Juniper
Review by Juniper’s Journal’s expert car reviewer, Dr SP Long.
Mention BEV – two established electric car players come to mind. No prizes for guessing who they are. Fans of both camps are equally polarised, which is almost akin to Apple versus Samsung (or Xiaomi?) of the mobile phones arena. Well, some of the Elon fans are almost like obsessed members of a car cult – but we’re not going down this slippery slope debating the unnecessary.
The number one brand of battery electric vehicles (BEV) in terms of sales, is of course BYD – in Malaysia and also in the world. Imagine my anticipation when sampling the new 2025 facelift Seal Performance 3.8S, also available in Premium (single motor, RWD) guise which is cheaper by some RM20k – Performance at RM191,800 versus Premium at RM171,800.
Reminiscing the roller-coaster going downhill-like experience of the older 2024 Seal Performance, with pinned to your seat jolts doing 0 – 100 km/h, and tummy-turning or giddiness inducing “in-gear” acceleration. Impressive near-Porsche 911 level of performance in a straight line blast – until you approach Vmax of say, about 180 km/h (as claimed and likely governed by software). Of course, ICE sport sedans will gain momentum to sustain way beyond 200 km/h but that’s not legally appropriate, given the national speed limit is way way lower than that.
Getting back to my review, two glaring deficiencies for this otherwise electrifying sports sedan. One, the suspension damping being overly soft – with lack of quick & decisive body control on vertical rebound. Therefore, this D-segment sedan bottoms out frequently going over almost every speed hump, more so when fully occupied. Once again, this refers to the old model 2023/2024 Seal.
Secondly, the pre-facelift Seal of 2023/2024 has this uncanny tendency to float at cruising speeds approaching 110 km/h and (tested briefly) beyond 120 km/h. Thankfully, should you take the pre-facelift Seal Performance on to sweepy winding roads, it behaves admirably with acceptable body control – coping with load changes from left to right and vice-versa. Upon discussion with an experienced senior motoring expert and ex-rally driver, this could be attributed to thick and solid anti-roll bars, to deliver more flatter cornering abilities – only to be let down by the overtly soft springs and/or shock absorbers on the straights – resulting in early and premature excessive wafting. A weird feedback to most drivers I supposed, while not very appetising to the more enthusiastic person behind the wheel.
Come 2025, BYD has revamped the Seal with DiSus-C active adaptive dampers – with Sport or Comfort modes accessible through the large central 15.6-inch infotainment screen. On the lesser Premium variant, it is still equipped with passive adaptive dampers called Frequency Selective Damping (FSD). I did not test the facelift 2025 Seal Premium to be able to report the difference. Nevertheless, in the older 2023/2024 Seal Premium and Performance, both variants were shodded with standard FSD dampers.
So, how good is this new DISus-C Intelligent Damping Body Control?
In one word: EXCELLENT. For the driver and front passenger. Delivering a sportier and more engaging drive indeed.
Better handling, tighter body control and smoother, more composed ride in Comfort mode.
Also, no more scraping of the car under-carriage driving over every speed bump, at any speed, whether fully occupied or otherwise. Great job, BYD!
However, rear passengers still complained of quite a jarring and busy ride over wavy road undulations – in Sport suspension setting. Hence, I would suggest leaving it in Comfort when doing family runs. In our very hot weather with super-sunny sunshine, the newly-added electric sunshade under the huge panoramic glass roof is a very much welcomed standard item, which of course was previously not available in the 2023/2024 Seal.
Intriguingly, the other bugbears of this Seal Performance is a recalcitrant howling noise at high speed – in both pre-facelift and facelift Performance 3.8S only; and not affecting the both earlier and newer RWD Seals (Premium spec). Also the one back-piece “bucket” sport seat seems not forgiving or ergonomic enough for my cervical (neck) spine curvature, resulting in early fatigue on most of my drives. Maybe it’s just me due to my not-so-tall stature, but I reckoned that should not happen anyway. Thigh and lateral thigh support would be much appreciated to be a wee-bit more generous in the facelift model but the same seat is being carried over from the 2023/2024 model.
Perhaps BYD should do away with its one piece bucket sports seat a la Lotus Electre or Porsche 911 or Taycan. Incidentally, the seats are much better in the latest Seal 6 EV (with separate and adjustable headrests). Even the budget, entry-level Atto 2, with smaller seats don’t have this pain-in-the-neck aggravation, even though it is still of the fixed-headrests design. In an overview of the current BYD Malaysia range of BEVs, the better and best seats are actually in the Seal 6 and the Atto 2 – as sampled during Sime Motors’ BYD Tech Discovery 2025. Rather surprisingly, both these models have seats which offer that wee bit of extra anterior thigh supports, with slightly thicker lateral paddings too. Just a little, but appreciable to your lower limbs. BYD is learning to make better seats with newer models being introduced?
For the record, I have a parked Seal 6 EV Premium in my own garage. So, I guess there may be a short comparo story coming up next. I also had a Boxster during the yester years and is currently doing weekend drives in my trusty 911. While it is completely unfair to compare and contrast the 2-door dedicated sports coupe with the Seal Performance, I can safely say the near RM200k BYD sports sedan can hold its candle by sheer neck-breaking bolt of acceleration – which only a dual electric motors (AWD) BEV can give. Instant throttle response with maximum torque of 670 Nm from the word GO! Just make sure no massive buffet breakfast, lunch or dinner or a tummy full of gassy sodas and fried foodstuffs should you decide to gun the Seal Performance to prove BYD’s claim of 3.8 seconds to the century. Or to sprint off the mark at a traffic light with that Model 3 Long Range AWD.
