BYD Sealion 8 hybrid 2026 review Australia: New 7-seat SUV targets Hyundai Santa Fe with PHEV power!
BYD has absolutely exploded in Australia. Actually, in the last couple of years, it’s risen from absolutely nothing to one of our top 10 favorite automakers. And it’s done all of that with just a handful of models on sale. Now, obviously, it’s expanding a lot with cars like the Shark 6, but this is their first go at a three row SUV. This is going to be the Sealine 8, and it will launch in Australia during 2026. And this is a quick preview drive of what you can expect. So stay tuned. We’re preview driving an evaluation of the car at the X Holden proving ground at Lang Lang. And there is a lot we don’t know yet, including exactly what that price tag will be. If the brand follows the pattern so far, though, expect the price to challenge established players like the Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV or Kia Sarrento with price tags currently estimated to start north of the Celine 6’s top price in that mid50,000 region. Now, it will likely cost less than $75,000 at the top, which would mean it would occupy a space from the late60,000s to early 70,000. This is new pricing ground for BYD’s incoming flagship passenger car. And if you really just want a seven seat plug-in hybrid, you can always pick Cher’s Tigo 8, which starts at under 50,000. But the Seite 8 also brings with it the brand’s latest tech, new design, and a more premium edge. Preliminary specs we’ve seen for the topsp spec premium, for example, will include a 15.6 6-in multimedia touchscreen with wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, a 10.25 in digital dash, a 21 speaker audio system, front row massage seats with leather interior trim, a 50W wireless phone charger, and 21-in alloy wheels. It also gets the brand’s latest performance plug-in hybrid drivetrain, new intelligent damping for the suspension, and more. There will also be a more affordable front-wheel drive version, and the brand is plotting three trims all up with initial arrivals expected as early as December. You can expect up to 152 ks of range from its massive 36 1/2 kWh battery pack, although that is to the more lenient NEC standard. So, the CL8 is pretty much an evolution of the same sleek design which adorns cars like the ADO2 and ADO3. Although, it leans more into BYD’s dynasty design language in its face rather than the ocean design language which is worn by the Seal or Celine 6. It takes a step into a more angular and techy vibe with the contrasting cutaway on the front door and aerostyle multi-tone wheel covers. Plus, it gets a new look for its LED headlights as well as retractable door handles like the Cine 7. So, what’s most interesting about the Cine 8 on the inside, not only does it bring a more swish but familiar styling on the outside, but on the inside there’s quite a few little bits of new switch gear and stuff which we haven’t seen in BYDs before. There’s a new kind of angular styling design across the dash here. some new textures, plenty of soft touch surfaces, and the steering wheel has even been updated, too, with a couple of new buttons and things. As always, you get a nice big touchcreen. There is some stuff I don’t love about this one. That lower third shortcut bar is never the best to use, although this is a little bit nicer to use than some of its Chinese rivals, which don’t make the best use of this large touchscreen space. Uh, but again, it is one of the better of the options on the market. The seats, they’ve also been updated and they’re a little different from the other ones we’ve seen in cars like the Cine 6. They’re kind of even plusher and have even more adjustability. I quite like that. And as usual, you’ve got your two uh spaces here for phones. One’s a wireless charger with air conditioning. This new array of little shortcut buttons, which we’ve seen on a couple of other of the newer BYD products that we’ve seen here today as well. Couple of practical cup holders. They look like they’re quite good with adjustable ridges. A little slot here, which might be good for a phone or your keys. And then if we open up this center console here, uh it’s nice and deep down there as well. Um thankfully, yes, this car has a sun shade with a cover, although it is excruciatingly slow to open and close. Let’s go have a look at the back seat. Okay, second row of the Cine 8. Immensely spacious, just like every other second row in almost every other BYD. You can see I’ve got heaps of knee room here for me, but you might have also noticed that the seat is slightly further forward. And the reason for that is I’ve actually set it to my comfortable position in the third row, too. So, even with this seat rolled forward slightly, I’ve still got plenty of room in here. And that’s really what you want from a three row SUV if you’re going to put adults in it. So, elsewhere, you’ve got these nice design pieces through the doors. This sort of geometric design pattern continues. And there’s nice soft trims all throughout the doors. The seats are really spongy. I really like that as well. There’s dark trims in here, but there’s enough window space that it doesn’t make too much of a claustrophobic kind of feel to the interior. Uh, in terms of amenities, there’s plenty of stuff. So, there’s big bottle holders in each door. There’s a little slot down here, which might be good for a phone. USBC, USBA, and you’ve got a whole separate climate panel, touch screen here where you can control the settings in the second row and by extension, the third row. Your adjustable air vents are here in the roof as well. And you’ve got these kind of clamshell pockets on the backs of the doors. And you’ve got a little adjuster here where you can move the second uh well the passenger seat in the front row so you can extend a bit of room back there, especially if you need to get third row passengers out. Nice. I’m actually pretty impressed with the third row in the Cine 8. I didn’t have to roll this second row forward too far. And I still fit here with a nice sort of inch for my knees. And there’s actually a cutout for my feet below. So I don’t feel too squeezed in here. Although, you wouldn’t want to be too much taller than me because the roof line is almost touching my head and I’m 182 cm tall. So, that’s still pretty impressive. I can’t fit in most of these three row SUVs as comfortably. The other thing that impresses me about this is there’s actually a reasonable amount of amenity back here. The seats are still really squishy. They feel wide enough for me. And these toppers here for the wheel arches are