How to Read Seal Range in Heat and Cold

Seal range in heat and cold is a reading problem before it is a driving problem. On 19 February 2026, BYD UK published model-year 2026 SEAL figures that still start with an 82.5 kWh Blade lithium-iron-phosphate pack and WLTP combined electric range of 354 miles on Design and 323 miles on Excellence. The same note lists a 150 kW direct-current peak and a 10 to 80 percent charge window of 37 minutes. Those sentences are laboratory and infrastructure claims with a market and a date. They are not a winter test, not a summer test, and not a promise that a cluster will show the same miles after a night at minus five or a day at forty. This article does not invent a seasonal road result. It shows how to keep the official pair, how to log weather against energy use, and how to refuse a seller who converts one cycle into another. AutoCN will help you keep the labels on the numbers. It will not drive your route for you.

Start with the labelled pair, not with a story

Design and Excellence share the same published pack energy in the UK 2026 note and do not share the same combined WLTP miles. The all-wheel-drive Excellence car is the shorter official combined figure. That is the first seasonal lesson: drivetrain and test configuration already move the label before weather arrives. If a quotation shows one mile figure for “the Seal,” ask which trim sat in the test and which wheels it wore. A headline that only says “up to 354 miles” is a Design combined line from that UK note, not a universal Seal number.

BYD’s own UK specification leaflets, including the model-year 2026 UK leaflet, repeat the usual WLTP caution: the values come from the World Harmonized Light Vehicle Test Procedure under standard conditions, and actual range and consumption vary with weather, traffic, load, and driving behaviour. That caution is the official winter-and-summer sentence. It does not publish a percentage haircut for frost or for air conditioning. Anyone who sells you “minus 30 percent in winter” as a BYD UK fact is not reading the leaflet. They are guessing. Write the guess in a separate cell, or delete it.

City miles and combined miles are not interchangeable

UK Seal leaflets print more than one WLTP consumption line. Combined miles are the figure most brochures lead with. City miles, where printed, describe a different portion of the same laboratory family. Do not average them. Do not use city miles to advertise a motorway winter trip. Do not use combined miles to advertise a short urban summer hop as if the label were a street measurement. If the leaflet in the car is torn and only one line remains, record that one line and mark the others as missing. A missing city figure is not a licence to invent one from the combined figure.

What heat and cold actually change, without a fake test

Cold weather raises the energy needed to warm the cabin and, on many electric cars, to bring the pack into an efficient temperature band before a fast charge. Hot weather raises the energy needed to cool the cabin and can keep the thermal system busy after a fast charge. Those are physical directions, not Seal-specific percentages. The 19 February 2026 UK note does not publish a winter range and does not publish a summer range. It also does not, in the passages used here, state whether a heat pump is standard on Design or Excellence. If winter cabin heat matters to the buyer, ask for the thermal-equipment line on that VIN. Do not write “the Seal has a heat pump” because another BYD nameplate does.

A practical seasonal file has four columns: date, outdoor temperature at the start, trip type, and kilowatt-hours used, with the starting and ending state of charge. After ten similar commutes in January and ten in July, you have a use band for that driver and that car. After one screenshot of a guess-o-meter, you have a picture. Fleets that skip the log and argue about “real-world range” are arguing about memory. AutoCN will not replace a log with a memory.

Charging windows move with temperature too

BYD’s UK leaflets warn that charging times vary with battery temperature, charger specification, and state of charge, and that the published peak needs a CCS charger above a stated power and voltage plus a suitable ambient temperature. The 37-minute 10 to 80 percent line in the 19 February 2026 note is therefore a conditioned-window claim, not a frost-morning claim. A winter plan that assumes every stop is 37 minutes will run late. A summer plan that assumes the pack will always accept 150 kW after a fast drive into a 50 kW post will also run late. Photograph the inlet. Read the charger’s delivered kilowatts, not the post’s nameplate, if you need a file.

Preconditioning, where the car offers it, is a menu item to photograph, not a feature to invent. If the UK car in front of you can warm or cool the pack on the way to a charger, write the menu name. If it cannot, write that it cannot. Do not copy a preconditioning sentence from another model year or another market.

