If there’s one Chinese brand that you’re destined to hear an increasing amount from in the coming years, it’s BYD. The company sold a record 4.27 million new energy vehicles in 2024, 1.76 million of which were battery electric, only slightly behind Tesla’s 1.79 million. BYD has been selling cars in Europe since 2022, and in the UK from 2023. The latest vehicle to hit Britain is the BYD Sealion 7. It’s another midsized SUV, BYD’s first in Europe. I took it for a spin to find out if it has enough to stand out in an overcrowded category.
BYD Sealion 7 Joins Growing Electric Range
BYD’s initial all-electric cars in the European market were the ATTO3 (a smaller SUV), Seal (sedan) and the Dolphin (a compact hatchback). Considering the value of the midsized SUV market globally, it’s a surprise that the Sealion 7 wasn’t the first model to hit the market from BYD. However, it arrives in an already crowded space, even if we just include the Chinese options. There’s the XPENG G6 in this class, the Leapmotor C10, and Deepal S07. Even Omoda’s E5 and the MGS5 EV could be competitors at the low end of the price bracket. Higher up the scale is Zeekr’s forthcoming 7X.
Of course, the most obvious comparison outside Chinese imports is the Tesla Model Y, which was just refreshed. The Sealion 7 is more in the Model Y’s range because of its price, performance and battery capacity. Whatever your feelings about the Tesla brand right now, its Model Y has always been a tough act to beat, with class-leading interior space, range and performance. This is the most likely car you will be considering at the same time as the Sealion 7.
The BYD Sealion 7 compares reasonably well with the Tesla Model Y in terms of powertrain. The basic Comfort model comes with an 82.5kWh battery and 312PS motor driving the rear wheels. The Design AWD partners the same battery with an all-wheel drive system delivering 530PS. The Excellence AWD uses the same motor but with a 91.3kWh battery. There aren’t any trim subdivisions of these three versions, other than a few optional extras. Equipment is generous across the board, with a panoramic sunroof, heated front and rear seats, a 360-degree parking camera and adaptive crise control as standard. Aside from the powertrain variations, there’s not much to differentiate between the three versions, apart from 20in wheels for the all-wheel drive cars and a head-up display plus leather seats for the Excellence. Whichever version you go for, the specification is high.
BYD Sealion 7: Quality Exterior And Interior
The Sealion 7 looks nice enough, with a grille-less tapered nose that indicates this is a pure BEV platform. The angular lights provide a serious, purposeful appearance. The rear slopes slightly, in a nod to the coupe SUV fashion, but this is still more of a regular SUV. The wheel arches are somewhat squared off with rugged plastic surrounds to resist damage. Overall, this is a reasonably attractive car but not overtly eye-catching.
The interior is more of an indication that the Sealion 7 is a quality vehicle, with particularly comfortable and attractively upholstered front seats. These look sporty and have high side bolsters, which keep you firmly in place during vigorous driving. There’s a high central console with built-in wireless smartphone charging, generously sized cupholders and storage under the integrated armrest.
Rear space is excellent, with plenty of legroom and headroom, accentuated by the panoramic sunroof. The outer seats are as attractively stitched as the front ones and equally comfortable; the middle seat will be more cramped for an adult over an extended period of time but you can pull the seatback down to create an armrest with cupholders if there are only two in the back.
Overall, the BYD Sealion 7 interior has a premium feel, which is indicative of the great leaps forward Chinese cars have made in the last the few years. The Deepal S07 punches above its weight in terms of interior quality for the money, and the XPENG G6 while a bit more functional is still well designed. In general, interiors are where Chinese cars are showing the most improvement, if you look back to what it was like inside the original MG ZS EV or MG5 EV (both great value cars). BMW still wears the crown for interior quality, but Chinese brands are catching up fast.
The BYD Sealion 7’s tech and cabin experience are also impressive. The steering wheel has plenty of solid-feeling function buttons and traditional stalks, but climate control is almost exclusively operated via the Sealion 7’s 15.6in infotainment screen. This has a trick up its sleeve like the ATTO3. It can rotate from portrait to landscape. This is more of a preference thing than having any different functionality in either orientation. Overall, the menu speed and layout make operations easy to find and smooth to operate.
