BYD Sealion 7 Review & Prices

The BYD Sealion 7 is a spacious SUV with a slightly sloping roofline that gives it a hint of sporty design appeal. BYD has made a splash with the Seal and Dolphin, which are genuinely good electric cars, but the Seal U SUV is rather disappointing – and spoiler alert, the Sealion 7 falls into the latter camp. It’s a bit like ordering something different from your usual at a restaurant and wishing you’d just gone for what you know.

If you want to stick with something a bit more familiar, there are dozens of similarly priced electric SUVs you could choose from, many of which are excellent – the Kia EV6, Tesla Model Y, Hyundai Ioniq 5 and Peugeot E-3008 among them.

Things get off to a fairly good start because while the Sealion 7 isn’t exactly handsome, it’s smart enough, with BYD’s signature headlight design that features daytime running lights that dip down towards the bumper, which has thick, sculpted lines. At the rear you get a chunky spoiler and a full-width rear light design.

Inside things look pretty good, with lots of flowing lines and a large panel that runs the width of the car similar to a Volkswagen Tiguan. You also get a big screen that’s sharp, responsive and fairly easy to use, with genuinely brilliant voice recognition. It can rotate 180 degrees too, though this is a bit of a gimmick you’ll probably only use to impress your mates.

BYD Sealion 7: electric range, battery and charging data

Range: 283-312 miles
Battery size: 82.5kWh / 91.3kWh
Max charge speed: 150kW / 230kW
Charge time DC: 32mins, 10-80%, 150kW / 24mins, 10-80%, 230kW
Charge port location: Right side rear
Power outputs: 313hp / 530hp

However, material quality isn’t quite befitting of a car at this price. It doesn’t necessarily feel cheap (flimsy, awkwardly positioned door handles aside) but there are a few too many shiny plastics. It certainly lacks the character of a Peugeot E-3008, for example.

Much more impressive is the space on offer. The front is fairly roomy with useful storage, but the back seats are cavernous. There’s plenty of room for two and you’ll have no issue fitting a child seat – though while there’s enough space to carry three, the middle seat backrest pushes into your back, so passengers will likely start complaining before you’ve even pulled away.

The boot is a decent size, too – at 520 litres it’s similar to what most alternatives offer, save the van-like Tesla Model Y. Its capacity includes deep underfloor storage, so the main boot area is perhaps not as huge as you might expect, but there should still be enough space for most families, and there’s a front boot too.

You have a choice of two batteries, with the larger one offering a range of up to 312 miles according to official tests – though we saw pretty poor efficiency during our test, which would drop the real world range to around 200 miles… At least the motors are powerful and smooth, which makes swift motorway progress a breeze.

It’s a shame, then, that at higher speeds the BYD Sealion 7 is a rather noisy place to be. From the driver’s seat you can hear the wind whooshing around the front pillars, while in the back there’s a lot of roar from the tyres.

The suspension needs refining, too. You bounce around a lot over bumps, and on a poorly paved British B-road this is likely to become tiresome quickly. On top of this the steering is too twitchy, so it’s hard to make smooth progress. Pretty much all of the alternatives listed above are more refined at speed and more fun to drive on a twisty road than the Sealion 7.

If you’re looking for a left-field choice, there’s some enticing technology and loads of space for families, but there are plenty of other options that offer better interior quality with a more enjoyable drive for the cash.

Interested? Check out the latest BYD deals available through Carwow. You can also browse used BYDs from our network of trusted dealers, and when it’s time to sell your current car, Carwow can help with that, too.

You might forgive the BYD Sealion 7 for its foibles if it was considerably cheaper than alternatives, but it’s actually priced pretty much in line with those other cars.

Although UK pricing hasn’t been confirmed, BYD is expecting the range to start at just over £45,000 in Comfort trim, and just under £50,000 for the mid-spec Design, with top-spec Excellence pricing to be confirmed later (expect around £55,000).

