Audi TT vs BYD Sealion 8

What's the difference?

Audi is finally saying hooroo to this model which has made the world stop and stare like I did on that Parisian street all those years ago.

The Final Edition is a fitting tribute to this iconic sports car and I’m glad Audi didn’t go ‘OTT’ and deck it out with gimmicky features. 

At the same time the Final Edition’s big rear wing, blacked out badges, wheels and interior colour coding hint that this is not just any ordinary TT and those that know will know.

Farewell Audi TT, we hope something just like you but probably electric appears to stop us in our tracks again. 

There’s quite a bit to like here. There’s plenty of equipment, and lots of choice in price, trim level and mechanical complexity.

The driving dynamics are fine if you’re not looking for anything sporty although the performance offered by the dual-motor variants must be considered excessive, even if it’s pretty exciting the first time.

Perhaps what’s missing from the Sealion 8 experience is anything that stamps the car as something special within its hotly-contested market segment. Which is another way of saying it offers up the same limitations, most notably in the third row accommodation and access.

You only need to drive a one-box people mover and utilise the rearmost seat, to understand that the two-box SUV, while a pretty marketable thing, is compromised once the passenger count exceeds five. Nothing new there, but nothing new in the BYD, either, to change that narrative.

At which point, the front-wheel drive variant emerges as the most pragmatic choice and probably the one that meets all the important family tasks headed its way for the smallest outlay.

Note: CarsGuide attended this event as a guest of the manufacturer, with meals provided.

The Audi TT’s shape has morphed over the past 25 years from the cute, rounded bubble car that first appeared in the late 1990s to the more aggressively and sleek looking sports car with the sharp creases we see today.

Still, there are the familiar pumped-out wheel arches and, while not as prominent as it used to be, that arching roof and the way it flows down to those tail-lights and stumpy tail remains so true to the original TT.

The TT Final Edition has a more menacing and athletic look than the regular 45 TFSI its based on thanks to the S Line Competition Plus exterior package.

So you’re getting the big fixed wing, an aggressive front bumper, and the 19-inch alloy wheels in gloss black.

There’s a black package, too, which add the decals down the side, the blacked-out badges, the black exhaust tips and black wing mirrors.

My test car’s paint colour was Turbo Blue and you can see in the images of the cabin how Audi matches interior elements in the same colour. The contrast stitching on the seats also lifts the sporty feel into high-end territory.

It’s a simple cabin, though, free from busy buttons and giant screens and the incorporation of climate controls into the air vents is genius. 

If you’re wondering what the TT Final Edition’s dimensions are its 4191mm long, 1832mm wide and 1376mm tall. 

BYD has done its best to give the Sealion 8 its own character and vibe. In fact, it’s a pretty smart looking thing - although still very much a two-box wagon concept - and that’s no given when you consider how much some big SUVs can start to look like large blobs of nothing when you look closely.

There’s the usual Darth Vader stuff at the front, but in profile, the diagonal vent across the front door makes a bit of a statement. The 'plaited' motif of the tail-lights might be stretching things a bit, though.

Inside, the modern board-room feel is invoked by the angular lines and high-tech look and feel of the large info-screens. The panoramic sunroof of the Premium grade also helps brighten up an otherwise pretty dark space.

The Audi TT isn’t going to cut it as a family car, but it’s more practical than a lot of people might think.

First this is a '2+2' sports car meaning those two rear seats are there for the odd occasion when you might need them, because the space back there is limited.

But for most of the time having a place to throw a jacket or extra luggage and not have to ask your co-plot to rest it on their lap will feel like absolute luxury.

Up front head and legroom is good, even for me at 189cm tall. Being a coupe the doors are long and although the car is low I found getting in and out easy.

There’s a pretty clever use of space when it comes down to cabin storage. You’ll find door pockets, a glove box, a covered centre console box and a hidey hole/wireless phone charger in the dash.

Back seat passengers have built-in shelves near their armrests. Surprisingly there are four cupholders - two of which fold out of the dash.   

The boot isn’t huge at 305 litres but you can fold the rear seats down to open up the cargo capacity to 712 litres.

So, compared to its two-seater sports car rivals, the TT is relatively and pleasantly practical.

