Australia Premium BYD Seal Ownership Update One Week Later | Regrets?

Update after 1 week of Premium variant BYD Seal Ownership including walkthrough of delivery experience, insurance, inclusions, exterior detailing, interior finish, glass roof and sunshades, commentary on software and infotainment system, ride quality and comfort and overly invasive advanced driver assistance systems. Summary on what I love about the car and what could improved by BYD Tom aka Tesla Tom of Ludicrous Feed in Sydney Australia January 2024
Australia Premium BYD Seal Ownership Update One Week Later | Regrets?

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Financial Disclosure:
- No payment was received from BYD for the production of this video
- I was not a BYD shareholder at the time this video was posted

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00:00 Introduction
00:29 Financial Disclosure
01:34 Pre-Delivery Process
02:14 Transport to Delivery Centre
02:45 Problem with Delivery Registration
03:21 Window Tinting and Floor Mats
03:48 Comprehensive Car Insurance
04:10 Car Exterior Discussion
04:41 Key Fob Walkthrough
05:45 Low Ground Clearance
06:25 Storage
07:02 Car Exterior Details
07:33 Tyres
07:54 Ground clearance measurement
08:27 Bonnet storage
09:04 Rear of car details and badging
09:34 Boot storage
10:08 Charge Port
10:45 Piano Black
11:04 Car Interior Discussion
11:59 Interior Walkaround
12:52 Cup Holders Easter Egg
13:10 Glass Roof and Sunshades
14:34 Infotainment System, software and data discussion
15:30 Ride Quality discussion
16:37 Advanced Driver Assistance System discussion
18:09 Intelligent Cruise Control discussion
18:50 Parking Cameras and Sensors
19:15 Dashcam
20:03 Range and Efficiency
20:38 Charging
20:59 What I love about the BYD Seal
21:20 What I’m concerned about the BYD Seal
21:54 Compromises from Tesla ownership
23:16 Summary

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ABOUT LUDICROUS FEED

Ludicrous Feed is a Sydney-based YouTube channel that started in 2018 after Tom purchased his Tesla Model S. He wanted to show the reality of Australian daily life with his family and an electric vehicle. Tom provides straightforward candid insights into key issues around EV adoption such as vehicle range, charging infrastructure and road trip planning. The weekly live stream is an opportunity for industry guests to directly engage with audience members from the EV community. Tom also has a Tesla Powerwall 2 coupled with rooftop solar and has reviewed many other electric vehicles for the channel including brands such as Tesla, BYD, Polestar, Volvo, MG, Hyundai, Genesis, Kia and Cupra.

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CONTACT LUDICROUS FEED

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[LudicrousFeed]

carloop - Australian EV Data & Ownership Trends

[Mrt_FX]

Good on you Tom, more great content. You continue to be such a great help to anyone looking at an EV and lucky enough to tune in. Look forward to you guys bringing the podcast back.

[masonhope]

Excellent review. Thank you. I’ve just started looking at getting a BYD Seal. Lots of useful information. Will definitely look in to the warranty closes.

[JamesPatrick]

Hi Tom. Enjoy your content and very informative for those of us "across the ditch" as well. Took a Seal the same as yours (White Premium) for a test drive yesterday. Loved it! It threw us back in the seat in sport mode. Did not drive the "performance" as we want range not speeding tickets. A bit dissapointing to hear your range results so far (predominantly around town?) for an 82kwh battery. I look forward to your long distance efficency testing. That's the most important thing to me. Open road driving distance at 100km. Keep up the great work it's very much appreciated. Cheers

[christopherhunt]

In summary, I love this car!

So, my gripes and questions after almost 3, 000kms… I’ve sent this to my BYD rep who’s been great, but I’ve no idea if it’s been received by those that need to know. I really hope they keep in touch with me and let me know how things progress.

* Predicative Collision Warning and Automatic Emergency Braking

The first thing I do when I get in the car is to turn these features off. It is incredibly annoying that these settings are not persisted across starting/stopping the car and this is my #1 gripe.

I’m sure that these systems will improve over time and we may not even ultimately hold the desire to disable them. Meanwhile, having the car take the control of steering away from the driver involuntarily is disturbing. I’d warrant that it could even be dangerous. My understanding is that these settings are not persisted so that car manufacturers (not just BYD) are able to attain a higher ANCAP score. If that’s the case then we need to lobby ANCAP.

* Traffic sign recognition

The car often recognises the signs incorrectly. I can be on a 100km road and then suddenly it will recognise the side road speed and then start beeping at me. I think the beeping noise is extremely annoying as the car is at fault, not me. Similarly, if the car is in cruise control and is set at 110kph, then drifts to 111kph, the car will start beeping at me. Yet, it is the car in control of the speed!

Improving the sign recognition is welcomed, but being able to override the beeping AND having the car remember this setting is very important. Perhaps an option to just flash the traffic sign on the display instead of beeping would also be useful (I’ve had this in other cars).

* Beeping

If I could find a way to disable the hardware beeping at me in general then I would… I’ve been looking for a fuse...

* Tesla V3 Supercharging

I tried a Tesla V3 supercharger in Albury. It didn’t work. Worse, the car started beeping at me for no apparent reason. I’m suspecting that this is due to a protocol signalling fault (I build EV chargers!).

