Launched in Australia last week, the BYD Seal 6 plug-in hybrid is available as either a $34,990 Essential sedan or more upmarket $39,990 Premium Touring station wagon.

Both the sedan (bottom) and wagon (below) are powered by a 1.5-litre petrol engine paired with the BYD’s DM 5.0 Super Hybrid technology. BYD claims a combined electric and petrol driving range of around 1400km.

According to the Chinese brand, the Essential sedan’s 10.08kWh battery is good for 55km of electric-only driving range while the Touring’s larger 19kWh battery ups pure EV range to 100km.

BYD Australia’s Director of Public Relations, Paul Ellis, told Whichcar by Wheels that the brand is expecting to sell more Seal 6 station wagons than sedans.

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“The Touring will be slightly ahead of the sedan in terms of volume because we will be pushing it quite a lot,” said Ellis. “Somewhere around 60:40 in favour of the Touring.”

BYD Australia believes there is a renewed appetite for station wagons and is targeting private buyers for the Touring. 

“Not everyone wants an SUV,” he said. “People that still want space, and flexibility with cargo, don’t necessarily want an SUV, so we think there’s an opportunity there to look at those customers.

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“We’re really going to target the Touring at private customers, families, and maybe even empty-nesters, those who want some flexibility with a car, but not the SUV body style, whereas with the sedan, we see that it’s having a lot of fleet opportunity with ride shares and things like that.”

Ellis confirmed that the Seal 6 Touring would only be available in its current high-spec Premium version, scotching any suggestions that a more affordable Essential variant of the wagon was on the cards for Australia.

“We have Touring in one grade only and that’s the Premium,” said Ellis, adding an emphatic “No” when asked if there was a chance an Essential Touring could join BYD’s local line-up. “The volume [of station wagon sales] doesn’t justify it,” he said.

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