2025 BYD Sealion 7 Performance Review: Plenty of surprises as Chinese attempt to bloody Tesla Model Y’s nose
When you fire up a BYD Sealion 7, you are greeted by a Tesla-typical-sized screen that says: “Cool the Earth by One Degree – Technology Green Future BYD”.
Gosh but I found this annoying. Is BYD claiming that you’ve done exactly that by buying a car with a stupendously stupid name (perhaps if it was a sea lion and you could run it on sardines and anchovies you would be doing the world a favour, because both of those “foods” should be eliminated)?
Are the people who came up with the wording aware that cooling the Earth by one degree is not enough, and nor is it likely, no matter what BYD’s Technology Green Future does? Did they consider that this might seem a bit rich for a car designed and built in a country that happens to be the world’s largest polluter?
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So look, I had a hard time getting past that, and when I did I found myself pretty annoyed by the seating position, but those two issues aside I will grant you I was quite surprised by what a complete and competent package the Sealion 7 offered. And by how wildly fast the Performance version I was driving could be, if called upon.
So, should you buy one, even over the social death on wheels that is a Tesla? I’d have to say, other than “how are you so handsome AND hilarious”, the question I most often get asked these days is “should I buy a BYD”? And driving this one has brought me closer to some kind of answer.
2025 BYD Sealion 7 price and equipment
If we look at pure performance versus dollars spent, or Bang for your Bucks as car magazines used to call it, the Performance variant of the BYD Sealion 7 I was driving really does look like quite good value, particularly if you look at it through the lens of someone old enough to remember what a car magazine was, and a time when a Holden Special Vehicles would beat its chest about having 300kW.
For $63,990 you’re getting a twin-motor EV that makes a hugely hefty 390kW and 690Nm, which it obviously puts to the ground through all four wheels and, with no gear shifts, is enough to smack you to 100km/h in 4.5 seconds. This is a feat that feels all the faster because you are in a very large, capacious SUV that weighs 2.34 tonnes.
If that’s a little too spicy, or expensive, for your tastes you can opt for the entry-level RWD Premium, listing at $54,990, which uses its single motor to offer 230kW and 380Nm.
In terms of specification, the big difference is only that power – and motor – difference, and if you don’t want to be occasionally terrified by your car, the entry-level one might well be the better bet.
That version nabs all-LED lighting, 19-inch alloys, a glass roof with a shade and a powered boot. In the cabin, you’ll find leather seats that are heated and ventilated, a typically massive 15.6-inch rotating central screen with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, a second 10.25-inch driver display, sitting below the head-up display that’s beamed onto the windscreen in front of you, and a 12-speaker stereo.
Spring for the Performance model and you’ll get the extra grunt, of course, but also bigger 20-inch alloys, a heated steering wheel and heating for the backseat.
Both share the same 82.56kW battery (and both get Vehicle to Load so you can use it to power your devices) which delivers a driving range of 482kms in the Premium, and 456km in the Performance. The Sealion 7 can draw up to 11kW AC charging, or 150kW DC fast charging.
The Sealion 7 is just over 4.8m long, 1.9m wide and 1.6m tall, and it rides on a near 3.0-metre wheelbase. That, combined with a flat-floor EV layout, means tons of space for rear riders. I’m 175cm tall, and could very comfortably sit in any of the back three seats, included the dreaded middle. In the boot, there’s 500 litres of luggage space with the rear seats in place, and you can adjust the floor height to make carrying taller items easier.
The Sealion 7 has recently ben awarded with a maximum five star ANCAP rating. All the active safety stuff is present, and there are nine airbags.
Finally, BYD offers a six-year, 150,000km warranty, and the good news is a bunch of caveats have recently been removed. The battery is backed for eight years or 160,000km.
2025 BYD Sealion 7: What we think
I had a very weird week with the BYD Sealion 7, because for the first five days I found it hard to get excited about. It was adequate, pleasant, surprisingly smooth, certainly spacious – and vastly so in the back, with the added bonus of heated rear seats – and not entirely ugly to look at. Although not inspiring or exciting, either.
Much of it felt like standard EV – if by standard you mean yet another attempt to recreate, as closely as possible, a Tesla; big screens, slabby styling and all – and none of it felt offensive, or particularly interesting.
Because I was uninspired, particularly by the overly high driving position, which seemed to have been borrowed from an actual SUV rather than a vehicle attempting to feel like one, I drove it in a very calm, measured and slightly bored manner. Indeed, I struggle to find much interesting to say about it, other than that its safety systems were annoying, and I was very pleased that the Driver Monitoring System kept telling me it was broken.
And that the classy, glassy gear lever looked like a direct lift from a BMW. And that the cup holders, which can be adjusted to the point that they are so deep that you can stick you hand into them and reach all the way to China, are bizarre.
Oh, and that the Dyanaudio stereo is surprisingly excellent. And that it has an annoying start-up screen talking about one degree of warming, or cooling.
Someone asked me what it was like to drive at one stage (a tilt-truck driver, who said he was surprised at how few broken BYDs he picked up in his line of work, “plenty of Teslas, but no BYDs”) and I said I really couldn’t tell him. Other than “fine” and “not unpleasant”.
And then I decided that, despite it looking and feeling like a family SUV, I should perhaps explore the idea of putting my foot down in it. This was a revelatory and rocket-like experience. Talk about hiding your light under a bushel, this was more like hiding a volcano under a crocheted blanket.
I guess I should give the Sealion 7 credit for the fact that it naturally defaults to being merely transport, that it it never intimidating, not gives any hint of its potential. Once you do put your foot down in it, however, it can give you a proper scare, with the kind of rapid, rabid acceleration that would likely shock the living hell out of 90 per cent of the customers who are interested in a vehicle of this size and shape.
Those people, most people in fact, should stick to the entry-level, single-motor version. While the acceleration, from any speed really, as long as you push the throttle nice and hard, is punishing, the Sealion 7 Performance never feels particularly sporty through bends, because its weight – 2340kg – makes itself very clearly felt if you try to change direction rapidly, or ask it to chase apexes.
It’s not terrible and indeed, if you know what its limitations are, it can be quite fun, but it’s certainly not engineered in a way that attempts to defy physics.
2025 BYD Sealion 7: Verdict
An entirely satisfactory SUV EV that can provide cosseted, comfortable transport for a family of four, or five at a stretch, and is far better than a lot of people might expect from a brand like BYD. One might even dare to call it good value. And if you go for the Performance variant, you will always have a few surprises up your sleeve.
SCORE: 3.7/5
2025 BYD Sealion 7 Performance specifications
Price: From $63,990 (MSRP)
Basics: EV, 5 seats, 5 doors, medium SUV, AWD
Range: 456km (WLTP)
Battery capacity: 82.56kW lithium-ion
Battery warranty: 8 years/160,000km
Motors: 2 motors, 390kW/690Nm
AC charging: Up to 11kW, Type 2 plug
DC charging: 150kW, CCS combo plug
0-100km/h: 4.5 seconds (Performance)
I own a sealion 7 and can confirm it does NOT say that when you turn on the car.