Apparently, Tesla V2 superchargers are ok. I’ve not tried one yet.

Having BYD vehicles work with Australia’s premium charging network is essential, particularly as Tesla are now receiving government funding to build new supercharging stations across Australia. A major selling point of buying a Tesla is the ability to charge on longer trips. On a recent return trip from VIC, I experienced 3 non-Tesla public charging failures and had to wait in a queue for 1 other. This added 1 hour on to my 9 hour journey and is a major impediment to the uptake of EVs in general. Tesla v3 supercharger compatibility is mandatory.

* Seat memory

The seat memory preferences are buried under a number of menus. The first thing you want to do when getting in the car is to apply your seat preferences. This should be possible to apply using hardware buttons, or at the very least, as high prioritised software buttons. Better still, if the BYD app identified you to the car then your settings overall could be applied.

* Voice recognition

There are a number of things that voice recognition cannot recognise, particularly Spotify. Selecting audio tracks is quite important.

* Owners and service manual

I’m surprised that this vehicle didn’t arrive with a printed Owners and Service manual. This is my first car ever without one. Should I expect one?


* BYD App

It could at least have a picture of the Seal, and not the Atto when charging!

* Floor mats

I’ve had to buy ill-fitting third party floor mats. Will BYD be supplying some shortly?

I see you have some so this upsets me.

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Again, I love this car. I don’t think the above issues are big ones to fix. Even if it’s just the persistent settings issue that’s fixed, then I reckon I’ll be happy.

Thanks for the channel!

[vasil]

Thanks for another great video on your Seal. Whilst there are some issues to resolve, I have no regrets after two weeks of ownership of the Seal Performance. At least hopefully all the issues can be fixed by software updates. So far I have only been in a country town and driving regional and country roads and I am keen to see what my experiences will be like when I return to my normal city life later this month. One thing for sure, my Model 3 is not a car I enjoyed driving on country and regional roads as the loud road noise is very uncomfortable for me, so I have driven it just about exclusively in the city. I was also surprised to find that my Model 3 RWD was a bit underpowered on high speed regional roads when over taking, etc, compared to the instantaneous acceleration and zippy driving I had enjoyed in the city. Needless to say, there have been no problems with lack of power in the Seal Performance 👍

[lyndylou]

Hi Tom thanks for your content on this car, I picked up mine from the great group at BYD Dandenong on 30th December, then drove it home about 350k’s total. The ICC is great on the highway, it did have a couple of issues, once it got confused and tried to follow the lane markings to an off ramp and it try diving to the far right on a bend, I then tried it on a drive from my home to nearest town, nope never again, it felt dangerous. Other than that do far I am extremely happy with the Seal, time will tell if updates will correct some of the issues.

[outlawblooze]

Well I've finally made a decision & ordered the Premium. Your videos have been invaluable with helping decide on the Seal & model. Cheers. 😊😊

[waynehobbs]

Great report Tom. After 8 months and 10k in our Atto 3 I am still glad we chose it. You seem to like 3 box sedans, we prefer SUVs because you basically get the same internal space and boot space but with a smaller footprint.
The larger battery is the only thing Seal Premium has that I would like in Atto 3. FYI we live in very hilly terrain south of Adelaide and our consumption is 16.7kWh/100km (historic figure) so our range is mid 350km but itis okay because we charge at night for 8c/kWh using 7kW box so 1.4c per kilometre!
The BYD Song L is the only potential BYD I might trade up to in the future which is another SUV.
Thanks for your honest appraisal.

[gandalfthegrey]

A very comprehensive and helpful video. Thank you.

[carrefourcn]

Thanks for sharing, Tom, Great review😊

[bulletman]

Gotta say the seal and dolphin look like really neat cars for their market/owner base. Will be interesting to see what byd are doing in say 5-10 years time from now!

[colvilletitus]

Thanks for the genuine update and review. Our country (Trinidad and Tobago) have began offering it in our market. Im seriously thinking of buying one. We do have a dealership that offers Tesla but it’s only on order. Love the Seal

[daveauscards]

Just got the performance absolutely keen for it to arrive

[alexzannoni]

Thank you Tom for your comprehensive reviews. A friend is awaiting delivery of his Seal in late January & he's promised me a road I'm already sold & will put an order in thanks to your reviews 👍👍

[Cam-uoey]

Another great video Tom and agree with your points, although I find the ICC to be quite good especially on highway and freeway roads. I've also had a blackvue 2ch dashcam installed with its own battery backup which acts as sentry mode for approx 12 hours. Keep up the great content 👍

[kkgc]

awesome video! I hope BYD will continue to be a fierce tesla competitor so better product will be made from both companies :)

[justinseau]

Having only just recently sat in a display Seal and owning a 2022 Model Y RWD your review really highlights the stark approaches and expertise of BYD and Tesla - one is a car manufacturer with an eye on making exteriors and interiors that punch above their price, and the other is a hyper focussed software company that provides an end-to-end EV experience that’s currently got next to no competition overall.

[fivefive]

The US automakers would go belly up if BYD is ever allowed to sell here.

[stuartkenyon]

All cars have their shortcoming’s, however Tesla seemed determined to add them to their new Model 3 instead of iterating for the better, good to see a real contender for the 3. Also many thanks for removing the Subscribe watermark, much appreciated.