2026 BYD Sealion 7 Review | Great Car with a few issues
Of late, I feel I’ve started most of my reviews with a bit of a spoiler, and that is to say, this is a great car. And I I’m going to say it again and even more good stuff about the BYD Steel Line 7. But um there is a few issues and uh whilst few and far between and I’m going to be very nitpicky here. Maybe just go try it now. Be there. Thanks for watching. appreciate it. No, no, I’m kidding. I’m kidding. So, look, in this review, I’m going to tell you what features it has, how much range you could expect from it, uh what car you definitely should buy because you know what? There’s definitely one what I would avoid, and um maybe alternative options to it because in this price bracket, mate, is it getting hard to select the right car? The BYD steel line comes in two different options, either premium or performance, starting at $54,990 before on-road cost through to $63,990 before on-road cost. There’s four different color choices, either from including a price, $1,500 for these two or $2,000 for this one. Wheels, if you go for the performance, you’re going to get 20 in, but otherwise, these are pretty good looking 19 in. And um that’s realistically it. Now in this review I will go further into which one you should be getting. Um but if it is is it already obvious? I think so. [Music] Space in the back of the Cine 7 is excellent. I mean this seat is in my driving position. And look how much knee room I have here. under the seat. I can tap my feet for days to some excellent tunes with thanks to that D audio system and headroom adequate. Heaps there. Big ticket of approval. Shoulder width is pretty okay. Okay. I guess if you’re going to carry five people in this car, so three across the back, it might be a bit tight, but I think realistically most people only carry one person when they’re driving to work, aren’t they? Yeah. There’s a pull out armrest here that contains two out of the total of eight bottle holders and they’re actually a really good size and I really do appreciate it. And there’s also some hidden storage under there too. I like how you’ve also got rear vents for the passengers along with some USBC and USBA ports down there. There’s also two at the front with a 12vt socket. So, more than enough uh charging capacity in this car. Plus, not to forget, there’s actually a 50 watt wireless charger. 50 watts. You know how powerful that is? Just 5 years ago, people thought 15 watts was fast charging. 50 watts is near to what your uh PC, your laptop actually needs. Yeah, bit of comparison there. So, pretty damn impressive. Under thigh support is excellent. And I love the glass panoramic roof here. Also, the fact there’s outboard eyes are fixed seating positions. And the only thing I would probably like, especially when you use premium in the name, is that these tilt adjustable seats here that are manual, by the way, maybe they should be motorized. Just a suggestion. This hasn’t happened in a while, but audio for this next clip was lost. I can’t explain it, and it’s just a lot of wind noise, and it sounds like this. The Seite 7 features. Anyway, here’s my voice over. Getting into the boot can be done either through the key fob button under the lip or with kick to open which I really appreciate. Space in here pretty good. 500 L with the seats up or put them down and it’s perhaps 1789 L. That’s EU specs. Australian I don’t know but probably the same. In the frunk there’s 58 L which is a very good size and very capable carrying your charging equipment. Other features include tie down hooks, a little cubby hole for nicks and knacks, a sub boot for, well, whatever you want to choose to put in here, and all in all, a very usable space for most everyday living needs. Now, one thing that I think BYD have done here, by the way, now I mentioned the boot being 500 L. I think it’s because they’ve given it all to the cabin. And um I don’t know about you, but I seldom have ever drive to the airport with some luggage back there and that boot’s more than adequate for everyday shopping because look at this. Look how much space I have got in this seat. I haven’t moved it where my driving position is. And um yeah, it’s a bit of a reach, but that’s completely fine. Now, material wise, everything is soft touch. I like the Alcantara lined wireless charging bay here, but there’s also a blank dummy one there, too. So, if you don’t want your phone charging, that is awesome. Most everything is controlled through this touchscreen, which I’ll get to in a minute, but it’s got wireless Android Auto. It’s also got wireless Apple CarPlay. So, tick tick there. And integrated Google