How to refuse illegal conversions

Do not turn 354 WLTP miles into a CLTC kilometre figure and call it equivalent. Do not turn 323 miles into an EPA mile figure. Do not take a China-market Seal sheet, if one appears, and overwrite the UK pair. The cycles are different procedures. AutoCN’s earlier range-education pieces exist for that reason: keep the label, keep the market, keep the date. A buyer who needs an EPA or a local-cycle number must find a first-party page that prints that cycle for that trim. If no such page exists, the cell stays blank.

The same rule applies to “miles per kilowatt-hour” marketing. The UK leaflets print consumption in miles per kilowatt-hour on the WLTP combined and city lines. Those are laboratory consumption labels. They are useful for comparing two official Seal trims on the same cycle. They are not a summer holiday average. If a fleet wants a planning factor, build it from the four-column log, and print the weather band next to it.

Export cars need a third row

A Seal that never lived as a UK retail car may carry another energy, another wheel, or another software limiter. Create a third row: destination rule and local cycle, if any. Leave it empty until a regulator or a local distributor writes a sentence. Charging-standard legality, winter tyre rules, and cabin-preheat legality are destination questions. The UK WLTP pair cannot answer them. AutoCN’s information centre can store the empty cell. It cannot fill it with a guess.

A seasonal checklist that does not pretend to be a test

Before you argue about winter or summer range, collect these items. The energy label or leaflet that belongs to the VIN, with the cycle printed. Tyre size. Drive type, Design or Excellence or the local equivalent. A photograph of the charge inlet. A screenshot of the software version. A written plan for the coldest and hottest months the buyer actually faces, including whether the car will sit outside. Then decide whether the official combined miles, minus an unstated weather band, still cover the longest regular trip with a reserve the buyer accepts. If the longest trip only works on the city WLTP line, the plan is already tight before frost arrives.

If you are comparing two Seals, compare logs, not adjectives. A car that spent January on a short urban route will show a kinder cluster than a car that spent January on an unheated motorway. That difference is use, not chemistry. The 82.5 kWh line in the UK note does not change because the cluster did.

Frequently Asked Questions

Did AutoCN run a Seal winter and summer range test?

No. This article reads the official UK 2026 labels and the leaflet caution about weather. It does not publish a measured seasonal result. If you need a test, run a logged route on the VIN you will own, and keep temperature, speed, and load in the file. Do not buy a percentage that has no date and no route.

Why is Excellence listed with fewer WLTP miles if the pack energy is the same?

The 19 February 2026 BYD UK note prints 354 miles combined for Design and 323 miles combined for Excellence on the same 82.5 kWh published pack. Excellence is the all-wheel-drive UK car in that story. Configuration, not a seasonal story, is the first reason the labels differ. Confirm the drive type on the plate before you reuse either mile figure.

Can I plan every winter charge as 37 minutes?

No. The 37-minute 10 to 80 percent line is a published window that BYD ties to a capable charger and suitable temperature. A cold pack, a weaker post, or a high starting state of charge can stretch the stop. Read delivered power on the day. Keep a buffer in the timetable.

Does a larger 2026 boot change range?

BYD UK said the 2026 UK boot is 485 litres inside the same 4.8-metre footprint. Volume is not a consumption figure. Load in that boot will change energy use. An empty larger tub does not rewrite 354 or 323 WLTP miles. Weigh what you carry. Do not treat litres as kilometres.

Should I convert the UK miles into kilometres for a non-UK buyer?

You may convert units for communication, but you must keep the WLTP label and the UK market on the number. Do not present the converted figure as a local-cycle result. If the destination uses another official cycle, find that cycle’s first-party page or leave the cell blank.

Keep the lab sheet, then keep the weather log

The Seal range file that survives heat and cold is narrow. It starts with 82.5 kWh, 354 WLTP combined miles on UK Design, 323 on UK Excellence, a 150 kW peak, and a 37-minute 10 to 80 percent window, all dated 19 February 2026 for BYD UK. It then adds a use log with temperature and trip type. It never replaces the first file with the second. Sellers who offer a single “real-world” mile number are asking you to throw both files away. Keep them. AutoCN’s reviews and contact route can help you store the pair. They cannot warm the pack on a January morning, and they cannot invent a summer test that this page did not run.