Mazda 3 vs BYD Seal

What's the difference?

Given how effortlessly it traverses the mainstream and premium small car classes, the Mazda 3 might be the best value small car on the planet.

With racy styling, sports car handling, classy interior presentation and impressive, intelligent efficiency, there’s plenty to sink your teeth into here.

Poor rear vision, a dark back-seat area and smallish boot aside, it doesn’t have any glaring faults.

In a world overrun with SUVs, props to Mazda for evolving the small car so brilliantly to mask a half-decade of existence. Continuous improvements have made the 2024 G25 Evolve SP Vision an essential small car shortlist proposition, regardless of price.

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.

How is it that the current Mazda 3 is already five years old? This hatchback is still stunning, the sort of car you look back at when walking away.

The shape is sleek and almost coupe-like, with a shark-like nose, cab-backward-style long bonnet, upswept shoulder line and a fastback silhouette.

More importantly, it’s the way the light dances across the sculptured sides that draw the eyes in. Bereft of clutter, it makes you wish all mainstream manufacturers had the courage to be so daring.

We’ve said it before – the 'BP'-generation Mazda 3 (Axela in Japan) is the brand’s boldest C-segment hatch since the 1993 'BA' 323 (Astina/Lantis/323F).

But there’s a price to pay for such timeless beauty…

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.

There is a price to pay for all this quasi-coupe styling flair, and that’s a comparatively snug-feeling interior, though you’d never call it cramped.

Actually, the Mazda 3 is no less spacious than most of its competition in all but one area, with enough room even for 200cm drivers, along with sufficient shoulder width and ceiling height to match.

If you’re really tall, maybe that missing sunroof isn’t such a bad thing, after all.

Sat so low-down on cushy, enveloping front seats that offer plenty of comfort and support, this is the anti-SUV. Maybe Mazda should have called this the MX-3.

Sporty and spot-on, the driving position is a laid-back affair, with an emphasis on better ergonomics, as emphasised by the thoughtful placement of switchgear that’s all within easy reach, ahead of a beautifully flowing and layered dash. Proudly Japanese in flavour, it brings to mind functional minimalism.

Drilling into some of the 3’s finer interior details, the analogue-look digital instrumentation is super-legible, ultra-classy and gorgeously lit at night. As previously mentioned, the dials and surrounding air vents are reminiscent of the later Porsche 944 and 968.

It’s not just all for the sake of aesthetics, either.

Yes, it’s lovely, but the thinned-rim three-spoke steering wheel feels great to grip, with nifty little paddle shifters that are a delight to prod.

Same goes for the physical volume knob and climate-control buttons, sidestepping the need to get distracted and frustrated by virtual sub-menus.

And having a conventional gear lever with old-school Tiptronic-style shifts suits the 3’s athletic vibe.

Plus, forward vision is A-OK, ventilation is faultless, storage is better than you might expect, and the fit and finish is as good if not better than any of this 3’s German premium opponents.

Out back, the split-fold rear backrest is set at a comfortable angle, the cushion is well padded, and you’re provided with USB ports, air vents, and an armrest with two cupholders. More thoughtfulness.

But while knee room is fair, rear headroom isn’t great if you’re tall or wear a beehive, as the falling ceiling line reveals.

Vision out is limited by that rising window line and fat pillars. Getting in and out of the back requires some contortionist moves. And the small windows mean it can be gloomier in the back than a Smiths album.

Finally, at just 295 litres, the 3’s cargo capacity is disappointing. Sure, it eclipses the Corolla hatch’s 217L cubby, but other rivals are far larger back there.

At least the floor is wide and flat and there are 60/40-split backrests for cabin access for longer items.

Note that a space-saver spare wheel lurks underneath. Mazda argues there’s always the closely-related CX-30 if you need (slightly) more space (317L).

Meanwhile, at the other end of the 3…

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.

Just like its Model 3 rival, the Seal arrives in Australia in three variants - the base Dynamic, top-spec Performance, and the one we’re looking at for this review, the mid-spec Premium.

Price is, of course, BYD’s forte, with this mid-spec Premium (equipped with a long-range battery) even managing to undercut the entry-level Model 3 RWD.

Before on-road costs and state-based incentives you can have one of these from $58,798, while (at the time of writing at least) the enormously popular Model 3 RWD weighed in at $61,900. Its next closes rival, the Polestar 2 Standard Range, costs from $67,400, so value here is obvious.

The Premium’s long-range battery allows a WLTP-certified driving range of 570km between charges which is even one of the longest cruising ranges available on any electric vehicle in Australia right now.

The list of standard features is exhaustive, including 19-inch alloy wheels, LED headlights, a massive 15.6-inch multimedia touchscreen with wired Apple CarPlay and wireless Android Auto, a 10.25-inch digital instrument cluster, a holographic head-up display, dual wireless phone charging bays, built-in navigation and connected services, ‘genuine’ leather seat and wheel trim (a blend of synthetic and real leather), an eight-way power-adjustable seat for the driver, ventilated and heated front seats, dual-zone climate control, a fixed panoramic glass roof and keyless entry with push-start ignition.

The Seal also gets an impressive array of standard safety kit. More on this later.

The only options are premium paints and an alternate light blue theme for the interior which cost $1500 each.

This list of kit would even be impressive on a combustion car at this price, so the fact it’s also electric and offers one of the longest driving ranges on the market is a bonus.

The one area where I think it lacks a little is the stock software. It looks okay and, to be fair, functions a lot better than its Chinese contemporaries and even some other brands, but once you dig into it a little there are some clumsy menus, and it becomes painfully obvious it’s a simple Android reskin. A swing and almost a miss for something so integral to a car like this.