Maps. Sound quality coming out from those 12 speakers, D audio system. Excellent. Very good indeed. I found I’ve had to tune it a bit, which I don’t think is necessarily a good sign, but after a bit of tuning, I found a sound signature that I actually liked. enough bass, good mid treles, decent bass. Um, 12 speakers, can’t complain. Glove compartment, nice and big, awesome there. And down under the center console here, and this floating island, so to speak. Not so much floating, it’s actually connected to the car and seems solid enough. Um, good space there for a bag or knickknacks and things like that. You got a center little storage bin for other knicks and knacks. And it’s it’s pretty amazing that for this price point you can get all this. I guess uh that moon roof panoramic roof be lovely if it was actually the sort that you can open but it does have an integrated blind which okay here’s an issue that is linked to the autoc closing of the windows. Okay. Okay. So, when you lock the car, that’s also going to close and it’s linked to the windows and that’s uh little bit annoying. I like to see those two functions separated. But that’s uh that that’s a really petty thing to be um saying, “Can you please do better by not a bad little uh critique list, is it?” I forgot to mention, by the way, very clever little thing here. If you got a tall bottle, you can put it into this little front bottle holder and you can push it down. And when you take it out and you want to reset it for the next one, you press that button and it goes back up. Kind of cool. Hey. Anyway, the driver’s seat is 10-way power adjustable and for the passenger sixway power adjustable. The driver gets uh two functions over that one that is lumbar support as well as under thigh extension like you know comes outish. This seat I feel is well bolstered pretty much. Could be a bit better on the sides, but it’s not a performance car, so I don’t expect that. Very nice, very comfy, and it’s both heated and ventilated. And the rear seats, by the way, are also heated. The touchscreen is very responsive and fast and is filled filled with menus galore and stuff you can turn on and off. As an owner, you will get used to it. You know exactly where to navigate to and as you will come to learn, whatever you’re doing there is saved to your profile. So that’s awesome and all. One thing I do make mention of though is that because it is so featurerich, if you try to find the word by using the search function, let’s say for the sun shade, you won’t necess necessarily find it. So you need to think a bit more generically. So I found well through the help of a forum, use the word auto and all the auto options come up and then you can probably find what you need to adjust. But it’s kind of it’s it’s very rich, very very featurerich and has been improved over time. And I believe in Australia so far there’s been a few updates, but maybe not as frequent as what you’ve come to expect from the likes of say Tesla, but that’s completely fine. When you get into and out of the car, it’s got the equivalent of easy entries. And a thing that I think is a new feature in this car is that only this seat will move for easy entry. the passenger doesn’t which something we complaining about now if you know exactly what that means can you comment below because I’m finding I’m finding what’s the issue here what is the issue I I this seat moving getting in and out great I don’t want them want to do that but if you do maybe it should be an option in there maybe that’s what people are saying yeah probably is that anyway driver controls are pretty straightforward and very familiar for those who are coming from a petrol diesel car say uh You got pull back for drive, forward for reverse. Got the park button there as well as a button that need not be there and it is start stop. Uh there’s actually an option in the menu system that when you unlock the car, it will turn it on and when you get out when you get out and lock the car, it will turn off. So, I don’t get that. Um, yeah, there’s got to be a reason that you can do either either, but it’s kind of like, you know, with the key fob and the door handles, fact, actually. Yeah, let’s talk about that. A thing that this car does that it doesn’t actually do. I’ll explain. All right, I’m walking towards the car. Here we go. Here we go. Now, I’m looking for the puddle light under here. Yes. You can’t see it, but I’ll put it on camera now. There’s a puddle light here. Awesome. Love it. But this is recognizing the fact I’ve got a key fob right here with me right now. And also there’s a app, a digital app along with your digital key. Um, so it’s recognized the