BYD is celebrating two years on the European market at the Paris Motor Show by launching its eighth new model and the fifth to be sold in the UK, the Sealion 7.
The newcomer, the first of six new BYD models heading for Europe by the end of 2025, is described as a mid-size pure-electric SUV with performance, practicality and dynamic design that are ideally suited to the European market – it is clearly a model to rival the likes of the big-selling Model Y from Tesla.
The first examples of the Sealion 7 on the UK market are likely to be range-topping dual-motor versions will all-wheel drive – BYD is yet to reveal power output for the car but has stated that it will have a 0-62mph time of 4.5 seconds.
Business Motoring Award Winners 2024
Business Motoring Award Winners 2024
Business Motoring Award Winners 2024
Business Motoring Award Winners 2024
Business Motoring Award Winners 2024
Business Motoring Award Winners 2024
Business Motoring Award Winners 2024
Business Motoring Award Winners 2024
The car employs a large 82.5kW version of bYD’s Blade battery which can be recharged at up to 230kW – its official range is expected to be in the plus 340-mile bracket.
The Sealion 7 is also predicted to be the first vehicle built at BYD’s new plant in Hungary, due to open at the end of 2025 and a response to tariffs the European Union has decided to impose on vehicles imported from China.
However UK sales are expected to begin rather earlier – at the end of October, with first deliveries before the end of 2024.
The Sealion 7 launched in China in 2023 and has also been offered with a smaller battery and single motors with two power outputs. BYD is not saying yet whether these versions will join the UK line-up, but it would seem likely.
BYD’s European Managing Director Michael Shu described the Sealion 7 as a response to customers showing great interest in high-performance SUVs, adding; “Besides its Blade Battery, cell-to-body construction and our LFP battery chemistry, it is equipped with the world’s highest-speed electric motor in mass production, with a speed of 23,000rpm and 400 revolutions every single second. We are the only company to achieve such a record.”