With small cars like the BYD Seagull people always in their minds have doubts about how safe they are. Thanks to the official WeChat account of China Automotive Evaluation we now know the BYD Seagull recently completed evaluation in accordance with the “Special Evaluation Regulations for Micro Electric Vehicles”, and the evaluation results have now been announced after being reviewed by the Automobile Evaluation Management Center of China Automotive Center.
Not only does this testing tell us more about the safety of the BYD Seagull but it also gives us more information about how the car’s range and charging perform under different temperature conditions.
Although there is still no official C-NCAP score Autohome reports that the recent tests were based on the framework of C-NCAP and CCRT evaluation systems, and are mainly used for professional testing and rating of micro electric vehicles, including three categories: use safety, battery life charging, and collision safety.
Crucially the BYD Seagull received a 3A rating of excellence in the test with an average score rate of 92.2%. The score consists of three elements: safety of use which received 91.8%, battery life charging 90.3% and collision safety 94.5%. Safety of use consists of at least five criterion. First of all the BYD Seagull is 100% safe to charge, also the given distance for braking in the wet is 34.1 meters and for purpose of the test that seems to be the distance required to go from 80 km/h to 20 km/h.
Tests were also carried out to measure range at different temperatures. The BYD Seagull has a nominal range of 405 km using the CLTC cycle. However tests showed that this reduced to 394 km at 23°C. At low temperatures the loss was far worse, the car showed range of 243 km at -7°C, and at this temperature AC charging speed was 6.98 kW/h.
Crash safety results gave the BYD Seagull scores of 78.79%, 100% and 87.10% respectively in the frontal collision, side collision and whiplash tests.
Since the BYD Seagull launched last year the car has become the brand’s best seller. The 2024 version, the Honor Edition, launched on March 6 with a total of three versions priced from 69,800 to 85,800 yuan (9,700 to 11,950 USD). Power comes from a 55 kW motor and the BYD Seagull comes with a choice of 30.08 kWh and 38.88 kWh battery packs, giving CLTC ranges of 305 km and 405 km respectively. Batteries are of course the famous Blade battery.