fact that I, as the owner, had the right to open this car right now. But what do you notice? What do you notice? The door handles are flush, and that’s lovely. And I do like that the Model S used to have these self-presenting door handles. Key word self-presenting. But in this car, to make them come out, I’ve got to press that button. Okay. Or conversely, you use a key fob to have a bit more of that magical magical experience, shall we say? So, just pretend I hadn’t approached a car and I’m coming towards it. I want to flex and I walk up and I do this. All right, ready? Here we go. I’m walking up. I casually just do that and in I go. [Music] If this car can recognize the fact that I’m walking up to it, why is that not a thing? I don’t know. Before we get into driving proper, I just want to point out the many, many safety systems of the BYD CLIN 7. There is so many different things in here that you can turn on and off. Most will actually save and not turn themselves back on, which can be, you know, obviously annoying for some people. Just not that car, which is great. Uh, there’s a few things I would like to see change, and we’ll get into those, I promise. But can I just show you this? I’m going to press a button on the steering wheel to show you how awesome and absolutely crystal clear. These cameras are amazing. They they’re simply amazing. And the fact that you got Google Maps running here, so you can navigate through that and in turn you can uh see where your directions are in your heads-up display. But well, here’s the first little criticism. Um, when you have your navigation going and it’s telling you, well, first up, what your speed is, uh, what your next turn is, uh, speed limit of the area. Um, I’ve elected to turn on, by the way, whether or not my intelligent cruise control keeps is visual for me there as well, my head-up display. All very good things. But there’s this annoying thing that for the most part, it’s going to point, hey, go straight ahead. go straight ahead and it just keeps on doing that and doing that until I think I don’t know when it stops doing it but it feels to me because I’m doing urban driving like streets um it’s always on so it’s telling me you got to turn left here so you’re stationary at a satellite and it’s just constantly doing this little dance very annoying very annoying but it’s uh this is I’ve got to say it’s it’s a real driver’s car. And I’ll explain more exactly what that is in a second. But I mean, can you see how clear that vision is? Isn’t that great? But also know this. Um why is it on the left side of the screen there? It’s um not in the right place at all. It I should just indicate right. It’s not that I should be doing a right turn here, but I could. Let me just try in a second. Um, that little pop-up should be on the other side. Of course, it doesn’t want to do it right now. I’ll get it to do in a second. I don’t understand. But you can you can get where I’m coming from, right? So, the indicator’s on the correct side of the car. The charging ports on the wrong side of the car. that little pop-up window that’s very really really helpful. Um, you know, why is it on the left side of the screen? Should be over here. Or maybe my display in front of me here. That would be also very beneficial. Um, I don’t know. Comment below if you agree with me. Anyway, this is the premium version of the Steel Line 7. So, it’s got a single modem and that can produce 230 kW of power or 380 new m of torque. Plenty get up and go. 0 to 106.7 seconds. Feels good. Feels feels enough. And FYI, my 2022 Tesla Model Y has the same sort of performance specs. Awesome. If you go for the performance version, not to confuse anybody, you’re going to get two motors. So that does 390 kW of power or 690 new meters of torque. I’ll get into later in the review as to why getting the performance is not such a good idea. But I get people they like going faster. So in that car 0 to 100 in 4 4.5 seconds good number especially for the price you think about it. But I think what might let you down because as I understand it, suspension in this is identical in both. And it’s an SUV. It’s a medium-siz SUV. You’re not buying a performance vehicle. So, I would recommend already, bit of a spoiler alert, just stick with the premium entry level model. You only got see on the hidden steering wheel and um that zero to 100 time. That’s it. That’s realistically it. Um, it it absorbs buns beautifully. This really really poor road that I’m we’re on right now is really comfortable. You know, in my Model Y, it’s got really hard suspension. Crazy stupid hard. No reason for it. This is what I expect from a car. And when you