Back in 2022, BYD was one of the first Chinese vehicles to enter the Australian EV
market. It started as a one-car brand imported by the private company EV Direct with
the Atto 3 compact SUV. Although popular with early EV adopters it didn’t make
much of an impact on overall sales.
Atto 3 was followed in 2023 by the Dolphin EV hatch and Seal EV sedan. The first
BYD plug-in hybrid, the Sealion 6, arrived in 2024. A mid-sized SUV, it attracted
strong sales and quickly became the top-selling PHEV that year.
The rise and rise of BYD really began in 2025 when the company assumed direct
control of its operations in Australia. At the same time two new models arrived, the
Sealion 7 EV family-sized SUV and the Shark 6 a four-door PHEV ute.
Such as been the success of the Sealion and Shark that BYD has jumped into the
top ten of all vehicle sales YTD July sitting in eighth place between fellow Chinese
brands GWM and MG. Even more impressive Shark is now third in the Light
Commercial segment behind Ranger and D-Max and well ahead of the much-
vaunted Kia Tasman.
We’re looking to get into the Shark shortly but will be reviewing the Sealion 7 here.
There are two Sealion 7 variants, Premium priced at $54,990 and Performance, at
$63,990. On-road costs need to be added.
EXTERIOR
At just over 4.8 metres long which, using the 4.6-metre RAV4 as a yardstick, makes
BYD Sealion one of the largest vehicles in the mid-sized SUV category.
Sealion 7 shares much of its overall design with its Seal sedan sibling including the
flowing coupe-like lines that are becoming prevalent in the latest SUVs.
The front has twin creases down the bonnet merging with wide triangular headlights
coupled with narrow daytime running lights. Both are LEDs as is the full-width red
rear light assembly that incorporates the brake lights and turn indicators.
Fortunately, the ‘Build Your Dreams’ lettering that was spread across the rear of the
Atto 3 is no longer deemed necessary to explain the BYD name.
Both Sealion 7 variants get a full-length fixed panoramic glass roof with a powered
shade. There are two spoilers in the rear.
Premium rolls on 19-inch alloy wheels and the Performance on 20-inch with red
brake callipers.
There are four colour options. Aurora White is standard, Atlantis Grey, Cosmos
Shark Grey and Black are all cost options.
INTERIOR
The 4830 mm of length and 2930 mm wheelbase of the Sealion 7 contributes to
class-leading interior space especially in the rear.
Entry is through flush door handles that emerge when the vehicle is unlocked either
through the key fob or by pressing a button on the door or by tapping the supplied
NFC card against driver’s side mirror.
Once inside the effect is immediate with a luxury look and feel that is right up there
with the best premium SUVs from Europe and Japan. The seats are premium Nappa
leather with a choice of trims.
Both front seats are ventilated and heated. The Performance variant adds heated
steering wheel and heated rear seats.
The seats are large, supportive and extremely comfortable. There are high quality
soft touch materials all round with configurable ambient lighting on the doors.
The powered driver’s seat provides 8-way position options, 4-way lumbar settings,
adjustable leg rest and memory. The front passenger gets 6-way power adjustment.
The dashboard and centre console designs are well spaced and easy to reach. A
major plus there are quite a few physical knobs, buttons and rollers that reduce the
need to access them through the touchscreen as is the case with so many Chinese
vehicles.
There’s plenty of sensible store space including a deep bin at the rear of the centre
console and hidden tray beneath.
Boot capacity with the rear seatbacks in place is 500 litres with an extra 58 litres
under the bonnet (aka the frunk), ideal for storing the charging cables.
POWERTRAIN / CHARGING
The BYD Sealion 7 offers two distinct powertrain options. Premium has a single rear-
mounted that produces 230kW of power and 380Nm of torque.
Performance adds a second motor at the front axle to provide all-wheel drive with
power and torque increased to 390kW and 690Nm.
Both configurations utilise an 82.5kWh Blade lithium iron phosphate (LFP) battery.
Using the 11kW AC charge rate sung three-phase power it will take around nine
hours to charge from zero to 100%. DC charging at 150kW from 10-80% will take
about 30 minutes.
SAFETY
All BYD vehicles come with the maximum five-star ANCAP rating, with Sealion 7 the
most most recently tested – in February 2025.
Standard features include dual frontal, side chest-protecting and side head-
protecting airbags. There is also a centre airbag which provides added protection to
front seat occupants in side impact crashes.
There’s also a comprehensive autonomous emergency braking system that includes
other vehicles and vulnerable road users, a range of lane support systems, adaptive
cruise control, advanced speed control alerts with speed sign recognition, rear cross
traffic alert, blind spot detection, forward and rear collision warning, driver attention
warning and hill hold.
Parking is assisted by 2-zone front and 4-zone rear parking sensors together with a
360-degree high-resolution camera with surround-view and enhanced parking.