BYD has made sure all three rows of the Sealion 8 are fit for purpose while attempting to make the rearmost row (traditionally the trickiest to get right) less of a downmarket place to be. With that in mind, both rear rows get air vents and climate-control adjustment for that part of the car. There's also a pair of USB-C charge ports in the second row and a single USB-C and USB-A port in the third row. The third row also has cupholders bult into the wheel arch on each side.

With the third row in place, there’s a decent amount of luggage space (270 litres) largely thanks to the Sealion’s five-metre overall length. There’s no spare tyre, but a puncture repair kit lives under the floor (as does the removable cargo blind) and the rearmost luggage space also incorporates a 12-volt socket and luggage hooks.

A pair of pull-tabs drop the headrests and then the entire split third row in a single movement, at which point you suddenly have a five-seater with a huge, 960 litres of luggage space. And if you need to cart gear over people, the second row also folds flat to open up 1960 litres of space.

Up front, the feeling of spaciousness is amplified due to the low scuttle height and what the aviation industry calls the glass cockpit (no analogue dials or gauges at all). The 15.6-inch central info-screen runs the usual apps and control displays but, thankfully, the climate control touch-controls are tethered to the bottom of the screen, so they’re always visible regardless of what else is going on.

The 10.2-inch driver’s display adds a head-up function in Premium trim and displays the usual array of information required to operate the vehicle. But even better is the steering wheel which features a thick, well-padded rim that looks and feels pretty luxe. It also houses the usual buttons for stereo, phone and cruise-control functions.

A really nice touch is the addition of an extra set of tilt controls on the inside of the passenger’s front seat, allowing the driver to control that seat to allow people in or out without leaving their own seat. Nice one.

It is, of course, the centre row of seats that will make or break a car like this for many families. Even though many clans will not use the rearmost seat much of the time, the central row will get a huge workout. So it’s nice to see that leg, foot and headroom are all sufficient for even growing teenagers. Again, the car’s overall length appears to be the key, but it’s also worth noting the centre row seat is comfy and supportive. The outboard positions in the second row also feature heating and ventilation functions.

The third row, however, follows SUV tradition by being strictly for smaller kids. Access past those huge wheel arches is tight, and once you’re in, there’s a combination of dark trim and tiny windows to limit joy.

While it won’t matter to many buyers, the front-drive Sealion 8 is rated to tow 1800kg with a braked trailer, and up to two tonnes in the all-wheel drive version. But there’s no spare tyre fitted, and roadside flats need to be addressed by the included tyre repair kit.

BYD will offer the Sealion 8 in three trim levels, starting with the front-drive Dynamic at $56,990, before on-road costs, then moving to a pair of all-wheel-drive variants, the first with the same Dynamic trim level at $63,990 and the range-topping Premium AWD at $70,990.

The Dynamic trim level on both the front-wheel drive and the all-wheel drive variant gets you three-zone climate-control, air vents in both rear rows, full connectivity including wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. There’s also wireless phone charging. The Dynamic specification also takes on 20-inch alloy wheels and there’s full LED lighting as standard.

Pony up for the Premium trim and you make the switch to 21-inch alloys, a 21-speaker sound system and even a massage function for the first two rows of seats. The Premium also includes a head-up display for the driver.

Not as easy to quantify is the level of plush inside the cabin. There are lots of soft-touch surfaces and the whole interior design looks pretty fresh and modern and well put together. But more than that, there’s a bit of design flair that makes the BYD feel perhaps a bit more expensive than it really is. That’s not an easy thing to pull off. But it seems to work here, even in the entry-level Dynamic trim.

Against the competition, the Sealion 8 can't match the similarly specified Chery Tiggo 8 on price, even though on performance and EV range, the Tiggo 8 and the entry-level Sealion 8 are quite similar. The more expensive Sealion 8 Premium, meanwhile, lines up pretty neatly on price with the Kia Sorento S PHEV. But that vehicle can't get close to the epic straight-line performance of the BYD.

The TT Final Edition has the same 2.0-litre, four-cylinder, turbo-petrol engine as the regular 45 TFSI TT Coupe with the same 180kW and 370Nm outputs.

The TT is light, though, at only 1460kg and that grunt is enough to slingshot it from 0-100km/h in 5.1 seconds.

