYD Seal U’s boot should be adequate for most people most of the time. Similarly priced alternatives such as the Kia Niro (358 litres) generally have smaller capacity boots, though the other bargain SUV, the MG HS, has more at 507 litres.

Similarly sized (and much more expensive) options tend to have more boot space. For example, the plug-in hybrid Hyundai Tucson gets a 558-litre boot and the Volkswagen Tiguan has a huge 652 litres on offer.

The Seal U’s boot has a square space that’s easy to pack and there are small cubbies at each side to give you somewhere to hold smaller items. There’s basically no underfloor storage though, so if you want to carry your charging cables with you they’ll have to sit in the main boot compartment.

You can fold the rear seats but you have to do it using a lever next to the seat, rather than being able to do it from the boot itself. Once the seats are folded there’s 1,440 litres of space available, but there’s a big lip that makes it difficult to push long, heavy items through.

The infotainment system is excellent and most materials are decent for the price, but the design is pretty plain and cheap plastics are never far away

Jump into the driver’s seat of the BYD Seal U and first impressions are pretty good. Sure, the design is pretty plain, with a simple panel across the centre of the dashboard that flows down in the central area between the seats, but the materials all look good quality.

Poke and prod around and there aren’t too many squishy plastics, but when you consider that this SUV hugely undercuts similarly sized alternatives on price, it’s more than adequate quality inside.

That big central touchscreen is more than adequate, though. It measures a massive 15.6 inches and floats separately from the dashboard. It feels like it could be angled slightly more towards the driver, but the graphics are sharp and it responds instantly to your touch. It’s not the most intuitive menu system to navigate around, but Apple CarPlay and Android Auto work seamlessly and fill the screen. You can also rotate the screen if you prefer it to be portrait-orientated, which is a neat trick.

The BYD Seal uses a 1.5-litre petrol engine that works with a single motor in the Boost and Comfort trims to offer front-wheel drive, or two motors in the Design trim that makes it all-wheel drive.

In both the Boost and Design trims, the electric motors are powered by an 18.2kWh battery that offers a range of up to 50 miles for Boost models or 43 miles in Design. If you want maximum economy it’s worth waiting for the Comfort model, because that has a 26.6kWh battery that increases the range to a hugely impressive 77 miles.

The upshot of this is that official CO2 emissions figures are incredibly low, meaning these models are cheaper for company car users than most hybrids and not far off electric cars, ideal if you’re concerned about going fully electric. For private buyers, all models fall below £40,000, which means you don’t have to pay the extra road tax in years two to six for cars that cost over that threshold.

Charging speeds aren’t particularly impressive, with a maximum of just 18kW on public DC chargers meaning it’s almost never going to be worth going to pricey fast chargers when out and about. However, a maximum AC rate of 11kW could be useful if you have access to chargers that can achieve that at home or, more likely, work, though most home charge points have a maximum charge rate of around 7kW.

The BYD Seal U scored the maximum five stars in Euro NCAP safety testing, with impressive ratings across the board. It achieved 90% for adult occupant protection, 86% for child occupants, 83% for vulnerable road users, and 77% for its safety assist systems.

With equipment largely identical between trims, you get loads of assistance kit as standard. Some of the highlights include adaptive cruise control, lane-keeping assistance to keep you centred in your lane, alerts for traffic passing in front or behind the car when manoeuvring, and front and rear collision warning. You get the usual ISOFIX points in the outer rear seats, but there’s also another in the front passenger seat.

BYD came second-to-last in the 2025 Driver Power owner satisfaction survey, in 30th place out of 31 brands entered. That’s a very poor result, so be wary of potential pitfalls if you choose a Seal U for your next set of wheels.

You do get an excellent six-year warranty though, with a limit of 93,750 miles if that comes up first. The battery gets a separate eight-year/125,000-mile warranty that guarantees it will retain 70% of its original capacity in that time.

Those are impressive figures, but still beaten by Toyota and Lexus which offer ten year/100,000 miles warranties with regular dealer servicing.

We spent six months living with the BYD Seal U to test its capabilities as a daily driver, giving us a thorough chance to assess everything from efficiency to real-world practicality, and any little tricks or quirks you may love or ultimately hate.

What we liked

We were left impressed with the BYD Seal U’s hybrid engine. Although it lacks a little in performance, its quiet operation and high amount of time spent in electric-only mode had us charmed, while an average fuel economy return of around 40mpg was welcome considering the size of this SUV

Another weapon in the Seal U’s arsenal is its clever tech. The high-definition surround-view camera made parking a breeze and has come in handy while dealing with tight London streets littered with width restrictors. Standard-fit adaptive cruise control takes some of the stress out of longer journeys, too.

We were really able to test the practicality of the SUV’s interior and boot, too, with the arrival of associate producer James Drujon’s firstborn son. Easy-access ISOFIX points came in handy, as did the numerous cubby holes to keep various bits and bobs in.

What we didn’t like

Although the high-def camera was a plus point of the BYD Seal U, its parking sensors proved repeatedly irritating. They show your supposed distance to an object on screen, which in theory would be incredibly useful, but more often than not, it proved inaccurate and untrustworthy.

In the pursuit of a sportier style, the rear end of the Seal U has a slight slope to it, which doesn’t help visibility and hinders boot space, two things we found grating by the end of our time with the car.

The overall driving experience left something to be desired, too. Although it doesn’t need to handle like a sports car, more composure and refinement in the way it drives would be welcome.

Our final thoughts

For its price, the BYD Seal U is an impressive package. Its strengths lie in its rear space, refined hybrid engine and levels of technology on offer.

It could be a bit better to drive, but that’s not often a concern with a car of this size and nature. Boot space is, however, and you’d be better served with something like a Skoda Karoq for sheer practicality.