actually soft clad. So, I’ve got somewhere to put my elbow that’s nice and comfortable. It goes a long way to making this space more amendable for adults. And on top of that, there’s a bottle holder, a phone holder back here, too. Some decent sized windows and air vents in the roof with their own individual lockoffs. So, I’m actually reasonably impressed with it. On the preliminary specifications we’ve seen, the boot measures 270 L with the third row up, 960 L with only the second row up, or 1,960 L with both the second and third row folded flat. Now, the CLIN 8 doesn’t bring with it just a third row of seats. It also brings with it a brand new powertrain for BYD which has been on the Chinese market for some time now. They call it DMP. That stands for power. So this is a more powerful version of the standard plug-in hybrid setup that you might get in something like the Cine 6 and it has almost 700 new m of torque. But see the power figures on your screen now cuz there are separate ones for the engine and for the hybrid system. Also it consumes as low as one liter to 100 ks of fuel. But you’ll need to check that out in the real world, too, because as we know with plug-in hybrids, your usage will vary greatly. For what it’s worth, BYD says to expect around 5.3 L to 100 km, even when the battery is drained, and Chinese specs have the battery charging up at a maximum rate of 71 kW on DC, and that should let it charge in around half an hour. On top of that, it offers up to 6 kW of vehicle to load output, but check back closer to the launch to see what gets locked in for our market. Okay, so CLine 8. I mean, this is my first time driving it, too. So, we’re all going to come along for the first impression. Now, just like other BYD models, the first thing you’ll notice straight away is nice, light, but maybe overly electrically assisted steering. It is quite disconnected, but there’s enough feel left at those front wheels, so it’s not entirely disconnected like some cars can be. Also, like other BYDs, I prefer the comfort mode steering uh in this compared to the sport mode steering, which seems to artificially add a whole bunch of weight. But anyway, that’s much of a muchness. Now, this does have a really soft ride. It’s almost like riding on a pillow in this thing. It does bounce around a little bit and it does have a distinctive softness to it. And that’s not unusual for a lot of these other Chinese vehicles either. So, worth keeping in mind. It’s not as tight or balanced as some rivals. At least that’s what I’m noticing so far. But it is comfortable. And I think that’s a big trade-off that a lot of people forget that it’s actually nice to drive around in a really soft and comfortable vehicle. So, also like other BYDs, what you’ll notice is the driving characteristics are very smooth. Because of the hybrid system acting largely as a range extender more than a traditional hybrid like a Toyota is, you don’t really notice too much of the drivetrain when you accelerate or slow down. It’s all done with regen and a lot of intervention by the electric motors. So, it is nice and smooth and largely like driving an EV. Now, this system is meant to be a lot more powerful than even other BYD systems with a significant bump in output uh up to that 700 new meters of torque. So, I think what we’ll do is we’ll give it a little stab here and see what happens. Wo! A bit of a slow roll on, but it is alarmingly rapid. We hit 100 really quickly there. So, it is nice and smooth with that acceleration. And you almost don’t notice how fast you’re going until you peer down at that speedo either. Maybe just because of the size of this thing. Also, because of that soft steering though, it’s maybe not the last word in handling. It kind of does tilt side to side. Uh I’m not sure whether this demo car that we’re testing here has the adaptive dampers, but it does feel like the roads filtered out quite well. Uh we’re on a test track here that sort of simulates an Australian road, so there’s quite a few undulations, which it’s sort of really soft on. Um, but it does filter out a lot of the more harsh bumps quite easily. So, that’s quite notable. Now, when it comes to other things like safety tech and ownership terms, I think we’ll talk more about that when this car gets closer to its launch window. It’s a little bit hard to say what kind of real world driving range you’ll get at this time. Although, the NEC driving range is pretty long and it will kind of need to be for a car this big. As this is a pre-production vehicle and specs are yet to be locked in, including an Ancap safety rating, we’ll let you know more about those closer to the CLIN8’s launch. Now, for ownership, expect the usual set of BYD terms, but again, a lot of these specs are yet to be locked in, so make sure to tune back in close to the CL8’s launch where we’ll have more of those details. So, there you have it. Everything we can tell you so far about the BYD CL8. Expect to learn a little bit more as we get closer to its launch date in Australia. But what do you think? Would you consider one of these against something like a Mitsubishi Outlander plug-in hybrid as a seven-seater? Tell us what you think in the comments below. And we’ve got plenty of BYD news and other things too over at carsguide.com.au. [Music]
Tom White takes a close look at the new 2026 BYD Sealion 8, a large SUV aiming to take on family favourites like the Toyota Kluger, Kia Sorento and Hyundai Santa Fe. This preview review covers what Australian buyers can expect from BYD’s biggest plug-in hybrid SUV yet.
Tom walks through the Sealion 8’s line-up, including model grades, equipment levels and powertrain options. He also examines the exterior and interior design, cabin layout and practicality for families, including boot space and seating flexibility.
On the road, the review explores early driving impressions, comfort and refinement, while also touching on BYD’s latest tech, safety features and infotainment system. Tom rounds out with a look at expected pricing and value compared with key rivals in the segment.
#BYD #Sealion8 #Review
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Timecodes:
00:00 Intro
00:30 Pricing and features
01:59 Design
02:49 Practicality
06:14 Under the bonnet
06:41 Efficiency
07:12 Driving
10:09 Safety
10:18 Ownership
10:30 Verdict
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Read Tom’s full review: https://bit.ly/3Jv7c78
Check out our BYD Sealion 8 hub: https://bit.ly/3JeTuFs
Find more SUVs: https://bit.ly/3QVs1X1
Visit our EVGuide: https://bit.ly/3UHO9GT
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