2025 BYD Sealion 7 Premium review

It’s quite an achievement for a model to go on sale for the first time in a new country and, just a few months later, become the best-selling car in its category.

Yet that is exactly what the BYD Sealion 7 has done in July this year, taking out the title of most popular electric vehicle for the whole of Australia – at least for that month.

We’ve been getting to know BYD and its varied model range for three years now, and as time goes on, it seems to be getting more and more popular.

First came the Atto 3 medium SUV, then the Dolphin hatch, Seal sedan, Sealion 6 plug-in hybrid SUV, Shark 6 ute and now coupe-styled Sealion 7 SUV.

What is BYD doing so right to win Aussie buyers, compared to other new, predominantly Chinese, brands coming to market?

I’ve tested the entry-level Premium version of the Sealion 7 to find out.

There are currently two variants available of the BYD Sealion 7, the Premium and Performance, although a cheaper, entry-level Dynamic grade may join the line-up later this year to push the starting price under $50,000.

As things stand, the Premium costs $54,990 and the Performance $63,990, both before on-road costs.

The two grades share the same 82.56kWh battery, also borrowed from BYD’s Seal sedan, but the Performance has more power and comes with all-wheel drive.

The rear-wheel-drive Premium is well specified as standard, featuring 19-inch alloy wheels, a 15.6-inch infotainment screen with wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, satellite navigation, a 10.25-inch digital instrument display, and a 12-speaker Dynaudio sound system.

It also gets a wireless phone charger, dual-zone climate control, a panoramic sunroof, a head-up display, a powered tailgate, heated and ventilated front seats, and black leather upholstery.

The driver’s seat can be power-adjusted eight ways, with four-way lumbar and memory, while the passenger’s side has six-way power adjustment.

As well as being more powerful, the Performance adds 20-inch wheels, red front brake calipers, a heated steering wheel and heated rear seats.

The BYD Sealion 7 has already made an impact, despite only being on sale locally since February this year. It was the most popular electric vehicle sold in July, outgunning rivals such as the Tesla Model Y, Kia EV5 and XPeng G6. The Tesla Model Y, normally the pack leader, starts from $58,900 for the Rear-Wheel Drive, while the Kia EV5 range opens at $56,770 for the Air Standard Range, and the XPeng G6 at $54,800 for the Standard Range.

On paper, the Sealion 7’s 82.56kWh battery is capable of a claimed driving range of 482km (WLTP) in the Premium, reduced to 456km in the Performance due to the power bump and all-wheel drive.

BYD claims a 150kW DC 10–80 per cent fast charging time of 32 minutes and, for the first time in Australia, 11kW AC charging is supported.

Here we miss out on the flagship all-wheel-drive variant offered overseas, which uses a 91.3kWh battery capable of up to 502km, with a fast-charge time of just 24 minutes at a maximum 230kW.

In testing, however, the average energy consumption was around 18.6kWh per 100 kilometres compared to the claimed 19.9kWh/100km. The 482km driving range claim did not quite stack up.

When I picked up the car, it had 93 per cent charge, showing a smidge over 400km left. Over the course of the week, I drove about 280km, and by the time I stopped to charge, the display indicated I had 14 per cent or 63km available, when, in theory, this should have been closer to 120km.

And when I returned it, the driving range gauge indicated it had 62 per cent left or 354km, when, according to the claim, 62 per cent should be closer to 300km.

Parking up at a 300kW (max) Tesla Supercharger, it took 33 minutes to go from 14 per cent to 80 per cent for $43.55, which is very close to the 32-minute claim.

At least when it comes to a lab-tested driving range, the BYD offers you to drive the furthest between charges.

The 482km in the Premium bests the Model Y RWD, which offers a claimed 466km, while the EV5 and G6 claim even lower figures of 400km and 435km, respectively, all based on the WLTP standard.

The Sealion 7 comes with a six-year/150,000km warranty, with the battery covered for eight years or 160,000km, whichever comes first.

