We’ve finally had a chance to have a drive of the high performance BYD Sealion 7…but it does have some major weaknesses when it comes to trying to drive it as a performance car. Paul Maric gives you an idea of what it’s like in this detailed review.
NEW Tesla Model Y detailed review (inc 0-100 & braking)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kW0mUrqFknQ
Tesla vs BYD DRAG RACE! Model Y vs Sealion 7. This was SO close!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=94NxgLSSTKo
Hardness tester, noise and lane keeping results: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/121Auf6HGvaBqRToYcuAz94alin7Sw55SpOPECBDlnKE
Skip Ahead:
Intro: 00:00
Exterior: 01:14
Interior: 03:14
Infotainment: 04:27
Safety Tech: 05:47
Practicality: 06:20
Charging: 09:01
On the Road: 10:16
Driver aids: 18:14
Accel. & braking: 19:19
Verdict: 21:12
We review every new car on the market, bust car myths, cover the latest car tech and answer your burning questions.
Whether you need new car advice, purchase validation or simply love learning more about new cars and technology, we are your car experts.
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#byd #sealion7 #review
NEW Tesla Model Y detailed review (inc 0-100 & braking)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kW0mUrqFknQ
Tesla vs BYD DRAG RACE! Model Y vs Sealion 7. This was SO close!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=94NxgLSSTKo
Hardness tester, noise and lane keeping results: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/121Auf6HGvaBqRToYcuAz94alin7Sw55SpOPECBDlnKE
Skip Ahead:
Intro: 00:00
Exterior: 01:14
Interior: 03:14
Infotainment: 04:27
Safety Tech: 05:47
Practicality: 06:20
Charging: 09:01
On the Road: 10:16
Driver aids: 18:14
Accel. & braking: 19:19
Verdict: 21:12
We review every new car on the market, bust car myths, cover the latest car tech and answer your burning questions.
Whether you need new car advice, purchase validation or simply love learning more about new cars and technology, we are your car experts.
Subscribe to Car Expert: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7DvMhvy3H7ntEgn9n3xQcQ?sub_confirmation=1
You'll find us dropping new video content three times a week. If you'd like to ask a question about one of our videos, simply leave us a comment. If you'd like to give us any feedback on our content, feel free to email us, or alternatively, hit us up on social media.
Finally, we want this channel to grow with your support and feedback. If there's anything you don't like or would like to see us change, we'd love to hear from you!
Follow us on social media to see what we're up to and to ask any questions!
CarExpert:
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Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/carexpert.com.au
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Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/PaulMaric
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/PaulMaric
#byd #sealion7 #review
Category
🚗
MotorTranscript
00:00oh yeah that rear end just feels super light like right there when you transition to a direction
00:09change the rear end just feels like it's going to get away from you and that's that's kind of
00:14what's causing this stability control to be so overactive like it's got immense power in a
00:19straight line here like it is absolutely killing it for straight line acceleration
00:23g'day on paul so it is heating up here in australia and i'm not talking about the weather
00:27i'm talking about cars we are getting so many cars from the chinese market but it's becoming a
00:34little bit confusing to figure out what's going on this on the other hand is from byd a bit of an
00:38established player in australia been here for a little while and this is their competitor to the
00:43tesla model y it's called the sea lion 7 pretty handsome looking car so i'm going to run you
00:47through this in just a moment this is the top spec it's called the sea lion 7 performance it's priced
00:52at just under 65 grand if that is too expensive the entire range kicks off at just under 55 grand
00:58so it's a good little spread there today we're going to do a detailed review of this car so if
01:02you do want to skip ahead to other parts of this review you can use the time codes that are on the
01:05screen or if you're on youtube you can scroll down and use the chapters below by the way we've done a
01:09drag race with the tesla model y juniper as well if you want to check that video out there is a link in
01:13the description below yeah optional colors these guys are getting a little expensive when it comes to
01:17optional colors they're all over a thousand dollars unless you want to settle for the standard
01:21color not as bad as tesla 2300 bucks for an optional color on a tesla which is just out of control
01:27um full led headlights so you've got this strip that runs along the top here and then a little connecting
01:32section down the bottom there as well front camera byd insignia there and then a little bit of aero off
01:39to the side i love this design especially in this color this color is called shark gray it's a really
01:44cool silhouette and it stands out on the road it doesn't look generic or like every single other car
01:49on the road around the side here you've got a set of 20 inch alloy wheels machined finish on the
01:55outside and kind of like a graphite finish on the inside there with some wheel arch cladding have a
01:59look at these brakes it's a cross drilled rotor and a fairly big caliper there as well so hopefully that
02:04means this has decent stopping power decent set of treads as well michelin pilot sport uh ev tires so
02:10sportier ev tire you're going to sacrifice a little bit of range but given this is the performance variant
02:15tires like this should actually help it corner and sort of get around the place which we will test
02:19in our closed facility here a little bit later on byd design on the side there uh nfc here so you can
02:25get in and out of the car either with the key or with uh wireless like it is fully featured in that
02:30regard you've got a full glass roof privacy glass these door handles go back inside when the car locks