The transmission is an eight-speed dual-clutch automatic which sends drive to all four wheels.

Sure, the TTS has more grunt and the TTRS is nothing short of wonderful with its five cylinder powerplant, but the 2.0-litre engine in the Final Edition feels perfectly suited to what is a fun and engaging sports car.

BYD has managed to keep a lid on the price of the entry-level version of the Sealion 8, by specifying it with front-wheel drive rather than the all-wheel drive of the other two variants. It still gets the same driveline beyond the lack of a driven rear axle, although battery capacity is the other difference.

As such, you’re looking at a 1.5-litre petrol engine (kind of the default powerplant for Chinese SUVs right now) with a turbocharger. With the 19kWh battery chiming in to power the electric motor, the driveline can achieve outputs of 205kW and 315Nm.

In the case of the AWD variants, the larger 35.6kWh battery and extra electric motor ups the potential outputs to 359kW and 675Nm which is a huge jump any way you look at it and gives the Sealion 8 a huge bandwidth when it comes to matching buyer performance aspirations.

All the variants have the potential for a claimed electric-only range of greater than 100km if owners use the plug-in facility to charge either at home or at work. For the AWD variants, the larger battery stretches the EV range to a claimed 152km. On longer journeys or whenever the battery has reached about 25 per cent capacity, the Sealion 8 acts just as any other hybrid with regenerative braking and electric assistance to aid performance.

In suspension terms, the BYD is pretty conventional but if you do pay the extra for the Premium variant, you’ll gain adaptive dampers.

Audi says that after a combination of open and urban roads the TT Final Edition should use 7.0L/100km.

My own testing took in a combination of the best country roads and worst city traffic and at the fuel pump I measured 10.9L/100km.

But most of my time was spent in 'Dynamic' drive mode with the fuel-saving idle stop system switched off. 

The TT's 55-litre fuel tank means you should have a range of about 785km.

BYD claims a range of more than 1000km for both variants of the Sealion 8, provided you start with a fully charged battery and a full 60-litre fuel tank.

The BYD can also make use of commercial fast-chargers and, when using the maximum 40kW on the FWD version and the 74kW possible for the AWD variant, the charging times from 30 to 80 per cent are both under 20 minutes. The Sealion 8 can also charge at 11kW on an AC socket and the vehicle also offers V2L (Vehicle to Load) capability, meaning it can power on-site work tools, camping gear or even your house at night.

Provided the EV battery is kept at 25 per cent capacity or above, BYD claims a 1.0-litre per 100km fuel consumption figure for the car based on the laboratory test. In the real world, the results will vary enormously depending on where you drive and how the car is used. Deplete the battery and continue to drive at highway speeds, and your actual fuel consumption might easily increase to many times that 1.0-litre claimed figure.

There are plenty of sports cars out there which are dynamically superb yet uncomfortable to sit in.

But the TT’s cabin is as ergonomic as it is stylish with a great, low sitting position and good pedal feel, a steering wheel that can be adjusted to be just right and still with plenty of space underneath for long legs like mine.

The shifter feels the right distance away, good visibility even out the rear window and plenty of ventilation.  And we haven’t even started driving yet.

The TT Final Edition felt to me how a TT should. Fun. Not overpowered nor brutally firm and not ridiculously loud.

Instead, my drive in the Final Edition, which took me along some of my favourite country roads, was one of the most enjoyable runs I’ve had in any car. 

This is a car which ‘listens’ to you and replies with exactly what you’ve asked for in the way it turns into corners and accelerates out of them, and pulls up when you need it too. 

There’s so much connection to the road, you can hear the sticks and stones flying up into the guards, you can feel the coarse chip bitumen through the steering wheel.

But it’s all so easy, too. The suspension is firm but soft enough that you can drive this daily. The steering is light but still with great feedback. 

Some sports cars leave you feeling exhausted, like you’ve just wrestled a bear but the TT Final Edition just leaves you feeling like you've been on a ride and all you want to do is run back around to line up and get back on it again.

The first thing you’re going to do in a Sealion 8 is wonder where the gearshift is. It’s a column-shift, but it's not only located where a traditional indicator stalk would be, it looks very much like one, too.