In comparison, the Tesla Model Y is covered by a four-year/80,000km warranty, and the XPeng G6 by a five-year/220,000km warranty.

The Kia EV5 has the longest warranty of them all at seven years/unlimited kilometres.

Service intervals are set at 12 months or 20,000km, with the first three years costing $850 and the first five costing $1543.

The XPeng G6 has the same service schedule, while the Kia EV5 needs to go back to the dealer every 12 months or 15,000km.

The Tesla doesn’t follow the traditional interval-based servicing method. However, Tesla recommends brake fluid checks every two years, a cabin air filter replacement every two years, and particulate air filter replacement every three years.

The Sealion 7 will cost $1987.43 to comprehensively insure based on a comparative quote for a 35-year-old male, living in Chatswood, NSW. Insurance estimates may vary based on your location, driving history, and personal circumstances.

The BYD Sealion 7 has a five-star ANCAP rating awarded in 2025.

It scored 87 per cent for its adult occupant protection, 93 per cent for children, 76 per cent for vulnerable road users, and 78 per cent for its safety assist technology.

The Kia EV5 and XPeng G6 both have five-star results from 2024, while the Tesla Model Y has a five-star rating from 2022 based on an earlier version.

Both the Premium and Performance grades get the same level of safety technology, so there’s no need to shop up the range based on safety alone.

Standard features include front and rear parking sensors, a 360-degree camera, nine airbags, autonomous emergency braking, lane-keep assist, adaptive cruise control, blind-spot monitoring, front and rear cross-traffic alerts with braking function, traffic sign recognition, door exit warning, child presence detection and a driver attention monitor.

Overall, the advanced driver assistance systems do their job well, and unlike many Chinese cars, are not overly intrusive with lots of beeps and bongs that drive you mad.

The driver attention monitor is a good example of this. It only goes off if the driver has been looking at the infotainment screen for too long.

This seems fair enough, but also many basic functions, such as heating, are housed within the screen, so sometimes an extended glance over is necessary.

Even so, the warning is mild, with only a very quiet ding emitted and a visual warning displayed on the cluster.

The lane-assist technology works well, with the departure warning issued through a gentle vibration of the steering wheel and a flashing red line on the instrument cluster, and the lane-keep smoothly guides the car back to centre.

It works best on the freeway where the lines are straight and clear, but occasionally doesn’t intervene on windy back roads with more varied markings.

The adaptive cruise control is generally pretty good, but it can brake a bit late, which can be disconcerting.

Oddly, the blind-spot camera that comes up on the infotainment screen when indicating only does so if you’re going left and not right.

The Sealion 7 is nice and spacious inside, and the look and feel match its Premium name.

The mix of black leather, grey plastics and metal-look trim along the dashboard and doors gives the cabin an understated elegance, while the seats are plush and comfortable throughout.

The exception is the middle seat in the second row, which is almost always a bit firmer on the back, whatever the variant.

The suede-look pieces, however, while pleasing on the eye, have a strangely sheeny feel to them, seem to mark easily, and don’t have the grip or durability of genuine Alcantara.

The dark materials can also make the interior feel quite gloomy, despite the large panoramic sunroof.

The Sealion 7 is a five-seat, family SUV. Although it's quite spacious, it is a little smaller than some of its competitors.

In the first row, there are two large cupholders in the centre, and ample room for big vessels in the doors too, plus more storage space underneath the floating centre console, as well as in the deep storage bin under the armrest and in the glovebox.

Space in the back is also very good, with several inches of leg room in front of me behind my driving position, and plenty above my head too. For reference, I am around 167cm tall.

The rear doors have space for large bottles, as well as little bits and pieces, and there are two sets of map pockets on either side.

The centre armrest has a little storage tray to put small loose items on while the car is moving without fear of them being lost, and the two cupholders can be hidden beneath a cover for a neater look if not needed.

Child seats are a doddle to fit thanks to ISOFIX anchors that are easy to locate, and the top tethers are within easy reach from the boot, too, with no parcel shelf to get in the way.

