BYD Seal 6 vs Honda Super-One

What's the difference?

The 2026 BYD Seal 6 proves a compelling offering at a time when cost and efficiency should be nearer the top of your new car consideration list. Not just for its long range, but its clever use of electrons and fuel to keep costs down even after the initial humble outlay.

It helps that the Touring Premium remains sub-$40,000, before on-roads, and offers plenty of features, a spacious interior and the right kind of drivetrain for everyday use in Australia.

While rivals like the Toyota Camry or Skoda Octavia are more polished and can almost compete on price, the BYD’s features and efficient PHEV powertrain will outweigh the brand names and more refined on-road behaviour of established rivals for, we would guess, a significant number of buyers.

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

Honda is on a roll, with the Super-One reflecting the brand’s excellent engineering essence more vividly than any other model.

On paper, the Kei-car based EV is big on price but small on power, space, battery capacity and range. Chinese brands must be laughing.

Yet the Super-One punches well above its (commendably low) weight for style, charm, fun and efficiency, while delivering larger-car levels of comfort, refinement and features.

Given the premium pricing is well beneath other premium retro EV rivals like the Mini Cooper and Fiat Abarth 500e, the Super-One even makes a convincing value-for-money pledge for itself.

We can’t wait to drive it more. Little wonder this has been such a big global hit.

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

The Seal 6 Touring might be BYD’s best-looking car. It boasts a handsome wagon shape and its features don’t overdo the brand’s aquatic design language.

It’s not fussy with too many elements, but it’s not anonymous like some designs from China can seem on Australian roads. It’s definitely a BYD, but it’s not shouty about it. This means it should, visually at least, appeal to buyers who just want a sensible-looking sedan or wagon. Watch out again, Toyota.

The tail-lights and lower trim at the rear don’t leave too much blank space and the whole shape of the rear is sleek enough without cutting too far into the boot space.

Inside, the Seal 6 looks ‘classic BYD’, which isn’t a bad thing, but it’s not enormously interesting. It’s got enough points of difference from the layout Tesla has popularised and many Chinese brands now default to, but some daring style elements wouldn’t go astray.

Honda has performed a minor miracle beefing up its baby N-One into the Super-One you see before you.

The brief called for devising a ‘fun’ EV, but using the standard narrow Kei-car architecture wouldn’t cut it design-wise.

The result sees wider tracks, a fat new body kit with LED ring lights, blanked-out grille and bold blistered wheel arches boxing in larger wheels and tyres. These extend width and benefit stance substantially, while air intakes and tailgate spoiler improve aero.

Additionally, there are mods to the steering with stronger wheel hubs and suspension with a stronger rear beam and uprated springs and dampers, and a chip upgrade for more power when the purple “e-Booster” button is pressed.

Compared to the N-One, the Super-One’s length increases 185mm to 3582mm and width by 100mm to 1573mm. Height and wheelbase are 1616mm and 2520mm respectively.

That all said, the body remains the same dimensionally, but those colourful sports seats, retro-style cassette-player climate-control design and ambient lighting make the petite interior feel premium.

When it comes to practicality, a long trip will reveal plenty of things you might not notice day-to-day. Things like whether the seats really are comfortable, or how useful the cupholders are for different vessels.

Fortunately, the BYD Seal 6 holds up rather well in a few key areas.

Its seating adjustability and the seat itself are comfortable and easy to find the right driving position for an average-heighted man (me), though the bolstering on the seat won’t hold you in place tightly during spirited cornering.

The wheel is nice to hold and it’s easy to feel your changing position while steering, and the controls on it are clear, though more physical controls in the rest of the cabin would be an improvement.

The Seal 6 suffers from a reliance on the touchscreen that a number of car brands’ head designers and engineers are moving away from. The software’s menu system is not quite up to the task of being the only point of contact for functionality, as it requires scrolling through and can be distracting on the road. That will set off the driver monitoring, by the way.

Wireless Android Auto or Apple CarPlay and a wireless phone charger (which is out of the way) provide a good workaround and ensure your phone doesn’t die on a long journey.

There’s storage under the centre console where the cupholders are, a nice spot to keep things out of the way, plus there are USB-A and USB-C ports down there.

Behind the front seats, the second row isn’t lavishly spacious but allows a 178cm adult to sit behind their own seating position with kneeroom, headroom and shoulder room to spare. The sunroof makes it quite nice and light back there, too.

