BYD Seagull: China’s VW ID.1 costs only 8,900 euros

The Chinese electric car manufacturer will bring the Seagull to Europe in 2025. Stella Li, Executive Vice President of BYD, confirmed this to the Spanish website “Forococheselectricos”. “But it’s not a Seagull for the Chinese market. It will be a Seagull for the European market, a new Seagull,” the car company manager said. This means that the entry-level electric model will not only be bigger, but also more expensive than in its home country. In Brazil and Mexico, BYD already sells the model in familiar form – but under the name Dolphin Mini.

In China Seagull is a real price breaker. Especially after a new version of the small electric car hit the market for the current model year. The so-called Glory Edition is available from 69,800 yuan, which is equivalent to around 9,000 euros. Therefore, BYD is further increasing the battle of the small electric car at an affordable price. Compared to the last version of the BYD Seagull, the base price dropped by around 500 euros. Taking into account the previous discount, the Glory Edition is around 1,150 euros cheaper.

This is how the small car got its name

When naming its new electric vehicles, BYD was inspired by the (aquatic) animal world. It started with Seals, and now there are Dolphins and Sea Lions. At the Shanghai Auto Show, which was held from April 18 to 27, 2023, this so-called Sea Series became a quartet: Seagull was joined by seagull. This gave the Mercedes 300 SL its nickname in the English-speaking world because its open doors are reminiscent of the outstretched wings of a seagull (“gullwing doors”).

Of course, the Seagull, which is the basis of BYD’s E-Platform 3.0, makes no such waste. The small electric car has four standard doors and a large rear hatch. It has a length of 3.78 meters, a width of 1.72 meters and a height of 1.54 meters with a wheelbase of 2.50 meters. Standard specifications of the small car that make up the Seagull BYD electric car. Dolphin, Seal and Sea Lion sit on it.

With a sodium ion battery

BYD’s Seagull has an independent design in which the front and upper parts are short. There is a large air intake on the front apron, which is unusual for an electric car. Also unusual: a one-handed wiper. Plastic elements are found not only around the wheels, but also on the side skirts and on the C-pillar, which seems to separate the lower part of the body from the roof. The shoulder line bends towards the rear after the B-pillar. The spoiler extends further back, while the horizontal taillights are connected to each other by a narrow strip of light.

BYD offers the Seagull with one engine variant: 55 kW (75 hp). A second one with 75 kW (102 hp) was originally planned. On the other hand, there are two battery options. The larger one with 38 kilowatt-hours should enable a range of 405 kilometers based on China’s CLTC driving cycle and have lithium iron phosphate (LFP) cells. BYD specifies 30 kilowatt hours and a range of 305 kilometers for the small energy storage device. According to CarNewsChina, this is a sodium ion battery that does not contain cobalt, nickel and lithium raw materials and therefore promises advantages in terms of cost and impact on the environment. The site also reported that BYD had already received 10,000 orders in the first 24 hours of its launch.

The lowest cockpit

Not much was known about the interior during the Shanghai Auto Show. BYD’s Seagull has four seats and two monitors. A small one sits as a driver information display behind the steering wheel, which is slightly affixed to the bottom. There’s a tablet-sized infotainment touchscreen in the middle of the dashboard. BYD has placed haptic buttons for some key features between them and the central air vents.