BYD Sealion 7 (2025) Review

Introduction

Not that long ago, if you wanted an all-electric vehicle, you didn't have much of a choice. It was a Tesla - and not much else. Unless you were happy to drive a milk float, of course.

Then the floodgates opened, and now everyone is making electric cars – BMW, Ford, Renault, Vauxhall, you name it.

Not only is this transforming the automotive industry, but it’s also provided a pathway for a whole host of Chinese manufacturers to try and join the party.

Arguably, nobody has made a splash quite as large as BYD. And that’s quite apt, too, given most of BYD’s vehicles are named after animals typically found in the water, such as the Seal, a sporty saloon, and the smaller Dolphin hatchback.

It is another of BYD’s cars that we're interested in today, though: the Sealion 7.

It is a mid-size crossover SUV with coupe styling to appeal to those who want the best of both worlds: sportier characteristics and practicality.

The '7' in the name is somewhat misleading because it's not a seven-seater - it can only hold five people. The number doesn’t appear to refer to anything specific, although BYD is known for numbering its vehicles to denote its position in the range based on size.

Nevertheless, it joins a burgeoning list of cars from BYD, one of a growing number of Chinese automotive companies trying to crack the UK market.

Generally speaking, its efforts so far have been positively received.

So, how does this latest entry stack up? We have taken one for a test drive to find out.

At A Glance

At first glance, the Sealion 7 looks very attractive.

The front end's shape bears the hallmarks of the BYD Seal (the sporty saloon we mentioned earlier) and the MG4 EV.

Like the MG, it features pointy headlights, although not quite as pointy, and it’s quite wedge-shaped, albeit slightly more rounded.

Nevertheless, like its Chinese rival (yes, MG is owned by Shanghai-based SAIC nowadays), the Sealion 7’s bodywork tucks underneath slightly at the front and flares out at the sides to create two large, aggressive air intakes.

At the sides, a crease runs across the doors beneath the flush, pop-out door handles, while lower down, a curved indentation sits above a more aggressive crease towards the bottom.

The extent of the sloping roofline also becomes apparent, revealing a sporty coupe-like shape. The bodywork continues much further back than the roof spoiler, certainly compared with most SUVs.

The rear comprises teardrop taillights, which are connected via a horizontal light bar spanning the width of the tailgate.

Underneath that, much like at the front, the bodywork appears to split open to reveal more aerodynamic features, while dark cladding cuts in from the bottom, accommodating the number plate.

It is an attractive, athletic SUV that fits nicely on the UK’s roads.

Despite its Chinese origins, it won’t look out of place here.

Key Features

The Sealion 7 is available in three trim configurations.

At entry-level, Comfort gets 19-inch alloys, a 15.6-inch rotatable infotainment touchscreen with Apple CarPlay, Android Auto, DAB radio, satellite navigation and voice control, plus a Dynaudio 12-speaker sound system and wireless phone charger.

You also get a 10.25-inch digital instrument panel, heated leather steering wheel, vegan leather heated and ventilated electrically adjustable front seats, vegan leather heated rear seats, and dual-zone climate control.

Also included are multi-colour ambient lighting, LED headlights and taillights, high beam assist, a panoramic roof, and an electric tailgate, plus a 360-degree surround view camera with a whole suite of driver assistance systems, which we’ll cover later.

Not exactly a bad equipment list for the bottom-rung-of-the-ladder model.

Mid-level Design trim upgrades to 20-inch alloys – and that’s about it.

The top-of-the-range Excellence gets actual leather seats and a head-up display.

It may seem quite strange that the bottom model gets almost all the kit, leaving the higher models to add barely anything else.

But the true difference is in the power and motors.

The Comfort model has a single motor, driving only the rear wheels, producing 312PS. However, the Design and Excellence models are dual-motor all-wheel drive models, producing 530PS. Both get upgraded brake callipers, while Excellence gets a larger battery, as we’ll cover shortly.

Range & Batteries

Choosing the Comfort or Design models gets you an 82.5kWh battery. That is good enough for a claimed range of 300 miles in the former and 283 miles in the latter.

The range-topping Excellence model receives a larger 91.3kWh battery with an official range of 312 miles.

In practice, you won’t achieve these figures, but anything above about 70% of the quoted figure in the real world, and you’ll know you’re about on par.

Performance & Drive

The Sealion 7 is incredibly quick - especially for an SUV.

Zero to 62mph takes just 6.7 seconds in the lower-powered 312PS variant with rear-wheel drive. Step inside the 510PS all-wheel drive version, and that time drops to an astonishing 4.5 seconds.