The second row seats fold down 60/40 to turn what was a 670-litre boot into a 1535L boot, though that seems to be measured to the roof rather than the tops of the seat-backs.

There is, disappointingly, no spare tyre under the boot floor, just a repair kit. I’d want a space-saver at least if I was travelling interstate (without a launch event support car).

Generous apertures, a high roof and big doors that open nearly 90 degrees combine to make entry and egress easy.

The Kei-car narrowness is immediately obvious but, unless you’re more than 180cm tall, you’re unlikely to feel cramped. Deep windows, thin pillars and a lofty seating position help provide a pleasantly airy environment with excellent all-round vision.

Those bolstered sports seats are unique, and are superbly comfortable and supportive in a big sports car way. They could be out of a Prelude.

There’s little about the angular, layered and boxy dashboard that’s diminished by the Super-One’s diminutiveness.

Fit and finish are first class, all controls are within easy reach, physical buttons take care of most of important functions like that cool and very effective climate control set-up, and the 9.0-inch touchscreen, which will be familiar to other current Honda owners, is child’s play to operate.

Storage is sufficient, with door pockets capable of carrying a medium-sized bottle, while Honda provides simple access to USB-C ports.

Size does not compromise the Super-One, unless you’re above average height, as those brilliant front seats do not slide back far enough. And the steering column does not adjust for reach, adding a further hindrance.

Further back, things do become plainer, like Honda forgot to upgrade the second row from the donor N-One.

Plain (yet comfy) monochrome material is the overriding theme, yet there is abundant space in all directions for two adults (this car is strictly a four-seater), on a comfy pair of seats that recline slightly.

Plus, lots of light, overhead grab handles, a reading light and one map pocket.

Otherwise, it’s pretty bare back there. Don’t bother searching for cupholders, a centre armrest or air vents.

Those twin backrests fold down low and flat, Honda Jazz ‘magic seat’ style, to provide a huge cavity that goes from just 162 litres in four-person mode to 618L VDA to the window line and 967L to the ceiling. Combined with a tall tailgate and low bumper load height, and this doubles up as a stubby panel van. Plus, there’s a useful underfloor cavity too.

The only fly in this dinky ointment is the lack of a spare wheel, relying on a hopeless tyre-repair kit instead.

OK. $36,900 drive-away is steep in anybody’s language for a city car a whole size smaller than a Toyota Yaris. Particularly when it has one of the smallest batteries in the business at 29.6kWh offering just 202km of WLTP range.

Yet there is a certain logic to the Super-One’s appeal.

Yes, several larger EVs from China cost less, and even the smallest have bigger battery packs with better range.

Along with the Geely EX2 from $26,490 (all prices are before on-road costs unless stated otherwise), this even includes the base BYD Atto 1 Essential.

Previously Australia’s cheapest-ever EV from $23,990, that’s now been temporarily slashed to nearly half the Honda’s price, from $19,990 drive-away, creating this country’s cheapest new car, outright.

Who cares about resale values, anyway!

If you’re all about saving cents and sensibility, then the Super-One is a super bust.

On paper, it’s even dearer than that other adorable but pricey pint-sized EV, the Hyundai Inster. Now from a more palatable $35,990 drive-away, that’s had a $6000-plus haircut.

However, for us anyway, the penny dropped.

If you’re seeking a cheaper rival to BMW’s Mini Cooper SE or Fiat’s Abarth 500e – and, less face it, from about $60K, these are premium EVs bought with hearts, not heads – then the Honda starts making sense.

Think about it. All three are retro takes on beloved mid-century designs. All are four-seater sub-B superminis. And, of course, all embrace their respective unique cultural heritage.

In the Super-One’s case, it is exquisitely Japanese, being Kei-car born and based. But it also transcends those strict footprint and output limits, brandishing greater width, length and muscle, the latter courtesy of a power boost function.

Plus, the Honda is highly equipped, featuring:

• A decent level of advanced driver-assist safety systems

• Adaptive cruise control

• 9.0-inch touchscreen with reverse camera

• Wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto

• Bose premium audio with eight speakers and subwoofer

• Heated steering wheel

• Heated, bolstered front sports seats

• Google Built-in

• Honda’s Connect app for remote car access with free subscription for the warranty period

Among the premium EV superminis, then, the Super-One represents its own special brand of value.

