Peugeot Partner vs BYD Seal

What's the difference?

Is there a class of vehicle more overlooked in Australia than the humble light van?

While the pragmatic and often hatchback-based small van is dwarfed in size and sales by the popular ute as the commercial vehicle of choice here, the case is completely reversed in Europe, where light commercial vans dominate city streets, favoured for their compact nature and relative fuel efficiency.

What is it about Australia which makes the ute more successful? Is it just our history of locally producing them? Do you really even need one, or are the Europeans on to something? 

I spent a week reacquainting myself with the freshly facelifted 2025 Peugeot Partner 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.