GR Corolla vs BYD Sealion 6

The GR Corolla, is still better than buying an EV or a Plugin hybrid, due to 3, unbeatable reasons. Let's compare it to the best-selling Plugin hybrid of twenty-twenty-four, the Sea-lion 6 DM-i. The first big advantage, is the weight. It is a whopping 600 kilos lighter than the Sea-lion 6. This makes it almost 1 second quicker, to a hundred k-p-h, in spite of having 24 horsepower less than the plugin hybrid. But that's just one advantage of being light-weight. An even bigger advantage than performance, is dynamics. The handling, the braking, the agility, the body control, even it's steering response, just the overall effervescence, and enthusiasm, with which the Gazoo Racing Corolla, carries itself, is far superior than the BYD. The sheer driving pleasure, that you will get to experience, in the next 5 to 7 years, will remain etched in your memory, for the rest of your life! In terms of practicality, it is certainly less spacious than the sea-lion. But the point here is that, it does not force any compromises on practicality, like the sports cars do. You still have 4 doors, room for four passengers and even a fifth on occasion, and a hatchback, which opens up, to a 215 litre boot, but it can expand to a thousand liters, by folding the rear seat.

That brings us to the question of money. What's the cost of enjoying the crucial years of your driving life, going to be, versus a plugin hybrid. Well, lets start with the price. The GR Corolla, is fifteen thousand aussie dollars more expensive, than the top-end, sea-lion 6. Plus, the Sea-lion will save you around fifteen hundred dollars every year, thanks to 90 percent of your driving being done on pure EV mode. But the biggest loss on cars today, is not the fuel cost. It is the depreciation. And this is where the Corolla, holds a huge advantage. Even after 7 years, it will hold more than half of its value. On the other hand, plugin hybrids have already started building a great track record, for retaining their residual value well, in the used car market. All said and done, you will have to shell out, 250 dollars extra on the GR Corolla, every month, compared to the Sea-lion, which itself will cost you a thousand dollars to own and run. Now, there is a cheeky workaround to this, which is buying yourself a two year old GR Corolla. They are available for 55 grand, with around 10 thousand kilometers on the clock. That way you can keep your monthly payments plus fuel bills, just below the thousand dollar mark. In another year or so, BYD will be unleashing their new generation plug-in hybrids, based on the Haan L & Tang L platform. After that it will become far more difficult to justify, buying a Gazoo Racing Corolla over a plug-in hybrid. Even today, a comparison of features, will make a GR fan slump with disappointment. Check out the pinned comment if you want to subject yourself to that horror!