Plus, nothing else on the road quite looks like this boxy little tearabout.

The BYD Seal 6 has a 1.5-litre, four-cylinder petrol engine that helps a front-mounted electric motor drive those two wheels.

While the engine’s outputs are 70kW and 120Nm, the electric motor does the bulk of the work, with its 160kW and 260Nm outputs.

As such, the Touring we’re driving on this trip has total outputs of 163kW and 260Nm, with a claimed 0-100km/h time of 8.1 seconds feeling about right despite a peppy enough take-off from standstill.

The Seal 6 Sedan by comparison has the same engine but a less powerful electric motor, resulting in total outputs of 130kW and 210Nm.

Being based on an internal combustion engine platform, you won’t find a frunk under the bonnet, which is choc-a-block full with a 47kW/168Nm electric motor.

It’s a good thing this only weighs 1093kg, which is about 300kg less than most rival EVs.

Press that e-Booster button, and power jumps to 70kW, slashing the 0-100km/h time from 14.5 seconds to ten-flat. Drive is sent to the front wheels via a single-speed transmission. Top speed is just 135km/h.

Boost is one of five driving modes.

There’s Econ for optimising range thanks to four regenerative braking levels via paddle shifts, City with unique single-pedal driving/braking and four regen brake levels, Normal that’s back with the six regen brake levels, and Sport that – along with Boost – swaps in simulated seven-speed manual ratios, complete with artificial exhaust note.

While the efficiency of a new car is sometimes difficult to test on a launch driving program due to car-swapping and unusual driving conditions like filming or dynamic testing, the car we drove for the full two-days was the same one, and only used for the journey.

That means its full trip of 996.3km (frustratingly not officially the 1000km promised) is a faithful example of what an interstate trip might mean for one or a couple of travellers.

Officially BYD claims a 0.8L/100km figure under NEDC testing for the Touring, but tests like those are misleading for plug-in hybrids as the battery does a lot of lifting.

So BYD tested before this event the claim it could drive a Seal 6 from Sydney to Melbourne, then double-checked it.

But Sydney to Melbourne on a single tank and a single charge turned out to be accurate, even after running down a significant chunk of the Touring’s claimed 100km of electric range as tested under WLTP conditions.

Unfortunately we couldn’t verify the total fuel used over the 996.3km traveled in car number four without first checking the tank was properly full and then refilling it again at the end.

Given the car estimated 68km left in the tank at the end of the trip, you could assume a fuel consumption reasonably below 6.5L/100km given the 65-litre tank still had some juice after near-1000km.

The trip computer’s claim of 4.5L/100km as an apparent cumulative total (including the several hundred kilometres of running-in before the launch) seems fair with a few extra battery charges under its belt prior to the drive.

Charging maxes out at 27kW on DC, or 6.6kW on AC by the way. DC charging should take less than an hour for the Touring’s 19kWh battery.

The Super-One has a WLTP range of 202km. The combined average energy consumption is just 12.1kWh/100km, though our hard-driven test car with air-con on a sunny day in peak-hour traffic displayed around 20kWh/100km.

Faster charging is the advantage of having a compact battery pack.

Using a 400-volt architecture, Honda claims its 29.6kWh Lithium-ion unit can be charged using a common 50kW DC charger from 15 per cent to 80 per cent in about half an hour.

More sensibly, plugged in at work/home overnight should only require about eight hours to 100 per cent full, or around four hours with a circa-7kW wall box.

Maximum AC power charging is 6.6kW in single-phase and 10kW in three-phase modes.

If I had to buy a BYD today, the Seal 6 Touring makes a very strong case for itself in many ways. But unlike some of its stablemates, the way it drives is one of those ways.

The first day (of two) on the local launch saw a drive from Sydney to Albury on the Hume Highway, not known for being particularly dynamic. But the Seal 6’s relatively compliant suspension and lack of roaring road noise was welcome, at least for sections you couldn’t otherwise blame on the road’s surface.

The second day through some of Victoria’s high country and past Lake Eildon allowed the Seal 6 to prove it’s not a slouch, though calling it a sports car would be a stretch. Instead, the Touring's powertrain tune and apparently well-adjusted suspension and chassis meant spirited driving around twisting mountain roads and through winding backroads was easy, if not always exciting.