Safety tech is comprehensive, including front and rear parking sensors, a 360-degree camera system, blind spot detection and adaptive cruise control. There’s lane centering (although not quite autonomous highway driving in the UK), automatic emergency braking, and cross traffic systems that alert you when travelling forwards and apply brakes when reversing. It’s a comprehensive list of driver assistances.
While rear passenger space is great, this hasn’t been achieved at the expense of rear cargo space. The basic luggage capacity is 520 liters, which rises to 1,789 liters with the rear seats down. The Tesla Model Y offers more but the Sealion 7 still has plenty of space for shopping, family trips, or picking up materials from the DIY store. There’s a 58-liter frunk as well, which is usefully large. The Sealion 7 can tow 750kg braked, with the AWD cars also able to manage 1,500kg braked. However, this requires a third-party OEM-certified towbar.
Driving The BYD Sealion 7
The version of the Sealion 7 I drove was the dual motor Excellence. It’s more fun than many in this class, with plenty of power available. Both AWD cars take 4.5 seconds to hit 62mph, making them slightly faster than the Tesla Model Y Long Range (although the current Launch Edition has the Acceleration Boost to make it quicker). The Comfort is still quite fast, taking 6.7 seconds to hit 62mph.
Until I get my hands on the new Model Y, I can’t compare the driving experience to that, but the performance of the Sealion 7 AWD is on par with the old Model Y dual-motor Long Range, and the ride quality better, although this is purportedly an area where Tesla has improved. The Sealion 7 isn’t quite a sporty drive, but it is comfortably quick for an overtake and you can throw this heavy SUV around a bit if you want (it weighs between 2.2 and 2.4 tons, depending on the version).
Range is decent if not class leading across all Sealion 7 models. The Comfort version has a 300-mile WLTP rating, which drops to 283 miles for the Design AWD. Thanks to its larger pack, the Excellence AWD goes furthest of all, at 312 miles. However, we’ve had smaller BEV SUVs capable of this kind of range with smaller batteries for years, and the Tesla Model Y Long Range RWD goes a lot further with a smaller battery.
DC charging is quick, with 150kW maximum for the 82.5kWh pack and 230kW for the 91.3kWh unit. This means rapid charging from 10-80% takes 32 minutes for the smaller battery and 24 minutes for the larger one, giving the Excellence AWD particularly strong long-distance potential, although the other two cars will be fine too.
BYD’s warranty is generous too. The basic guarantee is for 6 years or 93,750 miles, with the drive motor and controller for the same mileage but extended to 8 years. The battery also has an 8-year warranty but for 125,000 miles and 70% capacity. It’s worth noting that BYD uses Lithium Iron Phosphate (LFP) batteries in all its cars, where other manufacturers use this chemistry only in cheaper models. LFP technology tends to be less energy dense than Nickel Manganese Cobalt (NMC) but is also safer and can endure as much as three times as many charge-discharge cycles. So you can be confident the Sealion 7 will maintain its range over years of use.
BYD Sealion 7: Can It Compete?
The BYD Sealion 7 is a quality, high-performance package with competitive features in most areas. However, it’s not as cheap as you might expect from a Chinese challenger brand. It starts at £47,000 ($60,500) for the Comfort version, £52,000 ($67,000) for the Design AWD, and £59,000 ($76,000) for the Excellence AWD, which puts it very squarely up against the Tesla Model Y. You still get more range, performance and cargo capacity for your money (at the moment) with the Y but there could be trouble ahead for the Tesla brand and you might be considering other options, which puts the Sealion 7 well into the picture.
Predicting what will happen in the automotive market amidst the global ructions caused by the US Trump administration is increasingly difficult. However, in the UK market at least, BYD has plenty of potential, and it’s likely to continue to do well in Europe too. The BYD Sealion 7 takes the company into this lucrative, high-volume segment of the car market. Next up will be the Dolphin Surf, a small car targeting the low-cost end of business. We’re probably going to see a lot more BYD-branded vehicles on UK and European roads over the next few years.
