KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 8 ― Sime Darby Motors (SDM) is finally ready to roll the BYD Seal into the Malaysian market. The official launch event has been scheduled to take place later this month in which the public will be able to test drive the sport electric sedan for the first time.

BYD Seal to launch at The Exchange TRX

According to the official Facebook and Instagram pages for BYD Cars Malaysia, the Malaysian launch of the BYD Seal will be at The Exchange TRX in Kuala Lumpur from February 23 to 25. It will be more than just a showcase as visitors are also to try out the new EV themselves.

To test drive BYD Seal at the TRX launch event, you can sign up via the official mini-site of the launch event. According to the registration form, there will be five time slots each day with the first session taking place at 10.00am while the last slot is at 6.00pm although the showcase area will be open till 8.00pm.

Initial BYD Seal test drive units might be limited to selected dealerships

Another interesting thing that we have noticed about the registration form for the TRX test drive session is the Preferred Dealer list was rather short. Specifically, they were only six of them and all of them were located in Klang Valley:

• BYD Ara Damansara ― Sime Darby Beyond Auto

• BYD TREC KL ― Sime Darby Beyond Auto

• BYD Glenmarie ― Sisma Auto

• BYD IOI Mall Putrajaya ― Millenium Autobeyond

• BYD Cheras ― Millenium Autobeyond

• BYD Setia Alam ― BE Drive Auto

• BYD Balakong ― Wing Hin Ventures

It is unclear why the list is so short but if we have to guess, these may be the initial batch of dealerships that will receive test drive units from BYD. That being said, you still can book the new EV from any BYD dealership throughout Malaysia according to BYD Malaysia’s official website.

Available for pre-booking since 19 January, you can reserve the new EV with a refundable booking fee of RM1,000. Sime Darby Motors has previously confirmed that BYD Seal can be obtained in three different variants.

BYD Seal Malaysia quick specs

Positioned as the entry variant for the series, the BYD Seal Dynamic comes with a rear-wheel drive setup and a single 150kW (201hp) electric motor. With 310Nm of torque available for the driver to use, this variant can go from 0 to 100km/h in 7.5 seconds.

If that’s not enough, one can also choose to step up to the BYD Seal Premium. It still features a RWD setup but this variant has a more powerful 230kW (309hp) electric motor that also delivers more torque at 360Nm of torque. The additional firepower allows this variant to achieve a quicker century sprint timing of 5.9 seconds.

At the top of the list, there is the BYD Seal Performance. Fitted with two electric motors, this all-wheel drive model can deliver a total output of 390kW (523hp) as well as 670Nm of torque and it can go from 0 to 100km/h in just 3.8 seconds.

When it comes to the battery, BYD has fitted the base Seal Dynamic with a 61.44kWh battery pack and this allows this variant to deliver a WLTP-rated range of 460km. The higher-end Seal Premium and Seal Performance are equipped with a much larger 82.56kWh battery pack.

Thus, the Seal Performance can provide a much higher range at 520km. On the other hand, the Seal Premium can go even further with up to 570km of range.

Another factor that separates these three Seal variants apart is their charging capabilities. SDM did not reveal which onboard AC charger the Malaysia units will carry, so we have to assume that they will still feature a 7kW AC charger as per the Seal that was sold in Singapore.

The Seal’s specs sheet for Singapore also said the Seal Dynamic can support DC fast charging of up to 110kW while its Premium and Performance counterparts maxed out at 150kW. Despite the differences in charging, speed, the specs sheet claimed that all three variants take around 32 minutes of DC charging time to go from 30 per cent to 80 per cent. ― SoyaCincau