During last weekend’s Formula E action at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, I was given an opportunity to ride along in the passenger’s seat of a brand-new BYD Seal 3.8S performance model. The whole experience lasted maybe ten minutes from getting in the car to stepping out, and the speed of the lap was definitely geared more toward impressing well-to-do normies in the luxury suites, but it was certainly eye-opening for me. It wasn’t all that long ago that BYD was a joke in the industry, but it’s become a powerhouse that shouldn’t be looked down upon. Watch your ass, Tesla, this thing is coming to eat your lunch.
The Seal 3.8S is thusly named as a result of its 3.8-second 0-60 time. It isn’t quite as quick as a Tesla Model 3 Performance yet, but the development cycle coming out of China right now is basically a vertical line, so it won’t be long. This machine has a 215 horsepower motor up front and a 308 horsepower motor at the back, good for 523 combined. That’s more than enough to have fun with, for real.
BYD made its North American debut at the Detroit Auto Show in 2009, promising to deliver a vehicle to the U.S. market by the end of 2010. Back then the automaker was shuffled into the corner of the basement of Cobo Hall, and its battery-electric e6 CUV with 205 miles of range and questionable fit and finish levels would have beaten the Nissan Leaf and Tesla Model S to market. It has been 15 years since that promise and BYD still doesn’t sell any consumer-grade vehicles in the U.S.
While the U.S. hasn’t seen the light on Chinese-built vehicles yet, BYD hasn’t spent the last decade and a half pining for U.S. distribution and customer base. Instead, it has focused its efforts on expanding its stranglehold over the automobile markets of the global south. These things are everywhere in Mexico, South America, Africa and Asia, and have begun a slow infiltration of Europe as well. Even without the U.S. market, BYD shifted 4.25 million cars in 2024. Around 1.76 million of those were battery-electric, with the remaining 2.48 million being plug-in hybrids. Astonishing numbers from a company that had no footprint outside of China as recently as a decade ago.
Once I’d put on a Formula E-branded head sock and jammed my giant melon into a brain bucket, I jumped in shotgun of the Seal. The knee-jerk reaction to the interior is that it offers a much better level of fit and finish than I’d seen at the Detroit Auto Show in 2009. Hell, this is easily on par with most luxury brands, I’d probably put it up there with a Cadillac or Audi, and certainly miles ahead of the faux-lux minimalism that Tesla offers. Good touchpoints, solid and made of good stuff. I don’t know how it’ll hold up long-term, but it looks nice in a brand-new car.
The performance lap I videoed above wasn’t exactly a barn burner, as we were stuck in line behind a visibly slower driver in the SUV-shaped Sealion model, but even packed with four full-grown adults, our Seal 3.8S was doing a good job of showing off its performance chops. With better tires and brake pads, and some free air ahead, I bet this thing could actually put down a pretty impressive lap.
For me, the most impressive thing about this car was the fact that these things were doing lap after lap to the point of pungent brake dust absolutely clogging my nostrils lined up on the grid. The drivers weren’t giving the cars a cool down at all. I’d guess at least 100 VIPs (and me) were ushered into various BYD products for these demonstration laps three at a time. These half-dozen machines must have turned 20 laps each in short succession without so much as a complaint. If they can stand up to that kind of abuse, they’re probably ready for the American consumer.
The BYD Seal 3.8S is available in Mexico with a price tag of 888,800 pesos, which is about $42,800 American. It’s competitively priced with the Tesla Model 3 Performance, but it comes with lidar-driven driver assistance systems that Teslas lack. Not a bad buy in today’s market. Of course, it could never be priced that low in the U.S. thanks to our insistence on tariffs. Does Tesla ever have to really worry about the BYD? Probably not in the protectionist U.S. market. But everywhere else? Absolutely.