Big bumps would sometimes unsettle the Seal 6, but its predictability in most cases makes it feel safe and planted. The steering feel isn’t sportscar-like, but doesn’t leave you guessing and the same goes for pedal inputs.

I do wish the Seal 6 was a little more eager, but it’s not disappointing off the line and certainly has enough pep for daily duties.

There are drive modes, Eco, Normal and Sport plus a Snow mode, though the difference between the three doesn’t seem to be enormous. Eco definitely does what it says on the tin, though. The two regenerative braking levels also don’t seem to be incredibly different.

Also a let-down is the eagerness of the driver monitoring to direct your attention back to the road. When the ADAS (Advanced Driver Assistance Systems) settings were all active I started to tune the monitoring chime out because it would sound with every look at the multimedia screen.

At last, we’re behind the wheel of Honda's first EV for Australia, and the Super-One certainly lives up to its name.

Even though it only boasts 47kW of power, it is amply gutsy around town, which is where our brief launch drive was limited to.

Acceleration is lively, scooting eagerly off the line, relying on its instant torque and relatively light weight to make the most of what is available.

There is plenty in reserve for immediate and effortless darting about in and out of traffic gaps.

And that’s in Econ mode. Press the purple e-Booster button, and the Super-One feels supercharged, leaping into action with stronger responses across the board, thanks to a 23kW boost. Performance within the 80km/h confines we tested it in seemed rapid.

The Honda does certainly feel more than racy enough given its sporty aspirations.

Meanwhile, the Super-One’s beautifully tuned steering and controlled suspension also provide an enjoyable and easy balance around town.

It's sharp enough for the driver to get involved, and yet smooth enough for parking to be a cinch, aided by a tight turning circle and great all-round vision. This is the Samantha Jones of dinky superminis: it owns the city.

The ride quality is a fine compromise, too. Firm yet never hard or crashy, it soaks up the bumps well enough, while also being surprisingly quiet.

We wonder whether road and tyre noise intrusion is as muted out on the open road?

We even enjoy the artificial noise coming from the powertrain.

After our all-too-brief first drive, it is clear that the Super-One is the first cheap-ish EV that feels designed and developed for driving pleasure.

It's not a sports car. It's no Civic Type R, and it isn't meant to be. Instead, this is a charming, well-rounded and highly enjoyable urban runabout with style, class and sophistication.

We can’t wait to drive it more. On first impressions, the Super-One has exceeded expectations.

There is currently no ANCAP crash-test rating.

Honda says that the Super-One hasn't been crash tested independently as ANCAP hasn't asked for one.

But the company does fit a selection of safety-related technologies that at least match most of the competition, including autonomous emergency braking (AEB), forward collision warning, lane departure warning, lane keep assist, traffic jam assist, road departure mitigation system and adaptive cruise control with low-speed follow, as part of its advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS) set-up.

In 90 minutes of peak-hour urban schlepping about town, not once did we experience any ADAS intrusion. No unwelcome tugging interference from the steering. No traffic sign shrieking. No adaptive cruise control fails when we finally picked up some extra speed along Melbourne's M1 heading back into the city.

Honda says that this car was tuned in Japan, but also tested in Australia and the UK prior to launch, and its nuanced ADAS behaviour shows.

Honda says that it has also worked hard on making the body as strong as it possibly can with beefed-up pillars.

Plus, six airbags are fitted, along with a pair of ISOFIX and child-seat tether anchorage points in the rear seats.

BYD’s six-year/150,000km warranty is probably more than you’d need in terms of distance but is behind competitors who offer seven or eight years with unlimited kilometres, even 10 years conditional. An eight-year/160,000km warranty covers the battery, which is about par.

Finally, BYD has set servicing for every 20,000km or 12 months, with  the first five services totalling $2775, an average of $555 a visit. The fourth service is a hefty $1225, for reference.

BYD has more than 100 dealerships in Australia, with the brand still growing quickly.

The Super-One comes with a five-year, unlimited kilometre warranty.

But if you choose to have it serviced at a Honda dealer, that increases to eight-years/unlimited. Intervals are 12 months or every 10,000km.

For the first five years, it will cost $199 per service, providing good value for money.

Currently there are 75 Honda dealers throughout Australia.