BYD Seal 6 review

On first impressions, it’s very impressive. Build quality is strong and material feel is premium, with a nice mix of leather, suede and ambient lighting (at least in top-spec versions) that’ll surely impress passengers. 

It’s a shame the crystal-effect gear selector from the Seal is gone here – instead you get a stalk behind the wheel Mercedes style. The start/stop button is down on the centre console, where the wireless charger sits.

How’s the touchscreen?

This differs depending on spec, with entry Boost versions getting a 12.8in display, and upper Comfort models a 15.6in unit. But the smaller version doesn’t exactly feel, er, small. If anything, it's better integrated into the dashboard.

On occasion we found it slow to start up, which makes it all the more frustrating that pretty much all the controls - from turning on the heated steering wheel and seats to adjusting the regen - are buried so deep within it. You do at least get a button for turning on the front demister… just not one for the rear demister. Weird.

In front of the driver there’s a 12.8in instrument cluster, but it’s far from the easiest to read with the information presented in the tiniest of fonts and in quite a scatter-gun approach. It’s also very limited in customisability, there’s no traditional analogue option for example, and only minimal information available.

Will my passengers enjoy it though?

There shouldn’t be too much for them to complain about here – headroom and legroom is OK, but unless whoever’s up front likes to sit high, those in the back won’t be able to get their feet under the front seats. Blame the battery being under the passenger floor.

In the saloon there's 491 litres of bootspace for belongings and bags; opt for the estate and that rises to 500 litres floor to headrests, or 675 litres floor to ceiling.

That’s pretty good going (and helped by the battery being under the passenger floor, so it's swings and roundabouts). Fold all the seats down, which you can do using little toggle switches directly in the boot, and you’ve 1,535 litres to play with. Useful for the dump run.