BYD Seal vs Peugeot E-Expert

What's the difference?

Those big auto executives have good reason to be worried, because the Seal is yet another impressive offering from China’s most formidable EV player.

It’s not perfect. In some ways it’s trying too hard to be a luxury car, and I think the software in particular could use a little work, but the Seal just does so much right I think it will be hard to be disappointed with one, particularly given its keen entry price.

In fact, if we had to pick one from the range, it would probably be this mid-spec Premium. The range and power on offer are stellar, and all for less money than an entry-level Model 3 or Polestar 2.

The driving comfort and competent load-carrying ability of the E-Expert in a daily short-haul working role would be well suited to both tradies and fleets, if equipped with the convenience of back-to-base overnight charging at home or depot. However, its zero-tailpipe-emissions technology comes at a high price, requiring careful cost-benefit analysis by potential buyers.

The Seal looks great. It’s about as modern a take on the traditional three-box sedan as you can get. It’s low-slung with curvy lines and a sporty overall feel.

The design touches, like the headlight and DRL surrounds, side skirts, and wheels are maximalist compared to the minimalist vibes of the Model 3 and the Polestar 2. But I don’t necessarily think that's a bad thing as it offers buyers a genuine alternative.

I also like the way the brand has executed the LED lights and particularly the tail-light fittings. There’s also an admirable restraint when it comes to badging compared to a lot of this car’s Chinese rivals. It doesn’t give off the vibe of a cut-price product at all.

Inside there are elements which are appealing, and some things which fall short. First up, I do think the Seal wears its influences throughout the industry on its sleeve a bit.

The digital dash cluster theme, for example, seems to (poorly) emulate the Mercedes-Benz software, the little plastic crystal shifter piece on the inside seems to have been overtly influenced by a similar (actual crystal) piece available in Volvos, while the centre screen and dual wireless phone chargers are pretty obviously BYD’s take on the similar bits available in the Model 3.

Maybe in this sense, it’s trying a little too hard to be a luxury car and a tech-heavy electric vehicle, with items which aren’t quite up to the same quality (particularly the software). But then, it all works well enough, and can you complain at the price?

One thing I think BYD gets right though is the level of comfort on offer in the cabin and the clever little styling bits which remind you of its namesake.

The door handle pieces and integrated speaker bits are shaped like a Seal flipper. As are the dash-mounted air vents, and if you look closely even the plastic garnish on the steering wheel looks a bit like a top-down cross section of the animal.

I like it because its subtle rather than in-your-face as some of the Atto 3's design elements are.

The quality is also up to muster, big time. There wasn’t a creak, groan, or rattle from this car’s interior in my entire time with it, including on some of Sydney's worst roads. And the seats, which are designed like absolute thrones, are clad in lovely soft leather. You sink into them. Even the two-tone Alcantara finish through the doors and centre console is thoughtfully placed.

Externally the E-Expert adopts the new look of the Peugeot light commercial range, featuring an elaborate grille design with the brand’s equally new emblem proudly displayed at its centre.

The three-seater cabin design has also been upgraded, with Peugeot claiming extensive revision of the driving position for greater comfort (see Practicality).

The E-Expert rides on a 3275mm wheelbase with 12.4-metre turning circle and combines MacPherson strut front suspension with semi-trailing arm/coil-spring rear suspension, rack and pinion steering with electric power-assistance and four-wheel disc brakes.

Its 1948mm height ensures it can easily access height-restricted areas like underground loading docks and multi-storey car parks.

The Seal has a huge cabin, and in a lot of ways it feels like the large sedans of old. You can sit nice and low in the cabin, and there’s heaps of knee and headroom thanks to its width.

Soft-clad materials for resting your knees and elbows on go a long way towards keeping this car comfortable on longer journeys, and the presence of a digital dash and a holographic head-up display is nice to have compared to the bare-bones dash of the Tesla Model 3.

The wacky rotating central touchscreen feature makes an appearance from other BYDs, but again, it’s a bit silly and I’m not sure how much use you’ll get out of it. Even Apple CarPlay only works in landscape mode, so I didn’t find it useful.

Practicality features are abundant, with a large bottle holder in the doors, and two more in the centre console. One even has a floating floor, so you can push it down to accommodate large bottles if need be.

Dual wireless chargers are always a nice touch, and the bridge-style console has a large pass-through storage area underneath, which also hides the USB-C, USB-A, and 12V outlets. The armrest console box is nice and deep, too.

The back seat is enormous. Possibly one of the largest spaces in this segment. It comes at a cost to boot capacity, but your rear passengers won’t want for space no matter how tall they are.