Family buyers will be attracted by the Sealion 7’s 93% score in the Child Occupant
Protection component of the ANCAP tests. Features include ISOFIX child seat
anchor points in the outer rear seats, Electronic Child Lock which prevent children
from opening the rear doors from the inside and Child Presence Detection which
sounds an alert when children or pets are left in the car.
INFOTAINMENT
Standard in both variants are a 15.6-inch touchscreen that can be rotated between
landscape and portrait formats together with a 10.25-inch LCD driver’s instrument
panel, embedded satellite navigation with free map updates for three years, and
voice controls.
The choice of portrait or landscape modes caters for personal preferences although,
as most people do, you want to use Android Auto or Apple CarPlay, then it only
operates in landscape.
There are four USB ports, two (USB-C and USB-A) in the front and the same in the
rear.
There is embedded satellite navigation which does show the location of nearby EV
charging locations. At this stage however it doesn’t include a trip planning facility.
Over-the-air (OTA) updates are standard so hopefully these will be included in future
software upgrades.
Vehicle-to-Load (V2L) technology is standard, allowing the car to power external
appliances.
Audio is through a 12-speaker Dynaudio premium audio system.
DRIVING
As is now our standard procedure when driving the latest high-tech vehicles, we
don’t take off immediately but rather set up our preferred drive settings on the
touchscreen.
Most of the excellent range of safety features remain switched on, but we prefer to
turn off the over-sensitive speed limit warnings, multiple lane correction settings and
the camera triggered driver attention alerts.
A large windscreen, side windows and large wing mirrors provide excellent visibility
to the front and sides. Rear vision is poor with a wide but narrow rear window
although the range of camera angles does overcome this problem when parking.
There are four drive modes: Normal, Eco, Sport and Snow. We used Eco around the
suburbs then switched to Normal once we hit the motorway.
.
However, it’s not perfect. While it drives beautifully in a straight line it’s soft ride leads
to a fair bit of body roll on the way through corners.
The charging port is at the driver’s side rear. We were able to re-charge at a
commercial station from 40% to 95% in around 40 minutes at a cost of $37
increasing the range from 180km to 450km.
When we picked up the Sealion 7, and with the battery fully charged, a range of 524
km was displayed, a fair bit higher than the published WLTP range of 482 km.
Our 100 km trips to and from southern Sydney were almost entirely on motorways
which saw our range drop by around 160km each time. Something to be aware of
when planning a long-distance trip.
As is rapidly becoming the norm nowadays access to the majority of features,
especially in Chinese vehicles, is through the touchscreen. While this is the case in
the Sealion 7 it’s far more intuitive and adaptable than any other that we’ve tested.
As with all EVs BYD Sealion 7 does have configurable brake regenerative modes but
not one-pedal driving.
SUMMARY
BYD Sealion 7 is one of the most impressive vehicles we’ve driven. Its interior
space, comfort and safety features make it ideal for the typical urban tasks such as
commuting, shopping and school runs.
It’s well-priced, sitting about $10k below the Tesla Model Y and well below all other
premium mid-sized SUV. There are a number of cheaper mid-sized Chinese electric
SUVs but none can match the all-round quality of the Sealion.
The sharp acceleration, smoothness and range mean that it’s equally at home in
urban road, motorway conditions giving it claims to becoming the first Chinese grand
tourer.
RATINGS:
Looks: 8.5/10
Performance: 7/10
Safety: 8/10
Thirst: 8/10
Practicality: 8.5/10
Comfort: 9/10
Tech: 8/10
Value: 8/10
AT A GLANCE
MODEL RANGE
Sealion 7 Premium: $54,990
Sealion 7 Performance: $63,990
Note: These prices do not include government or dealer delivery charges. Contact
your local BYD dealer for drive-away prices.
SPECIFICATIONS (BYD Sealion 7 Premium electric SUV)
POWERTRAIN (PREMIUM):
Battery type: Blade lithium iron phosphate (LFP)
Battery Capacity: 82.56 kWh
Configuration: Single rear-mounted electric motor
Maximum Power: 230 kW
Maximum Torque: 380 Nm
Fuel Type: Electric
Energy consumption: 19.9 kWh/100km
Range: 482 km (WLTP)
CO2 Emissions: 0 g/km
DRIVELINE:
One- speed automatic transmission RWD (Premium) and AWD (Performance)
DIMENSIONS, WEIGHT AND CAPACITIES:
Length: 4830 mm
Wheelbase: 2930 mm
Width: 1925 mm
Height: 1620 mm
Turning Circle: 11.7 metres
Kerb Mass: 2225 kg
BRAKES:
Front: Ventilated disc
Rear: Ventilated disc
STANDARD WARRANTY:
Vehicle: Six years / 150,000 kilometres
Battery: Eight years / 180,000 kilometres