In truth, nobody needs that much power in a car like this, and even the 312PS version is more than enough for most people’s needs.

Admittedly, you’ll need ideal conditions to achieve the 0-62mph times, as the car’s numerous systems, including traction control, are quite happy to step in and reign in the acceleration as required.

The good news is that the power is delivered quite smoothly, which makes it easier to live with in stop-start traffic and lower-speed driving around town centres.

Unfortunately, the car’s rapidity isn’t matched by pristine handling. While no SUV truly handles all that well, the Sealion 7 is beaten by fellow SUV rivals in bends. It generates plenty of lean, not helped by the top-of-the-range Excellence’s near two-and-a-half tonne kerb weight.

The steering doesn’t weight up sufficiently around faster corners either, often feeling extra sensitive, making it trickier to live with around slow, 90-degree bends in city centres.

Engaging the Sport driving mode doesn’t transform the experience to any great extent.

The suspension is also a little firm, particularly as you go faster, and the Sealion 7 doesn’t feel as well planted at 70mph on motorways as many of its competitors.

Once you reach such speeds, wind noise becomes more noticeable, too, although not to the extent that it’s a deal-breaker. It is at least helped somewhat by double-glazed windows at the sides.

The Sealion 7 can also feel unsettled by lumps and bumps and takes longer to settle back down.

The regenerative braking is okay, although it can feel a little weak at times. One-pedal driving isn't possible - it's adjustable, but only between two different settings.

Charging

Comfort and Design editions of the Sealion 7 charge at a maximum rate of 150kWh, while the Excellence model’s larger battery comes with an improved speed of 230kW.

That means a 10-80% top-up at maximum speed takes 32 minutes for the smaller battery and only 24 minutes for the larger one.

Using a 7kW home wall box wipes out the Excellence's advantage, though. The Comfort and Design models take 13.5 hours to get from 0 to 100%, while the Excellence takes almost 15 hours to do the same.

11kW home charging is also supported, dropping the times to eight-and-a-half and nine-and-a-half hours, respectively.

Running Costs & Emissions

Despite rising electricity prices in recent years, an electric car will still be cheaper to run than a combustion-engined car, especially if you can charge it at home.

It will be cheaper to maintain, as well, since electric motors have fewer moving parts.

Compared with many similarly powered cars, the Sealion 7 will be cheap to tax. 2025's new road tax system means you'll pay £10 for the first year - that applies to all electric cars.

You will pay £195 a year thereafter, but in practice, you'll have to add £425 to that for five years, starting from the second year, as all models cost over £40,000 new, so attract the government’s ‘expensive car supplement’.

At least it’ll be in the bottom rung of the ladder for Benefit In Kind tax, making the Sealion 7 an attractive option as a company car.

Reliability is something of an unknown, too, given that BYD is a relatively new brand.

Interior & Technology

The interior of the BYD Sealion 7 looks striking, sophisticated, premium, and, in some colour schemes, space-age.

There is a thick, executive-but-sporty-looking four-spoked steering wheel bathed in silver décor. It is at a bit of a strange angle in terms of its tilt, with the bottom spoke a lot closer to you than the top of the wheel.

It is nowhere near the ‘almost-flat-like-a-dinner-plate’ style of wheel in a bus or a lorry, but it's certainly at a more pronounced angle than in most cars.

There is more silver elsewhere, on the doors and on the centre console, as well as running along the front of the dashboard.

In our test car, the dashboard looks like one gigantic display, backlit in neon blue, but according to BYD, 127 other colours are also available. We didn’t realise that many existed.

In the middle of the dashboard, there’s a huge tablet bolted to it, not dissimilar from what you'd find in a Tesla. The 15.6-inch infotainment touchscreen is oriented in landscape but can be rotated to portrait if you prefer.

The infotainment system is very nice to use, with sophisticated, modern graphics and contemporary typefaces that look like they could have been lifted from the latest operating system of a mobile phone.

It is also very responsive to touches, swipes, and prods from your fingers, and the menu layout is quite intuitive. Admittedly, it’s packed full of features, so learning your way around the system may take some time, but you’ll likely get used to it. Unlike Tesla systems, Apple CarPlay and Android Auto are also available.

Overall, the cabin is highly impressive. While it lacks the grandiose opulence of some Mercedes-Benz cabins and the ostentatiousness of Genesis, it’s superbly attractive and is sure to make a good first impression.

Practicality & Boot Space

It is easy to find a decent driving position in the BYD Sealion 7, as a powered driver’s seat and lumbar adjustment are both included as standard on all models.

The Sealion 7 is bigger than it looks in pictures, and the driving position is quite high.