At 182cm tall I had leagues of airspace behind my own driving position, and the wide cabin, accommodating seats, and flat floor mean the centre position is even useful for a full-sized adult.

Storage comes in the form of three pockets on the back of each front seat, a large bottle holder in the doors, two cupholders in the drop-down armrests, a small tray on the back of the centre console, and a small flip-out cover which reveals a USB-C and USB-A charging port for rear passengers. The rear seat even gets dual adjustable air vents, but no third climate zone.

The massive fixed glass roof looks the business and keeps the cabin airy, just like in the Model 3 and Polestar 2, but I find these big glass fittings tend to cook interiors in the Australian sun.

BYD tells us the tint is so heavy it has a ‘solar transmittance’ of just 16 per cent, but 16 per cent is still a lot in Australian summer. Thankfully, unlike its two rivals, BYD ships the Seal with a fold-out cover screen as standard.

Remember how I said the massive rear seat comes at a cost to boot space? At 400 litres the Seal’s boot is a bit compact, made worse by the fact it’s a sedan and not a liftback, so the access area is a bit narrow.

It could only fit the largest CarsGuide luggage case alongside the smallest one, but not all three including the medium case. This could be a blow to family buyers who need to fit a pram alongside other things.

Under the floor there’s an extra space great for the storage of your V2L adapter and AC charging cable, but there’s also only a tyre repair kit and no spare.

A highlight of the E-Expert’s design is its conspicuously low published tare (unladen) weight of only 2052kg, which is considerably lighter than not only its LDV eDeliver 7 LWB Low Roof rival at 2365kg but also the segment-leading diesel HiAce (in LWB Auto Barn-Door spec) at 2245kg.

This figure is largely the result of weight-saving chassis technology, given that its diesel Expert equivalent’s tare weight is an athletic 1698kg.  As a result, given the E-Expert’s 3053kg GVM, it has a substantial 1001kg payload rating, so it’s a genuine one-tonner.

It’s also rated to tow up to 1000kg of braked trailer, but given Peugeot does not publish a GCM (or how much it can legally carry and tow at the same time) we can't confirm how much payload it can carry while towing its maximum trailer weight.

The cargo bay, which with the standard bulkhead/cargo barrier has a competitive 6.1 cubic metres of load volume, is accessed through sliding doors on each side with 935mm openings or from the rear through symmetrical barn-doors with 180-degree opening to enhance forklift and loading dock access.

The cargo bay offers 2780mm of floor length and 1628mm width, which combined with 1258mm between the rear wheel-housings means it can carry two standard Aussie pallets, or up to three Euro pallets, secured with a choice of eight load-anchorage points.

The cargo bay floor length partially extends to more than 4.0 metres by opening the load-through flap at the lower left-hand side of the bulkhead and raising the outer passenger seat-base into its vertical storage position.

This allows long lengths of timber, copper/PVC pipe, carpet/lino rolls etc to slide through and be carried internally. There’s also an additional load-anchorage point in the passenger footwell. Overall, this is a practical design feature.

The bulkhead window is protected by a sturdy mesh guard, the cargo bay doors and walls are lined to mid-height and internal lighting is provided front and rear.

A tough liner to protect the load floor from scrapes and dents is not included as standard equipment, but is available as an accessory.

The cabin can seat up to three occupants with a combination of a driver’s bucket seat and two-passenger bench seat. All seats are trimmed in two-tone ‘Mica Grey' fabric and equipped with full lap-sash seatbelts.

Although this cabin design offers wide door access and good comfort for the driver and outer passenger, the centre passenger is compromised by the large central-dash protrusion that houses the gear-selection and drive-mode controls.

The only option for those seated in the middle is to position both legs on the passenger side of this protrusion, which ensures their feet intrude into the outer passenger footwell. So, trips with two passengers should only be short ones.

Another criticism is the lack of hinge detents or struts to hold the rear barn-doors open in their 180-degree positions, given that a gust of wind when loading/unloading can slam them shut with potential injury for the operator (we reckon lock-open devices should be mandatory for all vans equipped with barn-doors).

The cabin includes two tiers of storage in each front door, comprising a slender shelf at mid-height for small items and a large-bottle holder and big storage bin at the base for larger items.

On top of the dash-pad are a small-bottle/cupholder on each side and a large clamshell-lidded compartment in the centre. There’s also a glove box with another open storage compartment below, while the centre console offers a smartphone cradle.  