02:35look at this silhouette down the back here as well sort of coupe uh styling down the rear around the back
02:41here full led taillights with a spoiler built into there and another spoiler up the top here as well
02:46you've got spoilers for days uh you've got brake light integrated into there i wonder if there's okay
02:50so there's no washer so they're just hoping that the air that comes down there will get all the um
02:55debris off that another byd logo and then another byd logo byd c line 7 uh 4.5s this is the claim 0 to 100
03:03time so we will test that later on and then ev all wheel drive off to the side here as well let me know
03:09what you reckon about the design i think it really is quite a good looking car so let me know your
03:13thoughts in the comment section below okay so we're inside the c line 7 we'll start off with the
03:18key this is what it looks like you've got lock unlock boot remote start byd on the back uh like i
03:25said before proximity sensing key so you can leave that in your pocket use your nfc phone or whatever
03:29uh once you're inside you have a push button start down here so now you've got to still push a button to
03:35start the car which i find a little bit counterintuitive but um anyway it's there just in case you need
03:39it um have a look at this interior i mean for the price that you're paying this feels really luxe and
03:45high end you're getting a lot of soft touch materials around the cabin look at this like a
03:49leather material lined center console here which is really cool so i think they've done a great job
03:55with the design and also just with this looking and feeling nice and premium which is good in terms
04:00of your touch points so nice and soft in the center there soft on the door as well how soft are they
04:05we've got our durometer tested the main surfaces in this cabin if you do want to see how this car
04:09compares to other cars that we've tested before there is a link in the description below build quality
04:14what is it like let's give this a bit of a shake it all feels really nice and solid um that's what
04:21the door slam sounds like look at that door handle
04:22now let's talk infotainment so look at this screen like big screen uh 15.6 inches in size
04:32this screen also rotates have a look at that wow very fancy um let me know do you own a byd
04:39have you ever used this feature like more than once aside from showing friends i'm keen to know
04:44uh inbuilt satellite navigation which is great means you don't need to have your smartphone
04:48connected if you just want navigation including google search functionality this car is actually
04:52connected another thing i find really strange as well like we just reviewed the volkswagen id4
04:57they still haven't managed to figure out how to get an app connected to the car you've got
05:00companies like byd that come to australia and have it all sorted in no time flat so
05:05just bemuses me how that works um there's actually a provision for dash cam up here as well so
05:11probably something you can add as an accessory from byd aside of that uh sound system 12 speaker
05:17din audio branded sound system great sound system uh with the ability to stream radio and also through
05:22smartphone connectivity so i'll show you what apple carplay looks like this is wirelessly connected
05:27and it all works fairly nicely and this is what android auto looks like so let me go full screen
05:35integration there as well which is uh good head of the driver you have another digital display there
05:41with all your critical functions uh semi-autonomous functions as well we'll have a bit of a play with
05:46that when we go for a drive and then on safety print you've got an auto dimming rear vision mirror
05:51you have blind spot monitor built into the wing mirror you've got radar cruise control with a
05:55semi-autonomous steering function which we will test later on front and rear parking sensors and
06:00a 360 camera i'll show you what the camera looks like i need to reverse quality that is fantastic it's
06:05like hd that is really impressive this could be one of the best uh cameras we've actually tested
06:12before that is really really good very nice big fan of that um and this is what the horn sounds like
06:19now moving on to practicality and we'll start off with your connectivity so you've got wireless phone
06:25charger up the top here with a little cooling duct as well usb anc port down the bottom with a 12 volt
06:31outlet plenty of storage around the place and i love this concept with your drinks holder in the
06:36center here so you can actually vary the height and then you push that to bring it all the way back
06:40up really cool idea big center console there as well plus a little bit of storage down here but it would
06:46have been nice for that to be closed in as well then a glove box down here quite reasonably sized
06:51but no sunnies holder unfortunately and what about your comfort so you've got dual zone automatic climate
06:57control heated and cooled seats here for the front row heated steering wheel as well seats are
07:03electrically adjustable so you can go forwards and backwards you can bring your backrest forwards and
07:07backwards you can adjust the front of the seat the back of the seat also got adjustment for the base of
07:12the seat as well lumbar adjustment too steering offers both tilts and reach adjustment and on our
07:20reach test most of that stuff is easy to reach while you're driving second row what's it like back here
07:26have a look at this knee room toe room is excellent headroom is pretty good as well this is a great place
07:32to be seated it feels very high end and premium here i know i just can't escape how much value for
07:37money you're getting here in terms of how this interior feels it is seriously good plenty of mat
07:42pockets here to work with including egor's terrible drink i would never ever drink any of that stuff
07:47um aside from today uh heated seats uh back here for the two outboard seats uh air vents here and then
07:54look in this little cubby hole you got usb a and c ports in there center armrest here as well with