The Sealion 7 has a frunk under the bonnet capable of holding 58 litres, which is a good place for storing the charging cables, and the boot can hold 500L with the seats up. BYD hasn’t yet quoted a figure with the seats flat.

It hasn’t got any cubbies, but it does have a small netted area on one side to stop small items from moving around.

The boot can fit a pram, as well as four large full shopping bags at the same time, or a pram, a small suitcase and two school bags and four reasonably sized pot plants. The tailgate is powered even in this base grade, which is helpful, but the doors themselves are quite heavy and can be hard for children to open by themselves.

The Kia EV5, meanwhile, has a 67L frunk, a slightly larger boot with 513L of storage available, expanding to 1714L with the seats folded down.

Comparatively, the XPeng G6 has 571L of boot space with the rear seats up, swelling to 1374L with them down, but no frunk.

The Model Y is the biggest of the lot, though, fitting an enormous 822L with the second row in position and 2022L with the seats flat. However, Tesla uses different measurements in calculating storage capacity, with measurements that go to the roof instead of the top of the second row seats.

The BYD Sealion 7 has a large 15.6-inch infotainment screen through which it can run wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, and it also comes with its own native satellite navigation system.

Like other BYD models, the large screen can also rotate so it can be mounted vertically, but only in limited circumstances. It can’t, for example, be turned around while using Apple CarPlay.

The layout of the functions within the screen is simple and attractive, and allows users to access staples such as the radio, vehicle settings, the phone, navigation and driving data, as well as extras such as Amazon Music, Spotify and even karaoke – though this last one feels a bit gimmicky.

Climate controls, for heating and ventilation and even the heated seats, are all contained within the infotainment system too, which makes them awkward and annoying to access on the move.

On the shortcuts bar at the bottom of the screen, you can quickly tap left and right to change the temperature, but adjusting the fan speed or anything else requires a deeper dive and interacting with the screen to change the heating or cooling will trigger the driver attention warning, which is immensely frustrating.

Fortunately, there are some physical controls to be found still, such as a rocker-style gear shifter, switches for the regenerative braking – which can be standard or high depending on your preference – the drive modes, a volume scroller, and buttons for the parking brake and to start/stop the car.

There are also physical buttons on the steering wheel that are simple and easy to use, allowing the driver to customise the 10.25-inch cluster to show what safety systems are in action, energy use, and tyre pressures, among other things.

For staying connected, there are two USB-C ports, as well as a wireless phone charger with cooling to stop your phone from overheating and a slot to hold another phone next to it.

For rear occupants, there are two more USB ports in the second row, one Type A and one Type C.

The 12-speaker Dynaudio sound system is nothing to write home about, and would easily be outgunned by more sophisticated set-ups from the likes of Bowers & Wilkins or Sennheiser, but equally wasn’t noticeably tinny or crackly.

For owners, BYD offers its My BYD app through which users can remotely operate features such as door locking/unlocking, control the air conditioning, set seat ventilation and heating, check the battery percentage or remaining charging time, or even the vehicle’s location.

It’s free for the first two years, after which there is a fee for ongoing use.

While it may seem that they are the same because they share a name, shoppers shouldn’t confuse the BYD Sealion 7 with its sibling, the BYD Sealion 6.

While both are five-seat family SUVs, that one little number makes a big difference – the Sealion 7 is a coupe-style fully-electric SUV, while the Sealion 6 is a plug-in hybrid SUV. In fact, it was Australia's top-selling plug-in hybrid last year.

The Sealion 7 is also bigger than the Sealion 6. It is 55mm longer, 35mm wider, and 50mm lower, and its wheelbase is also 165mm longer, meaning it has more leg room inside the cabin.

The BYD Sealion 7 has a sloping rear roof line, retractable door handles that lie flush when locked or the car is in motion, 10-spoke 19-inch alloy wheels with 235/50 front and 255/45 rear tyres for better grip (on the Premium, the Performance gets 20-inch alloy wheels) and red brake calipers.