The centre seat’s base-cushion, which is hinged at the front, can be tilted forward to reveal a deep compartment below that’s lined with insulating polystyrene foam to keep small items of food and/or drink hot or cold.

The centre seat’s backrest can also fold forward and flat to reveal a mobile office space, with a small desk that can be rotated to provide a comfortable working angle. It also has a shallow tray for holding pens etc and an elastic strap to hold documents in place.

Our test vehicle, to use its full name, is the E-Expert Pro Long Auto. It’s available only as a long wheelbase variant with single electric motor, 75kWh battery and single-speed automatic transmission for a list price of $79,990.

That’s $18K more than LDV’s eDeliver 7 LWB Low Roof electric rival and more than $29K dearer than both its diesel Expert equivalent and Toyota’s LWB Auto Barn-Door HiAce.

Our example is also finished in 'Titanium Grey' metallic paint ($690 option) which pushes the list price over $80K.

Standard equipment on our test vehicle includes 16-inch steel wheels with black hubcaps, 215/65 Michelin tyres and a full-size spare.

There’s also a solid bulkhead between cabin and cargo bay with load-through flap (see Practicality), front/rear parking sensors, daytime running lights, a 180-degree reversing camera, demister/wiper on each rear barn-door, a Mode 3/Type 2 charging cable in a Peugeot storage bag and more.

Inside are two USB ports and two 12-volt sockets plus an electric parking brake, dual-zone climate control, heated steering wheel with multi-function controls, heated driver’s seat and a 10-inch digital driver’s display.

There’s also a 10-inch central touchscreen to control the four-speaker multimedia system which includes voice recognition, digital radio and wireless Apple/Android connectivity.

Each Seal variant gets its own drivetrain outputs, and the mid-spec Premium drives the rear wheels with a 230kW/360Nm electric motor via a reduction gear.

On paper, it’s slightly more powerful than the Model 3 RWD, with more power and less torque than the Polestar 2 Standard Range.

The E-Expert’s single electric motor, which drives the front wheels through a single-speed automatic transmission, produces 100kW of power and 260Nm of torque. It also offers three grades of regenerative braking/battery charge replenishment, using paddle-shifters on the steering wheel.

Providing power is a sizable 82.56kWh lithium-ion battery pack, using BYD’s signature weight and space-saving ‘Blade’ form-factor, and the more affordable LFP (lithium iron ferrophosphate) chemistry.

On the charging front, the Seal Premium can top up at 150kW on a DC unit (using a Type 2 CCS connector) for a 10-80 per cent charge in roughly 40 minutes, while on AC its a disappointing 7.0kW.

The 7.0kW inverter means it’s hardly worth plugging the Seal in at a slow public charger when you visit the shops, as you’ll only get about 50km of range an hour. It’s for this reason most cars with batteries this size have 11kW inverters.

Unlike the Model 3 or Polestar 2, though, the Seal features a V2L system, allowing you to power household appliances from its Type 2 charging port.

Claimed energy consumption for the Seal is 14.6kWh/100km which is low, and about what we were seeing on test. It’s a little hard to tell because the trip computer only offers total consumption over the entire life of the vehicle, or for the last 50km, but not for a set trip interval. Weird.

Peugeot claims an official WLTP driving range of up to 330km from its 75kWh lithium-ion battery, which is mounted in a cradle beneath the load floor to maintain the same cargo bay load volume as its diesel sibling.

Our test vehicle was fully charged on collection and we drove 214km on that single charge, of which 50km was hauling a near-maximum payload on our city/suburban test route. We also switched between the three drive modes, but most driving was done in 'Normal' mode.

At the completion of our test, the dash readout was claiming average energy consumption of 25kWh/100km. So, based on these figures, a ‘real world’ driving range of up to 300km is credible, with potentially more using 'Eco' mode exclusively.

Peugeot claims the E-Expert can be charged from 0-100 per cent using a three-phase (11kW) wall-box in about 7.5 hours, or 0-80 per cent in 45 minutes using (100kW) DC quick-charge facilities.

I wasn’t expecting the Seal to impress me particularly. After all, it’s in this segment against tough competition, amongst recently updated versions of the Model 3 and Polestar 2, and while the previous BYDs I’ve driven have been a cut above their Chinese contemporaries, they also haven’t done a lot to stand out from the crowd.

Clearly, though, BYD has something to prove with its sporting sedan and the Seal is immediately impressive. The cabin is quiet and refined, the seating position is great it's smooth from take-off.

The steering has an artificial tinge to it removing a bit of feedback from the road, but proves at least quick and accurate at speed, and the handling is superb.

