BYD Seal Euro NCAP crash tests yield 89% in adult and 87% in child occupant protection along with 82% in vulnerable road users and 76% in safety assist
The Chinese EV juggernaut, BYDhas been on the verge of expanding its electric vehicle portfolio in India. Starting with e6 eMPV for commercial segment, BYD has expanded quite a bit with e6 for private buyers and Atto 3 eSUV. The third vehicle for BYD in India is Seal sedan, which has recently scored an impressive 5 stars in Euro NCAP crash tests.
India-bound BYD Seal scores 5 stars in Euro NCAP
Euro NCAP crash-tested the new BYD Seal electric sedan through their rigorous protocols. Result of this was an impressive 5 Stars crash safety rating. Tested car was BYD Seal ‘Design’ trim 4X2 LHD model. It is a four-door saloon (sedan) weighing 2091 kg in total. Tested model came equipped with front and side airbags, missing a knee airbag.
Kit like seat belt reminders, seat belt pre-tensioner, child presence detectors and load limiters were standard fitment. Active safety kit included multiple ADAS features like auto braking 9front and rear), speed assistance, lane assistance and fatigue detection, among others were part of standard fitment as well.
For adult occupant crash tests, Euro NCAP tested BYD Seal electric sedan for frontal impact, lateral impact and rear impact. The car scored 13.5/16 points in frontal impact, 16/16 for lateral impact, 3.7 /4 points for rear impact and 2.5/4 points for rescue extrication. All of this combined, BYD Seal bagged a total of 35.8 points, which turns out to be 89% in adult occupant protection.
Where child protection is concerned, BYD Seal scored 24/24 points in crash tests based on 6 and 10 year old children. 7/13 points were awarded for safety features and 12/12 points for CRS installation check tests. With 43 points, Euro NCAP awarded 87% positive crash results in child protection.
In vulnerable road users test, BYD Seal scored a total of 51.7 points resulting in 82% and a total of 13.8 points resulting in 76% score in Safety systems. All of these combined, BYD has awarded BYD Seal electric sedan a total of 5 Stars, with vehicle structure proving stable in the event of an unfortunate crash.
When will it launch in India?
BYD Seal is particularly important for India as the company has already debuted in India at 2023 Auto Expo. Seal even went live on BYD India’s official site. A large hero section of BYD India’s website shows impressive headline figures for Seal sedan.
Speaking of headline figures, BYD Seal can hit 100 km/h from a standstill, in just 3.8 seconds, which is upper-tier sports car territory. Along with that, 700 km of range from a single charge, 50:50 weight distribution and 0.219 Cd air drag coefficient.
Performance metrics like this are possible from the top-spec 82.5 kWh battery equipped model with dual motor layout boasting 530 bhp and 670 Nm along with AWD. There is a lower-spec model with a 61.4 kWh battery and single motor RWD architecture with 204 bhp.
In Thailandbase BYD Seal starts from 1.32 million Baht (Rs. 30 lakh). When launched in India in 2024, we could only expect the higher-spec vehicle, costing around Rs. 60 lakh and rivalling the likes of Kia EV6 and BMW i4. We hope BYD also launch Seagull hatchback in India.
