Beijing motor show 2026 saw a lot of new electric cars and battery tech, but the new BYD Seal 08 was one of the more interesting.
This 5.15m long saloon is the flagship model in the Chinese manufacturer’s range. It’s bigger than the BYD Seal that we get in Europe and the UK, and it gets the company’s latest tech including 800V ‘flash’ charging that can achieve a 10 – 70% battery top-up in as little as five minutes.
That’s especially impressive when you consider that its second-generation ‘BYD Blade’ LFP battery is big enough to deliver up to 559 miles (900km) of official range. Even with 693hp from dual electric motors, which can power the Seal 08 from 0-62mph in 3.3 seconds.
Okay, I’ll admit – there are some caveats to this story! That claimed range is the Chinese-rated range, which is more optimistic than the WLTP range figures that we use in Europe. So if the BYD Seal 08 were to go on sale in the UK, it’d most likely manage closer to 559 miles of range. Still good enough to worry the new Mercedes C-Class Electric and BMW i3, though, eh? Basically, you can think of the Seal 08 as BYD’s reinvention of the Tesla Model S.
Mind you, of course, those charging speeds require compatible flash chargers of around 1,350 – 1,500kW (which you might also see referred to as 1.5 megawatts, or 1.5 MW). Currently, in Europe the fastest chargers you’ll find are around 400- to 450kW. So, you can see the problem?
Even so, it was really noticeable that manufacturers – including Geely and battery manufacturer CATL – were showing off really long range batteries and a number of these flash charger technologies. And with these names being some of the biggest in the world for battery- and EV manufacturing, it seems very likely that we’ll start to see these ultra long-range and flash charging cars arriving in Europe soon.
Will the BYD Seal 08 be coming to the UK?
There are no plans currently. But if there’s any manufacturer in the world who can move quickly and get cars on sale in Europe within a few months (or even weeks) of deciding that there’s enough demand, it’s BYD. This is a manufacturer who makes almost every part of the car itself, including the battery, microprocessors and more, so it’s got full control over production – and can act very quickly if it wants to ramp up numbers and ship them to Europe. Oh, BYD owns its own car transporter ships, too, so it’s really got the whole supply chain sorted.
Probably the most important thing is that, with cars like these now going on sale in China (the Seal 08 goes on sale in China this year), it’s very likely that the tech will trickle into Europe and the UK sooner rather than later. And when the cars arrive, the infrastructure that’s needed to support this kind of charging will also start to follow.
So here’s hoping that the BYD Seal 08 saloon – complete with flash charging and ultra-long range – makes it over here, too.
The Beijing motor show is one of the biggest motor shows in the world – and we went along to see it! 