I kept pushing the Seal in my test drive, expecting gnarly characteristics to surface but they didn’t. This sedan grabs onto the road with excellent control and traction at the rear, spurred along by its long wheelbase, and improved tyre choice (Continental rather than the sub-par Chinese rubber worn by the Atto 3 and Dolphin).

While on paper it appears to have at least comparable motor output figures to the Polestar 2 and Model 3 - the Seal Premium doesn’t quite feel as rapid, its electric motor having a more relaxed vibe and responsiveness when you stomp on the go pedal.

This can be tweaked a little by dialling it up to Sport mode, and while it still doesn’t feel quite as breakneck fast as the Model 3, in particular, it’s plenty to be going on with.

The most impressive part of the Seal drive experience, though, is its ride. Ride is a constant problem for EVs as manufacturers go to lengths to tame the additional weight of batteries, but the Seal is the most impressive in its cohort, and by quite a margin.

It’s firm enough to be controlled, but has a lovely soft edge to it, so larger bumps, frequent corrugations, or sharper road imperfections don’t ruin your day.

The Model 3 and Polestar 2, even in their improved forms, are not this good. In a lot of ways the Seal’s suspension tune reminds me of the Mustang Mach-e. It has a soft edge, offset by a bit of secondary jiggle as the car settles, which is its only real blemish.

The Seal has no right being this good. It’s now not just matching its far more established rivals but doing some things significantly better.

Thanks to adjustable lumbar support, a height/reach adjustable steering wheel with flat lower rim to allow extra torso/legroom and a decent-sized left footrest, it’s easy to find a comfortable driving position. The door mirrors, although smaller than some rivals, are adequate given their active blind-spot monitoring assistance.

The steering feel is responsive and nicely weighted, combined with sure-footed handling and supple unladen ride quality from its four-coil suspension.

It provides smooth and near-silent performance at speeds up to 80km/h, with tyre and wind noise becoming more intrusive at highway speeds. We drove most of the test in 'Normal' drive mode, which provides more than adequate city and suburban performance given the E-Expert’s relatively light kerb weight.

The energy-saving Eco mode causes a noticeable drop in response, as you’d expect. The 'Power' setting has the opposite effect, using more energy but producing improved acceleration even with a heavy load on board.

Adjustment of regenerative braking ('Low'/'Mid'/'High') using the steering wheel paddles produces noticeable differences in retardation across the three modes. In High mode, the effect is strong enough to require minimal use of the brake pedal.

To test its GVM rating we forklifted 770kg into the cargo bay, which combined with our two-man crew equalled a payload of 950kg which was only 50kg under its one-tonne limit.

Even so, the coil-spring rear suspension only compressed 40mm under this load, leaving more than 30mm of static bump-stop clearance that ensured no sharp bottoming-out over bumps.

On our congested 50km city/suburban test route, where mid-sized electric vans would typically operate, it handled this load with considerable ease in Normal mode with no requirement to use the Power setting.

The extra weight had a minimal effect on handling and braking response, with the E-Expert proving to be a competent load-hauler within its driving range.

Our only criticism is the positioning of the centre seat’s large headrest, which even when fully lowered blocks a large portion of the central mirror’s view through the bulkhead window and rear doors. As a result, we removed it and stored it away when not carrying a centre passenger.

No ANCAP rating but it comes standard with front, side and curtain airbags for driver and passenger plus AEB, lane-keeping, forward collision warning, blind-spot detection (but no rear cross-traffic alert), tyre pressure monitoring, traffic sign detection and more.

It also features what Peugeot calls the 'Acoustic Vehicle Alerting System' (AVAS), which generates sound that can be heard outside the vehicle when travelling at low speed, to enhance pedestrian safety.

The long-term ownership aspect for a BYD product is still a bit of a mystery as the current crop of cars have only just landed in Australia in the last year or two, but if it offers you any peace of mind, the Seal is covered by a six-year/150,000km warranty with a separate eight-year/160,000km warranty for the battery pack.

In order to avoid having to have a traditional dealer network, BYD has partnered with MyCar to fulfil servicing. Visits to one of these locations is required once every 12 months or 20,000km whichever comes first, and pricing is fixed for the first eight years, working out to an annual average of $299.

E-Expert comes with a five-year/200,000km Light Commercial Vehicle (LCV) specific warranty, plus eight-year battery warranty, 12-year corrosion warranty and three-year paint warranty.

Scheduled servicing is every 12 months/25,000km whichever occurs first, with capped-price for the first five scheduled services totalling $1846, or an annual average of $369. Pre-paid service plans up to five years offer considerable savings.