That £45,000 starting point is in line with the Peugeot E-3008, Kia EV6, Tesla Model Y and Volkswagen ID5. It’s a touch more expensive than an entry-level Hyundai Ioniq 5 and a touch cheaper than a Lexus RZ.

Smooth motors make inner-city progress fuss-free, but the Sealion 7 struggles with bumps and it’s noisy inside

In town

The BYD Sealion 7 is easy to drive around town thanks to its smooth electric motors. The throttle is nicely calibrated so it’s easy to pull away smoothly, unlike many EVs that can be a bit jumpy as soon as you touch the pedal. The brakes are similarly smooth with lots of travel that makes them easy to judge; again, many electric cars have grabby brakes that are difficult to get to grips with, though regenerative braking isn’t particularly strong and there’s no one-pedal system, so you always need the brakes to come to a stop.

Unfortunately the suspension doesn’t deal with bumps too well, so you’re jostled about a bit – likely to be even more of a problem on Britain’s broken roads than it was on our relatively smooth route around Frankfurt.

You sit (very) high, which means visibility is good out of the front, but rear visibility is poor because of chunky pillars and a small rear window. You do at least get some cameras that cover your blind spots to make maneuvering easier.

On the motorway

While it’s fine to drive around town, the BYD Sealion feels more compromised at high speeds. As soon as you get up to about 60mph there’s a lot of wind noise rushing around the front pillars, and if you sit in the back there’s a lot of tyre roar to contend with. You also notice a deep, bassy boom over bumps, which also tend to send a judder through the cabin.

At least its powerful motors mean that motorway slip roads and overtakes are a breeze. EVs typically run out of puff at higher speeds, but squeeze the throttle at 60mph and you get a noticeable surge to 70mph, which is welcome.

Annoyingly the steering is rather hyperactive, with the car reacting to tiny inputs, which means you feel like you’re constantly adjusting to stay centred in your lane; coupled with the intrusive assistance technology, it means you can never quite relax into a long drive.

On a twisty road

Out in the countryside the disappointing suspension causes some issues again, because uneven roads unsettle the car quite a bit, which doesn’t give you much confidence to enjoy a twisty road. It doesn’t help that you sit so high, because you feel the car’s body leaning more than you would if you could sit a bit lower. The brakes are less intuitive at higher speeds too, because there’s not much feedback through the pedal, so you’re not totally sure how much pressure you’re applying, making smooth progress a bit of a guessing game. If you want an electric SUV with more twisty road appeal, the Ford Mustang Mach-e is a good place to start.

Really spacious interior and a useful boot, though the driving position isn’t great

Space up front is good – you don’t feel too cramped, but the BYD Sealion 7 doesn’t feel intimidatingly large on the road, either. The only real complaint is that you sit very high, even in the seat’s lowest setting, so finding the ideal driving position can be tricky, even though the steering wheel has quite a bit of adjustment.

Storage is good – the door bins will fit a small bottle and some odds and ends, and there are two cupholders with an adjustable floor to help grab longer bottles. The space under the armrest is pretty big, and there’s another area beneath the centre console to hide a small bag.

Space in the back seats

Probably the highlight of the BYD Sealion 7 is just how roomy it is in the back seats. You get acres of legroom and headroom, and the seats recline, which makes it feel pretty luxurious. The other positive is that this means there’s plenty of room for a big child seat, and the ISOFIX points are easy to get to. There’s space for three, but the middle seat is really uncomfortable thanks to the way the armrest juts out into your back, so you wouldn’t want to sit there for long.

Again, storage is fine. You get pockets in the seatbacks ahead of you, with space for larger items as well as smaller pockets for phones and snacks. There are two USB-C slots between the front seats, though they’re hidden inside a flip-down cover that looks like it might have been home to an ashtray in a former life.

