BYD Sealion 7 Review & Prices

The electric BYD Sealion 7 SUV may be one of the Chinese brand’s best-selling cars (after the Seal U plug-in hybrid and the Seal saloon), but we’re not exactly sure why. Yes, it looks smart, it’s well-equipped and it’s pretty rapid in top-spec trim, but it’s uncomfortable to drive, the interior feels a bit cheap in places and it’s actually very pricey.

BYD may now be a high street brand, but it’s still one of the youngest in the UK, so you can think of the Sealion 7 as a new build house. There’s certainly an appeal to having something that’s fresh and full of the latest tech, but it doesn’t take long to realise you were better off choosing something more…established.

Especially when you’ll pay more for a Sealion 7 than you will for a Peugeot E-3008, Tesla Model Y or Nissan Ariya. The price of a top-spec BYD would see you behind the wheel of a BMW iX3, Mercedes GLC Electric, Lexus RZ or an Audi Q6 e-tron, too.

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

Still, from the outside the Sealion 7 does at least look expensive - much like the handsome Seal saloon but lifted and stretched out. From the pointy headlights and shark nose front bumper to the sleek roofline and sculpted rear bumpers the BYD has a lot going for it. The diamond-cut wheels look rather smart, too.

Step inside and things aren’t quite as mad as they are in the Seal, with a pretty straightforward dashboard dominated by the enormous 15.6-inch infotainment touchscreen. It certainly looks posher inside than a Tesla Model Y, but while there are plenty of upholstered surfaces that look pleasant and are well-assembled, they’re not all that nice to the touch.

The software is a bit of a headache, too, with some settings buried deep within sub-menus which are annoying to navigate. The driver attention warning is a notable one, hidden away in ‘cabin perception’...whatever that really means. At least there are some physical controls on the centre console, too.

You won’t struggle to get comfortable in the Sealion 7, with enormous, cushy and highly adjustable chairs up front and plenty of storage for small items. The outer back seats offer generous legroom and headroom, too, plus they recline for extra comfort on long journeys. The 520-litre boot is on par with the BMW iX3 and Lexus RZ but lags behind the Tesla Model Y.

There are two batteries to choose from, with range varying from 283 to 312 miles, depending on which you choose. That’s massively down on the Volvo EX60, BMW iX3 and Audi Q6 e-tron, especially as we only saw 271 miles from the big battery model in the real world.

It isn’t very good to drive, either. Sure it’s smooth and the brakes are easy to judge, but it jostles you around town and wallows about at high-speeds on the motorway. Not only that but there’s lots of wind noise, and it feels unsettled on a twisty country lane.

Verdict

It’s a shame the Sealion 7 is so expensive, because aside from its driving flaws it has a lot going for it. Sadly, not enough to justify the price, so you’re better off spending less on a Nissan Ariya or more on a BMW iX3. Either way, you’ll be happier.

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.

The BYD Sealion 7 is pretty expensive, and definitely not as cheap as all the shouty headlines about cheap Chinese cars would have you believe. It’s looking over-priced against the likes of a Tesla Model Y or a Skoda Enyaq, or for that matter a Hyundai Ioniq 5, and you can get Chinese EVs with much sharper pricing. The new MG S6 EV for instance, is cheaper to buy but comparable to the Sealion 7 in terms of cabin quality and it’s actually nicer to drive.

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 quite a bit on rough, uneven city roads, while you’ve left bouncing over speed bumps.

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, but you will have to pay £10 for your first year’s VED road tax, and the regular rate in years two-to-six. Also, remember that only the basic Sealion 7 ducks under the £50,000 barrier so you’re going to get hit for the £425 VED surcharge.

BYD Sealion 7 Euro NCAP (2025): 5/5

Adult occupant: 87%
Child occupant: 93%
Vulnerable road users: 76%
Safety assist: 79%

The BYD Sealion 7 has been awarded a full five-star rating from Euro NCAP, and performed well in the adult occupant (87%) and safety assist (79%) categories. 

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. 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 and there’s now an extended warranty for the battery, which runs to the usual eight years, but up to 155,000 miles, which is 50 per cent more than most car makers offer.

Against all of that, BYD didn’t do well in the Driver Power customer satisfaction survey in 2025, finishing in 30th place out of 31 manufacturers. That’s a worry.