couple that with a great feeling accelerator that feels quite natural and uh very progressive along with a good feeling brake too. Uh the disc brakes on this really bitey. I’ve I’ve really enjoyed them. And the brake is also very linear and has that feel in it. And that’s why I kind of mentioned before that this is a great car for people who are coming out of petrol diesel ones into the Seal Line 7. They’re going to feel right at home. They really are. Something that might be new to them is regen braking. And disappointingly, the Steeline 7, sure, it’s got normal and high levels of regen, but neither is enough in my opinion. And why I say that is because it doesn’t have one pedal driving. I really do wish they had that as an option in this car because I think they would elevate it to the likes of well what its competition is. MG, Dal, Zika, Gil, all those have one pedal driving and this doesn’t. And when you’ve got auto hold and this car’s got auto hold and you’ve got a great electric motor setup and a very good battery as well. Why is it missing that really fundamental basic of what I think every modern electric car should have? And sure, there’ll be people out there right now who disagree with me. Fine. Comment below. I completely if you like cars without one pedal driving, then this is your car, right? But at least give B give people that option. Just put it in there, have as an option. All right. Next little little bit feedback I’m going to be given is the intelligent cruise control ICC. Uh, a lot of acronyms I’m going to be throwing around for a few minutes, but bear with me. The cruise control system and lane keep cube assist I found I found and I correct me if I’m wrong. I’ll just pull over and double check this are interrelated. They’re interlin and you can’t separate one from the other. And that is really kind of annoying. So I put it in break for a hot second. Let’s search for it. So, IC is on or it’s off. Okay. Uh, let’s try lane keep assist. Uh, lane keep assist. Emergency lane keep assist. What’s it called? I forget what it’s called. There’s another acuman for this damn thing. And it’s somewhere buried in the menus. Uh, lane departure. H, I think it’s here. Yes. All right. Have I do that warning? Nope. Still hasn’t turned off. I’m looking at the symbol in my head-up display. Still hasn’t turned it off. Prevention. No. No. This is not it, Chris. I’m not in the right place. But I haven’t found a setting. And as you can kind of gather, there’s a lot in here. I haven’t found a setting to actually decouple the intelligent cruise control with the lane keep assist because when you engage one you get both and that’s kind of a bit annoying. Must say though the lane keep assist and well with the cruise control just keep them together Chris keep them together they’re actually pretty good though they’re akin to basic autopilot Tesla autopilot so does curves really well stop start stop start traffic great uh comes to a complete stop will start when the car in front goes um gives you the verbal warnings of what it’s doing you you can see your headup display as well tick right no complaints there my issue that I have though is that it can be sometimes overly aggressive, like to disengage it, you can either just press a button again, tap the brake, or yank the wheel. And yanking that wheel can sometimes be a bit of work. Really can. Or let’s say it reads the uh the lane markings poorly. When it does that, it might actually really pull the car over doing something not near dangerous, but just you have to be alert. You got to keep your hands on the wheel, let’s face it. And nag factor is pretty respectable. It’s about I don’t know every 10 15 seconds if you are if you’re a bit light on with the touch with the steering wheel but you know that’s in line with most other cars out there. Noise levels are very respectable. They’re good to average. Uh not the best car I’ve ever tested, but remember we got to remember we have to remember the price point of this thing is remarkable what they’ve done. Again, how how is how are by doing this? I don’t know how they’re doing it. I really don’t. Now let’s talk about range for hot sec. Uh this is a radio range by the way. Uh the single motor version premium is 482 kmters. Go for the dual motor version and it’s obviously heavier. That’s going to reduce down to 456. And as you can see from my usage I’m getting about 17.8 kwatt hours per 100 ks. So, from that battery pack, I can probably get about 4 and I think it was um 63 km from it. It’s rated at 482, so not too far off. Not too shabby at all. And um yeah, do you ever get your absolute claim range in your car? Comment below