Boot space

At 520 litres the BYD Sealion 7’s boot is a useful size, even if that capacity does put it at the lower end of average compared with alternatives. It’s bigger than the 490 litres in the Kia EV6, around the same as the BMW iX2 (525 litres) and Lexus RZ (522 litres), and less than the Peugeot E-3008 (588 litres) and class-leading Tesla Model Y (854 litres).

Some of its capacity comes from the large underfloor storage area beneath the main boot floor, which is good for hiding lesser-used items or valuables. There’s not too much of a lip to lift items over, and you get some netting to one side to keep small things from rolling around. Want somewhere else to hide your stuff? The BYD Sealion gets a front boot, too.

Great on-board technology, but design and material quality isn't quite as good as similarly priced alternatives

First impressions are pretty good when you jump inside the BYD Sealion 7. Everything looks fairly premium and you get a big infotainment display in the centre of the dashboard.

That is the highlight – it’s a 15.6-inch display with pin-sharp graphics and a fast processor that makes it tablet-quick to use. Navigating between menus is fairly logical, and the voice activation system works flawlessly. It also gets the BYD-signature feature that lets you rotate it between horizontal and vertical. You get Android Auto and Apple CarPlay for seamless smartphone linking, there’s a nifty two-phone wireless charging pad with a cooling vent to prevent overheating, and the Dynaudio sound system is fantastic.

Once you start to really look around, though, you start to notice where the Sealion 7 is not quite up to the standard of a circa £55,000 car, as we tested the top-spec version. It's not bad for the most part, but there are some shiny, cheap-feeling plastics, and some criss-crossing materials and designs that make it look a bit fussy. A BMW iX2 feels posher inside, a Peugeot E-3008 is more characterful, and the Lexus RZ feels more solid. The entry-level model is likely to feel like better value.

You have a choice of two battery and motor options in the BYD Sealion 7. The Comfort and Design trims come with an 82.5kWh battery, paired to a single- and dual-motor setup respectively. Top-spec Excellence models get the dual-motor, all-wheel drive system with a larger 91.3kWh battery.

As a result, official range figures sit at 300 miles for Comfort models, 283 miles for the Design trim, and 312 miles in the Excellence. Long-range versions of alternatives promise more range, such as the Peugeot E-3008 (422 miles) and Tesla Model Y (373 miles), though the entry-level battery’s claimed figure is higher than other equivalent models.

However, during our test in the top-spec, big battery model, we saw very poor economy. Our route included some high-speed Autobahn sections that would have made this worse than you’d expect to see in typical UK driving, but even taking that into consideration, a real-world range estimate wouldn’t be much above 200 miles, which is a long way off the claimed figure. We’ll put this to the test again in the UK soon to get an accurate figure over a longer period of time.

All versions get 11kW AC charging, which is useful if you have access to these speeds – most EVs are limited to around 7kW, as this is what most home chargers output. Fast charging speeds are 150kW for Comfort and Design models, which gives you a pretty average 32 minutes to go from 10-80%. More impressive is the Excellence trim’s larger battery, which can hit 230kW resulting in a very respectable 24 minutes from 10-80%.

As with all electric vehicles, the BYD Sealion 7 gets ultra-low Benefit-in-Kind tax, making it appealing to company car drivers, while you don’t have to pay any Vehicle Excise Duty until April 2025.

The BYD Sealion 7 has not been safety tested by the experts at Euro NCAP yet, but BYD has an excellent record so far – of the five models that have been tested, all have achieved the full five stars.

You get loads of assistance kit, such as adaptive cruise control, front and rear parking sensors, 360-degree parking cameras, and lane departure warning.

With BYD being fairly new to the UK it’s tricky to build a picture of its reliability, and still having sold relatively few cars, it hasn’t featured in the Driver Power owner satisfaction survey yet. However, you do get a decent warranty of six years or 93,750 miles, whichever comes first. That’s up there with the longest standard manufacturer warranties in the UK.