This promises two things. One, you’ll spend a few seconds finding it and two, you’ll try to turn the indicators on with it at least once every drive. (The real indicators are on the other side of the steering column.)

Another note to those test driving a Sealion 8. Sample the front-drive version first. (I’ll get to why in a minute.) When you do, you’ll soon figure out this is a driveline that prioritises electric running. That is, the petrol motor barely ever actually drives the wheels (only at full throttle and higher speeds). Any other time, if the petrol engine is running, it’s to charge the battery that keeps the electric motor purring away. This is how efficiency is defined by BYD.

You’ll also find that the Sealion’s acceleration is purposeful in that electric-motor way, but hardly startling. And when you do smash the throttle and force the petrol engine to drive the axle, you’ll notice that this takes a fair time to play out, and that when everything is grunting as hard as possible, the petrol engine is quite noisy and even a little harsh sounding. Use the driveline sensibly, though, and it’s all smooth and quiet, even if that then means you can hear a little suspension noise creeping into the cabin.

That done, you’re now free to drive the AWD variant. Why wait? Because this thing is seriously off the leash. Bear in mind that 359kW of power is getting on for the thick end of 500 horsepower in the old money, so even though the Sealion 8 is a hefty critter at about 2.5 tonnes, all that power and torque will get it from rest in under five seconds, or thereabouts. The relevance of this to family-car technology is hugely debatable, but it’s one heck of a party trick the first time you try it.

The huge torque also magnifies the Sealion 8’s natural tendency to lift its inside front wheel when accelerating out of a turn. A small tyre squeak can sometimes be heard before the traction control gathers it all together, but even the single-motor variant displays the same trait.

In steering and suspension terms, it’s probably fair to say the Sealion 8 doesn’t unlock any new depths of talent. The ride is pretty comfy but at the expense of body control and the steering points the wheels but doesn’t convey much else to the driver.

That said, the fact everything seems to be tuned to the same frequency means it all works okay. You don’t have too-fast steering fighting the tyres or too firm suspension upsetting the interior calm. Use it as a family would, and it’s 100 per cent fit for purpose.

Any family car needs to be safe, so BYD has thrown the kitchen sink at the Sealion 8 in terms of its active and passive safety gear. That starts with nine air-bags including full-length curtain side bags and a centre-front airbag to help prevent head clashes.

There’s also a 360-degree camera on all grades, front and rear parking sensors, and the full line-up of current driver-assistance functions including autonomous emergency braking, lane-keeping assistant, rear-cross-traffic alert and assistance, blind-spot monitoring, driver attention monitoring and a tyre-pressure monitoring system.

To that lot, you can add adaptive cruise-control, traffic-sign recognition, adaptive headlights, front and rear collision warning, anti roll-over systems and hill-hold functions. It’s also worth mentioning that the overhead camera system is very, very good with a clear, crisp display and no processing delay.

The driver-attention monitoring seems to behave itself better than some of the over-active systems other makers specify, but the lane-keeping assistance function is still far form perfect. To be fair, it is less aggressive than some such systems and the intervention is more subtle, but the recued aggression seems to be packaged with lower sensitivity. As in, the cameras seem to sometimes miss a critical white line, particularly if its faded or less than freshly painted.

There are also ISOFIX child restraint tether points in both the second and third rows, as well as seat-belt warnings for every position and an electronic child-safety switch for the doors.

The Sealion 8 is yet to be crash tested locally, so no ANCAP star rating is available.

The TT Final Edition is covered by Audi’s five-year, unlimited kilometre warranty.

Serving is recommended every 12 months or 15,000km and although Audi doesn't have capped price servicing there is a five-year/75,000km plan which will cost about $3000 in total for regular maintenance. Yep, that's $600 per workshop visit.

Servicing any hybrid can be a bit more expensive thanks to the presence of two propulsion forms.

In any case, the Sealion 8 requires routine servicing every 12 months or 20,000km.

Warranty is BYD’s normal six-year/150,000km cover, although there’s also eight years and 160,000km of cover for the EV battery.

BYD also claims its 'Blade' battery technology is among the safest in the business, and says the design resists damage (and, therefore, the risk of fire) better than the competition.