Just months after a new Seagull debuted at Auto China 2026, BYD may be producing yet another iteration of its famed subcompact hatchback. However, this latest EV may not fall under that size category anymore.
Documents from China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology revealed that a longer Seagull could be in the pipeline for BYD. How much longer, you ask? This Seagull measures 4,205mm in length—a full 425mm extension from the current model.
That may not sound like much, but that is a sizeable increase. It makes it longer than the Dolphin, and about 105mm shorter than the Toyota Yaris Cross. This Seagull is definitely not in the same territory anymore.
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Other dimensions include a width of 1,810mm, a height of 1,570mm, and a wheelbase of 2,650mm. Interestingly, this new Seagull is a tad smaller, as the presently available version stands at 1,580mm tall.
The Chinese government’s listing did not offer any information on the battery and driving range, but its power output is rated at 127hp—an increase from 74hp. The version of the Seagull that debuted earlier this year sported a 60kWh pack, boasting about 500km in driving range. Given that this new hatchback has a lot more real estate, we wouldn’t be surprised if BYD strapped an even bigger battery to this hatchback.
Your next questions would probably be: Why? What was wrong with the smaller Seagull? If we had to give our two cents, it looks like the Chinese market is moving further away from subcompact EVs. The Geely EX2 offers a comparable form factor and was recognized as the overall best-selling car in China last year. And since then, we’ve seen direct competitors from Chery and GAC.
Notably, all of those vehicles are priced similarly to the Seagull. Perhaps BYD is now trying to catch up to the craze, while also attempting to keep its hatchback accessibly priced. There is no LiDAR sensor, and the garnishes are decently simple. If an official launch is indeed in the works, we may even see this version in the Philippines to compete against those aforementioned hatches.
