Mercedes-Benz EQ-Class vs BYD Seal

What's the difference?

The Mercedes-Benz EQC has been on sale in Australia for a little while now, and aside from the local launch event we haven’t had a chance to spend any quality time with the brand’s first fully electric SUV. Until now.

The EQC 400, as it’s officially known, is the German luxury maker’s first foray into the full-EV landscape, and could arguably be seen as the first true luxury electric SUV on sale in Australia. I mean, yeah, there’s the Jaguar i-Pace, but it has a more premium-sporting intent than the EQC, and the Tesla Model X isn’t aimed at a luxury customer, more so a technologically-minded buyer.

So what’s the Merc EQC like to actually live with? We drove it for a week to find out.

BYD. The three letters which keep auto executives from the world's top brands up at night.

The brand’s meteoric rise in Australia from a trickle of imports to a torrent of Chinese-built EVs, outselling even Tesla in the first month of 2024, is testament to this relative newcomer’s ability to surprise and impress its buyers and the industry as a whole.

The car we’re looking at for this review, the Seal, could be its biggest challenge yet. Not only does it have to compete head-to-head with the car which put EVs on the map for mainstream buyers - the Tesla Model 3 - but it also has to vie for a share of the increasingly shrinking sedan market.

So, what’s the deal with the Seal? Is it any good? And, why did BYD choose to name it after a marine mammal? Read on to find out.