Skywell BE11 Review & Prices

Skywho now? Skywell is a Chinese car brand attempting to make inroads into the UK, and the BE11 is its first car. It’s a large electric SUV, sized and priced to be an alternative to the Volkswagen ID4, Kia EV6 or Renault Scenic E-Tech. Unfortunately, it falls short of those cars in every measurable way - and some they haven’t even figured out how to measure yet.

Skywell’s roots are in two Chinese companies - the Nanjing Golden Dragon Bus firm, which builds commercial vehicles, and Skyworth, which manufactures consumer electronics like TVs and set top boxes. Unfortunately, getting the two of them together to build cars has resulted in something that has the refinement of a commercial vehicle and the driving dynamics of a set top box.

The BE11’s styling is pretty dull. It’s very plain-looking with a featureless front end, while at the rear there’s a full-width lightbar which is pretty derivative of plenty of other SUVs. It’s not ugly, but it’s definitely not going to tug at your heartstrings while looking at it.

The interior has a few more plus points. Practicality is a highlight - the rear seat might be quite flat and unsupportive, but it has ample room for tall adults to stretch out - even with the driver’s seat set right back. There are two ISOFIX points back here, and space for even the bulkiest rear-facing child seat.

The boot is less impressive, at 467 litres in capacity - that’s smaller than the 490-litre Kia EV6, the 543-litre VW ID4 or the 545-litre Renault Scenic E-Tech. It’ll accommodate a weekly shop or a family’s kit and clobber but you can get much more capacity elsewhere - and it doesn’t have any clever storage features to make the most of the space.

The rest of the interior is like something you’ve bought from Temu - it looks great, but as soon as you get it in the flesh you’re immediately disappointed. The dashboard and door cards have plenty of what looks like wood veneer, but touch it and you’ll find it’s just a thin vinyl coating. There’s also plenty of retro chrome, which on our brand-new test car was already discolouring and tarnishing, and loads of fingerprint-heavy piano black plastic.

The interior is mainly controlled through a huge 12.8-inch touchscreen. You also get a separate driver information display. However, the screen’s software and responsiveness is so bad that you’ll want to find excuses not to use it. Functions are buried deep down and the screen’s real estate isn’t utilised at all.

There are some functions that are a bit amusing, like the sat-nav software being called TurboDog9 - others that are frustrating, like the radio defaulting to GB News every time the car’s turned on. But given that you rely on the BE11’s touchscreen for almost everything, it needs to be better. At least Apple CarPlay and Android Auto are both fitted.

The BE11’s spec sheet makes for interesting reading, as the interior has a lot of features that seem really appealing. As well as those huge screens, you get keyless entry, wireless phone charging, ambient lighting, a massive panoramic sunroof, even vehicle-to-load functionality and a quite nice-sounding Metz sound system.

But because the BE11 was type-approved for the EU market several years ago, it’s not required to have as much safety equipment as modern cars. So Skywell just hasn’t fitted it. Some might find the lack of bongs and beeps to be a positive - there’s no speed limit warning, for example - but it also lacks things we’ve come to expect, such as adaptive cruise control or autonomous emergency braking. Pretty much all you get is six airbags - pretty lousy for a car that costs nearly £40,000. It’s fair to say that the Skywell BE11 wouldn’t score very well in Euro NCAP safety tests for the omission of the active equipment alone.

Then again, if the BE11 was in a crash that would at least mean you don’t have to drive it. This is a big car, and its 204hp front-mounted electric motor doesn’t move it along with much urgency. There’s a marked delay from pressing the accelerator and anything happening, too - and it’s the same with the regenerative braking, which takes a moment to kick in after you lift off.

Couple that with steering that’s far too light and devoid of any feedback whatsoever, and a really spongy brake pedal, and the BE11 becomes very difficult to drive smoothly. The suspension is really poor, too - it’s so soft and squidgy that the car leans alarmingly in bends, and if you go over a bump or pothole the body continues to wobble even once you’re past it.

It’s reasonably quiet on the motorway, but don’t expect to be carving up a B-road - especially because the Giti tyres that it rides on have very little grip, leading to wheelspin away from the lights even with modest power and very uneasy cornering.

Even the Skywell’s underlying electric tech is pretty poor. There are two models, a Standard Range and a Long Range car - the former gets an official 248 miles between chargers, the latter 304 miles.

During a week with the Long Range BE11, though, we saw just 220 miles in the real world. A Kia EV6, Volkswagen ID4 or Renault Scenic E-Tech are all much more efficient, managing far longer ranges on smaller batteries.

And when your battery is depleted, the BE11 can only top up at a maximum rate of 80kW. That’s about a third as fast as a Kia EV6. You can see the difference in the brands’ quoted charge times - Kia says a 10-80% charge can be done in 18 minutes. Skywell says you’ll manage a smaller 20-70% charge in a yawning 45 minutes.

At least you do get a seven-year warranty with the Skywell, but with hardly any dealers in the country yet, it may be a faff trying to cash it in should your car need attention.

The Skywell BE11 is rubbish to drive, has poor software, and doesn’t even get the electric car stuff right. With so many brilliant electric SUV alternatives out there, it’s one to avoid.

You can check out our best Skywell BE11 deals right here on Carwow, or find a Skywell lease deal here too. You can search our used Skywells for sale, and remember that you can even use Carwow to help you sell your old car.

The Standard Range BE11 costs from £36,995, while the Long Range car costs £39,995. That means both neatly sidestep the expensive car supplement on yearly road tax. With identical performance figures and not that much of a price differential, it makes sense to opt for the larger battery.

Both do come with a decent amount of equipment - leather upholstery, two big screens inside, a panoramic roof, keyless entry and a posh sound system. The lack of safety aids might grate, though. It’s worth remembering just what you can get for the same money as the Skywell, however - the Volkswagen ID4, Kia EV6 and Renault Scenic E-Tech all have prices that start at less than £40,000. Or, you could spend less and get a really well-equipped version of a smaller EV, such as a Skoda Elroq or Kia EV3.