Video by Leah Carroll, words by Donal Byrne.
With a length of 4.8 metres, a height of 1.6 metres, and a subsidised entry price of €45,435 (the full retail price is €50,990), you get a lot of car for your money with the BYD Sealion.
What you don't get from this SUV with coupe styling, though, is a lot of driver engagement.
The Sealion is the latest car from the Chinese manufacturer, which is outstripping many of its competitors in terms of volume production and global sales, and perhaps its most ambitious.
It is designed to take on cars like the Tesla Model Y, the Volkswagen ID5 and the Hyundai Ioniq 5. And tariffs are certainly not holding it back, hence the subsidised and competitive pricing.
The Sealion is a big car and a heavy one too. It weighs in at 2.4 tonnes, which brings its own challenges.
The external styling is a little conservative, but it’s still more engaging than the boxier styling of a Polestar, say. The coupe effect does work well; the sloping roofline does not overly affect the rear headroom.
It has acres of interior space, especially in the rear, which even has reclining seats. It's an ideal space for two passengers, but a third will be compromised by the central armrest. The front seat passenger and driver enjoy a quite high seating position, which may not be to everyone’s taste, but I certainly liked it.
The car comes with two battery options - an 82.5 kWh one and a 91.3 kWh unit for a longer range. The 82.5 kWh battery in the entry-level Comfort version, which I drove, has a claimed range of 482 kilometres.
The real-world consumption in mixed conditions saw an 80 per cent charge give a return of 389 kilometres, leaving 34 per cent battery charge available after 224 kilometres of driving, not so far off the claimed range.
With a 313 horsepower output, it’s quick too, but the weight of the car and a slightly sensitive suspension made it quite wallowy in some circumstances. The steering could also be a little vague and light.
Driver assistance aids in Chinese cars are a source of irritation, and the Sealion is no exception. For example, I deviated from one set route on the nav system, and instead of recalculating quickly as other systems do, the car kept telling me repeatedly to make a U-turn.
The other issue is that you have to constantly navigate the menu on the screen to perform some key functions. It’s distracting - very much so, even though some screen shortcuts have been introduced on this model. Voice recognition did work well, though.
The huge 15.6" infotainment screen is the centrepiece of the car, and it rotates niftily between portrait and landscape. The 10.25" driver information screen is, like other such BYD screens, hard to read at times due to a lack of colour definition and font size. This is something that needs attention, as it becomes quite a problem, especially on brighter days.
There’s a 360-degree camera, adaptive cruise control, traffic-sign recognition, an intelligent speed-limit control and a full suite of safety features that gained the Sealion a full five-star Euro NCAP crash test rating.
You also get ventilated and heated front seats, a driver’s seat electrically adjustable in eight directions with lumbar support and a large panoramic sunroof.
Chinese manufacturers are clever at providing a lot of equipment as standard, while competitors charge for it.
Apart from the lack of driver engagement and intrusive driver assistance tech, the Sealion does offer quite a package at a very keen price. It is certainly very comfortable, especially in the rear, but it’s not a car to excite. Competence, space and comfort are its better virtues.