Why is it called the Seal? Well, in BYD’s home market of China, its range is so expansive it has split it up into two model lines, the Dynasty series (named after historical Chinese kingdoms) of which the Atto 3 is a member (it is called the Yuan Plus in China), and the Ocean series which the Seal and Dolphin belong to. The next BYD to arrive in Australia, a mid-size SUV likely to be called the Seal U, also belongs to the Ocean series.

When you think about it, shoehorning a big torquey engine in a light and agile small car is a recipe for fun. Ford did just that with the Escort RS2000 in the 1970s… and Mazda’s now an expert at it, too.

The engine in question is the G25, a 2.5-litre four-cylinder naturally aspirated twin-cam petrol engine, delivering 139kW of power at 6000rpm and 252Nm of torque at 4000rpm.

As this Evolve SP Vision hatch tips the scales at 1415kg, it makes for a healthy, and consequently very lively, power-to-weight ratio of over 98kW/tonne.

That’s if you decide to use all the available revs, which the six-speed torque-converter auto makes great use of.

Driving the front wheels, it offers a 'Sport' mode to extend the revs even more, which is keeping in line with this Mazda’s sporty character.

Less so is the company’s decision to ditch the old multi-link independent rear suspension system a few years back for a more prosaic torsion beam arrangement. We’ll get to how that affects ride and handling in a moment.

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.

Mazda claims the G25 averages 6.6L/100km on the combined cycle… for a carbon-dioxide emissions rating of 154g/km. On a 51L tank, that gives a potential distance of over 940km!

Driven good and hard in our hands, we managed 7.5L/100km, which isn’t bad given the speed and conditions it was subjected to.

Plus, the Mazda’s happy on 91 RON 'standard' unleaded petrol.

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.

Ask yourself. What do you want from a new small car?

Since the first Familia of the early 1960s, Mazda’s been at it constantly, through the 1300 and 323 eras and into the modern age of the 3.

The Hiroshima brand knows its stuff. Space, practicality, comfort, ease, reliability and affordability. But a small car has to offer more, specifically in the way it makes the owner feel.

That’s why, while the Focuses, Lancers, Astras and Pulsars are gone, the 3’s still here. And it isn’t just the lush visuals inside and out that are, well, sensory-rich.

As older Alfa Romeo owners know, there’s something special about an engine that sounds alive, and the moment you push the 3’s starter, it purrs into life. That’s the first clue.

Slot the refreshingly old-school lever into Drive, and the G25 leaps into action, and, if you need it to, will keep pulling forward strongly, engine buzzing, like it’s on a mission.

That describes the torquey urge of this big 2.5L four, paired perfectly with the sensibly-geared auto.

We miss Mazda’s magnificent manual immensely, but the 3’s instant response reflects its favourable circa-100kW/tonne power-to-weight ratio.

And, as we’ve harped on in the past, the twin-cam unit’s extra oomph beyond 4000rpm delivers muscular high-speed responses akin to a good turbo – or a great old-school Alfa. You can keep your laggy dual-clutch transmissions, Europe.

Now, sweet, smooth and speedy performance is one thing, but having the chassis tuned with precise and fluid steering for tactile handling, and confident roadholding, backed by nuanced driver-assist and traction controls, are another.

There is a consistent and unifying control to the 3’s linear and forgiving dynamics, reminiscent of past masters like the Focus (and today’s brilliant Peugeot 308) that makes it a joy to drive enthusiastically through fast corners, with the knowledge that it won’t suddenly snap-oversteer and bite an unalert driver back.

For a Mazda, the ride is quiet enough, but there is still some droning transmitted through the cabin, via the Bridgestone Turanza (215/45) tyres, on coarse-chip bitumen surfaces.

And while suspension comfort is pretty impressive for the most part, larger bumps reveal the torsion beam’s limitations, as the car can occasionally thud over them in a way that we remember the multi-link rear end wouldn’t.

Anyway, what we’re saying is that, overall, the 3 Evolve SP Vision is an immersive and interactive driving experience that is right up there with the best of them.

Brawny performance, exquisite agility and a refinement that, collectively, have eluded every small Mazda in living memory until this generation’s 2019 debut. This 3’s right on the money. Still.

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.

The Seal has an extensive list of today’s active safety equipment, including auto emergency braking (front and rear), lane keeping aids, blind-spot monitoring, rear cross-traffic alert, adaptive cruise control, traffic sign recognition and driver attention alert.

For the most part, these systems aren’t invasively annoying, which can’t be said for many products from rival automakers.

However, the traffic sign recognition and overspeed warning system conspire to intrude with constant beeping.

Mercifully, and unlike the equivalent system in Hyundai products, it’s a distant beep, but a consistent one nonetheless, as the traffic sign system frequently picks the wrong speed for whatever reason, and then chastises you for going over it.

Also, the adaptive cruise control system can’t hold a candle to the Model 3's. The system in the Seal amounts to the usual sort of adaptive cruise in most other cars, whereas the one in the Model 3 (regardless of how you feel about the brand’s outrageous claims) is properly next-level in its lane keeping and distance controls.

The Seal is equipped with seven airbags and was rated a maximum five ANCAP stars to the 2023 standards.

Mazda offers a five-year/unlimited kilometre warranty, with five-years roadside assistance… and that’s nothing special nowadays.

Service intervals are at 12 months or every 15,000km.

A fixed-price service scheme is available, averaging out to $434 annually over the first five years. Mazda shows pricing right up to 16 years and 240,000km on its website.

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.