That means forward visibility is pretty good, helped by its large windscreen, while the front pillars are reasonably thin and swept back.

The roof's bodywork, which curves downwards to a point at the rear corners, hinders rearward visibility, while the roof spoiler overhangs the rear windscreen more aggressively than on most other cars.

Mercifully, front and rear parking sensors and a 360-degree surround view camera are standard on all models.

There is plenty of legroom and headroom in the front, helped by lots of travel in the seats.

In the back, it’s even more impressive, offering loads of legroom, so, even the combination of tall occupants in the front and rear seats won't leave you shortchanged.

Mind you, the rear headroom is less generous due to the sloping roofline. But, at least you can sprawl out a bit thanks to the space on offer, and the back seats can recline, which may mitigate any issues if your hair is brushing the ceiling.

The rear bench doesn’t slide, though. Nevertheless, three adults in the back can be accommodated without too much of a squeeze. However, a larger SUV is still likely to be more suitable if you’ll be doing this frequently.

Despite a decent amount of room inside the cabin, BYD hasn't had to sacrifice boot space. The Sealion 7 offers 520 litres, expanding to 1,789 litres with the rear seats folded down in a 60:40 split.

It also features an adjustable boot floor that can be raised or lowered. In its highest position, there's no loading lip, making it easier to slide heavier and bulkier items in and out of the boot.

Inside the cabin, there are endless storage spaces for belongings, including various cubbies and a couple of cupholders in the front between the seats. You also get an additional 58 litres of storage in the 'frunk' underneath the bonnet.

The rear-wheel-drive Comfort can tow a maximum of 750kg, while the all-wheel-drive Design and Excellence models double that figure to 1,500kg braked.

Safety

The Sealion 7 is yet to be put through its paces by crash-testing experts Euro NCAP.

However, all five BYD vehicles tested so far - the Atto 3, Seal, Dolphin, Tang (not available in the UK), and Seal U - scored five-star ratings in 2022 and 2023.

The Seal U SUV isn’t too dissimilar in size to the Sealion 7 – it scored 90% for adults, 86% for children and 77% for safety assists.

In the Sealion 7, the safety assist category includes automatic emergency braking, front and rear parking sensors, a 360-degree view camera, adaptive cruise control, intelligent speed limit control and traffic sign recognition.

You also get forward and rear collision warning, front and rear cross-traffic alert and brake, lane departure warning, emergency lane keep assist, lane centring control, intelligent high beam control, blind spot detection and driver distraction warning.

As if that wasn’t enough, direct drive fatigue management is also included.

Options

There aren't many optional extras offered on the Sealion 7, mainly because BYD has included everything as standard.

The default body paint is Atlantis Grey (a blue-grey colour), but Polar White, Indigo Grey, and Space Black are also available for an extra fee.

The interior colour is black by default – only the Excellence model gets a choice, unlocking the alternative Tahiti blue, which, despite what its name suggests, is mainly a very light, almost white, grey colour with bluish undertones.

Rival Cars

The Sealion 7 has plenty of competition.

The two most obvious alternatives are the Skoda Enyaq Coupe and the Kia EV6.

We suspect, though, that BYD will even try to tempt premium brand customers away from the BMW iX1, the Audi Q6 e-Tron, and the Tesla Model Y.

The excellent Hyundai Ioniq 5 is also worth considering – it’s cheaper, too.

Verdict & Next Steps

The BYD Sealion 7 is an impressive SUV from a Chinese manufacturer that, given its new arrival in the UK, has hit the ground running.

The equipment list is incredible, given that nearly everything is included in the entry-level model, which is reasonably priced, spacious, and has a very nice interior.

It is not the best SUV in terms of the overall driving experience, and some rivals feel better planted on the road and can beat the Sealion 7 for range.

The much-anticipated Euro NCAP safety rating should be coming soon – but it's not lacking in safety assistance aids.

We would stick to the entry-level Comfort version, which, despite being by far the least powerful, still has more than enough performance for day-to-day driving. Plus, it's cheaper and barely lacks any kit compared with higher models.

Overall, while the Sealion 7 doesn’t outmuscle premium brands, BYD has undoubtedly produced something genuinely tempting to lease.

Where to next?

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**Score based on Select’s unique meta score analysis, taking into account the UK’s top leading independent car website reviews of the BYD Sealion 7.

**Correct as of 28/04/2025. Based on 9 months initial payment, 5,000 miles annually, over a 48 month lease. Initial payment equivalent to 9 monthly payments, or £3,954.96 (Plus admin fee) Ts and Cs apply. Credit is subject to status.