There are four paint choices, Aurora White, which this test car wore – although it looks more silver in real life, Atlantis Grey, Cosmos Black and Shark Grey. Only the white is standard, with Atlantis Grey and Cosmos Black an extra $1500, and the Shark Grey costing $2000 more.

The Sealion 7 is a very comfortable car to drive, but that comfort doesn’t come at the expense of dynamics or performance.

The ride is soft and smooth despite only having frequency-selective, non-adaptive dampers, and it’s not fazed by large bumps or changes in camber, but the secondary ride is a little busy at times depending on the quality of the road surface.

It’s underpinned by the same e-Platform 3.0 chassis of the Seal sedan, Atto 3 SUV and other BYD models available overseas.

The Sealion’s ride is also helped by it wearing comfort-focused Continental EcoContact 6 tyres. The back set is larger than on the front to improve traction and stability, with the 19-inch wheels clad in 255/45 R19 and 235/50 R19 rubber, respectively.

As an electric car, there’s obviously no engine noise, but the road noise kicked up by the tyres can be loud at times if the surface is poor, and at higher speeds, such as on the freeway, the sound of the wind in the cabin is significant.

There isn’t much body roll to speak of, which adds to the comfort for the driver and passengers, but how well it steers is largely dependent on which setting it’s in.

There are two choices, Comfort or Sport, and the latter is definitely the better of the two. In Comfort, the steering is far too light.

It can be useful for parking or hooking around a roundabout, but for most circumstances Sport is the winner because it’s much heavier – but not too heavy – and feels like you have more control over the vehicle.

The Sealion 7 also has plenty of poke to get you moving, with 230kW/380Nm on offer from its single, rear-mounted, electric motor and 82.56kWh battery, and is quick off the mark in all except Eco mode.

In Eco mode, one of four options that also include Normal, Sport and Snow, performance is noticeably more restrained to protect the driving range, helping to shift its 2225kg kerb weight smoothly from a standstill or higher up the speedo range.

It might not be supercar-beating, but the Premium can sprint from 0–100km/h in a claimed 6.7 seconds, while that time is shaved to 4.5 seconds for the Performance.

Energy is recouped via either the Standard or High regenerative braking modes. Standard feels just like a normal car, whereas the impact in High is more pronounced but certainly not the most jarring I’ve felt.

The medium SUV segment is Australia’s most crowded, with dozens of options on the table to suit most tastes and budgets.

However, the number of fully-electric SUVs that are under or around $50,000 is still relatively low in comparison, with models from early entrant Tesla still proving some of the most popular.

The BYD Sealion 7 goes into battle against predominantly the Tesla Model Y, Kia EV5 and XPeng G6.

The Tesla Model Y, normally the pack leader, starts from $58,900 for the Rear-Wheel Drive, while the Kia EV5 range opens at $56,770 for the Air Standard Range FWD, and the XPeng G6 at $54,800 for the Standard Range Wagon RWD.

Other options include the Kia EV6, Hyundai Ioniq 5 or Volkswagen ID.4 and ID.5, depending on whether your focus is on outright cost, driving dynamics, driving range or styling.

As a package, the BYD Sealion 7 is a good one. It has a comfortable ride, it’s quick, well equipped in terms of both features and safety, and well priced for what it is.

The warranty and servicing terms, although not segment-leading, are still fair too.

It doesn’t drive quite as well as a Tesla Model Y, but neither do you have to put up with some of the weird Tesla quirks, like having to change gears through the infotainment screen or use a card to open the doors.

It’s cheaper than the Tesla and the Kia EV5 as well, and because BYD has been in the market for a few years now, it is more established, and therefore possibly more trusted, than newer players like XPeng.

If you’re looking for an electric car with a budget of around $50,000, this should certainly be on your shopping list.

A born-and-bred newshound, Kathryn has worked her way up through the ranks reporting for, and later editing, two renowned UK regional newspapers and websites, before moving on to join the digital newsdesk of one of the world’s most popular newspapers – The Sun. More recently, she’s done a short stint in PR in the not-for-profit sector, and led the news team at Wheels Media.

Read more about Kathryn Fisk