now. I guarantee you don’t. Anyway, overall I found driving the Seal Line 7 to be a really enjoyable experience like to see the menu system to be tied up a bit and ability to be able to find the settings a bit more easily. Uh a better way of saying that, but you get what I mean. Um having one pedal driving definitely that’ll be a great addition too. But otherwise, I don’t know. It’s it’s it’s it’s very good car. The BYD seal line has got okay charging specs. Uh but my I’ve got a note charging ports in Australia should be in the left hand side because if let’s say you’re doing street side parking you want it on the curb side, passenger side, not on the driver’s side. Just saying. The BYD Sealine 7 features an 11 kW onboard charger. So, if you’re fortunate enough to have threephase power, and most Aussies don’t, by the way, but if you do, that’s going to take from zero to 100% full in about 7 12 to 9 hours, depending on exactly where that battery is at. Otherwise, if you come to a rapid charge like this, 10 to 80% up to 150 kW is going to take you a bit over 30 minutes. I would like to see those numbers improve. Some other car makers in the Chinese sort of segment are doing 22 kW for AC charging. So half that charging time and then conversely when it comes to rapid charging 150 is only about average. Be nice to see 800 volt architecture to improve those figures. And in terms of cost, well look if you got solar it’s absolutely free. Put yourself on electric vehicle plan where it’s maybe free during the daytime and very cheap overnight like 8 cents per kilowatt hour. It’s only going to cost you $660. Typical 35 cent electricity plan is attached under $29. And then come to a rapid charge like this, it’s going to be anywhere between $37 through to almost $61 if you were to completely recharge this battery from again zero to 100%. So yeah, I think be nice to see some improvement those specs. But also one awesome thing this car does which I couldn’t test because I don’t have the adapter is a vehicle’s a load ability. And that’s to say, you can actually uh plug in, let’s say, a kettle, a TV, uh a toaster, and do a little bit of really awesome glamping and uh a barbecue where you can, you know, again, flex your muscle as to how awesome this car is because, you know what, those charging specs aside are completely liveable. Nice to see him improve, but vehicles are loads also a great feature. Final thoughts on the BYD Sealine 7. In a word, remarkable. Great value, ride and handling that is great and very much well suited for the market that it’s in. That is to say, a mediumsiz SUV, and build quality, features that I think leave you wanting for very little at all. The issue you’re going to have is this. Do you pay extra for the performance? And I say no, you’re only going to get bigger wheels, heated steering wheel, and faster performance, but also less range. And the other issue you got here is in this market space, there is a lot you could choose from from the X Pen G6 Zika 7X, which actually is a bit more pricey. I recently reviewed the MGS5 EV, and that was a very good car, too. And this is also great. I think we’re very lucky right now in Australia to be in such an interesting space and I I I think it’s worth your while for me. I’d like to see one pedal driving added to this car. A few refinements with the software that I mentioned in review, but otherwise, nah, I’m I’m quite impressed. So, if you have enjoyed this video, please do subscribe right now. It absolutely helps out the channel. Share this with a video with a friend that you know is maybe looking for a car. Get they should try this. They really should. Um, commenting helps. uh questions. Uh super thanks Kofi for early access and behind the scenes, but otherwise YouTube reckons right now one of these videos might interest you. So go check that out. And as per usual, thank you so much for watching.
The 2026 BYD Sealion 7 is a great EV, pairing excellent ride quality and features, all at incredible price. It feels like a genuine game-changer, but its nearly-perfect package is held back by few things, and there’s one I would avoid. Watch the full review to see if this revolutionary EV’s powerful pros are enough to overcome its surprising tech cons!
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#BYD #Sealion7 #EV
00:00 – It’s a great car
00:51 – Simple options
01:34 – Rear Seat Features
03:17 – Cargo Space
04:15 – Front features
06:02 – Roof shade is great but
06:37 – More features
07:22 – Menus galore!
08:52 – Why have both?
09:32 – A NOT missing feature?
11:03 – Let’s drive!
12:51 – It’s a drivers car
16:27 – Regen is good, but
20:50 – Real world range