08:01pair of cup holders and what else is in there yeah that's some pre-delivery stuff um and then of course
08:08your big glass roof there as well now does the window go all the way down it is auto up and down
08:14let's have a look look at that goes all the way down and did you see that right at the bottom
08:19it's got the soft finish like they do on a lexus that's pretty cool very nice now cargo space what is
08:25it like with this swoopy uh boot line let's have a little look so you have 500 liters of cargo space
08:34available here in the standard setting it's not an enormous space it's quite sort of narrow with a
08:39high boot lip so a little compromise there in terms of storage uh you do get underfloor storage which
08:44is great you also have a frunk which is about 50 liters up the front there show you what it looks
08:49like with our bag in there as well there you go so you can see once you get one suitcase and it's kind
08:55of um all over there in terms of capacity so um yeah i think it's good but could be slightly better
09:01now before we go for a spin let's talk about battery and charging so battery capacity just over 80
09:07kilowatt hours nominal capacity it's an lfp battery which means you can comfortably charge it to 100% all
09:13the time which is good news you have both ac and dc charging ac charging up to 11 kilowatts three
09:17phase dc charging peak of 150 kilowatts with an average of about 115 now the interesting thing
09:24here is that uh testing the model y juniper today as well that has uh the long range version of that
09:29has an ncm battery so a battery that contains nickel and in that it has a peak charging capacity of 250
09:35kilowatts that is what those batteries are good for and better energy density but the average charge
09:39rate of that battery is 120 odd kilowatts so shows that these guys are really doing quite a good job in
09:45terms of charging technology not really um losing anything out by going with an lfp battery which is
09:51good uh driving range just over 450 k's on the wltp cycle so that isn't as good as something like the
09:57model y part of the reason is that you've got very sporty tires here you've got big wheels and even
10:03though there is a version of this car available in europe with a bigger battery uh we don't get that
10:08in australia and as a result of that you're kind of capped in terms of how much driving range that
10:12you have compared to a model y okay so we have just hit the road in the sea lion 7 um first thing
10:22i need to do is switch off uh all the annoying safety stuff i mentioned this in a few of our other
10:26videos but uh stuff like speed sign recognition the lane departure warnings all that sort of stuff
10:32just doesn't seem to work all that well still needs a bit of calibration so it's just easier if i
10:37flick it all off now before we get going um especially the attention warning as well so i'm
10:44going to kill all this
10:45all right that is all off excellent okay so uh let's run through this as a package so two variants of the
10:55sea lion 7 are available in australia you have an entry level and then this one here which is your
11:00performance which is a dual motor um go fast version and when i say go fast i mean go fast so
11:06combined output of 390 kilowatts and just under 700 newton meters of torque there's some blistering
11:14blistering performance so quite impressive there from a numbers standpoint what does that feel like
11:20behind the wheel here let's give this a little little jab yeah i mean that is that is some serious
11:26mumbo it just pushes you back in the seat and it absolutely hauls and they've got it set up in such a
11:32way that when you feed on the throttle it's quite gradual it's not sort of instant doesn't sort of
11:36slap you right in the back so it gives you that sort of gradual feeling of building up acceleration
11:40to the point where you're kind of pinned into your seat and you need to pull your head away so that's
11:45a that's a good setup you've got a button down here that changes your regen mode so you can go from
11:50high through to standard and uh difference between the two isn't overly obvious i think they could
11:56probably do a bit more there especially with single pedal driving i mean tesla does it really well with
12:01all of their cars just makes it so easy to just be able to pull the car up without having to touch
12:06the brakes just makes it a much more relaxing drive experience instead of having to to constantly
12:11focus on braking in addition to regen so i'd prefer to have just one or the other as opposed to like a
12:16halfway mechanism now in terms of economy uh this has been a little bit thirsty so 20.8 kilowatt hours
12:22per 100k is what we're sitting on at the moment we have been sort of doing some faster driving in the
12:26morning but it is sort of fairly high we're testing the model y juniper today as well and that's been
12:31doing literally the same driving that this has done up until this point and that's sitting at around
12:35the 17 mark so like for like this is sitting higher than that as a comparative measure okay now let's
12:42talk about our sine waves and body control so we jack the speed up to 130 k's an hour here and this
12:49kind of simulates what you'd experience out on a country road in australia sort of a floaty
12:56undulating stretch of road that you might experience when you're overtaking 130 being the maximum speed
13:02limit in australia so we'll see what the body control's like yeah it's really floaty that's one
13:08thing i did notice the suspension is pretty soft i'll be interested to see when we go for a fast drive
13:13this is a performance variant how that suspension deals with this kind of power because it is an
13:19immense amount of power while it is soft in and around town and sort of fairly comfortable
13:24especially on these bigger wheels as well that situation there we have those continuous
13:29undulations it really is lacking the body control at the top end which we find common to a lot of
13:34chinese market cars that don't have a local ride and handling tune now rough road time so we do this
13:40at 90 k's an hour this is a shocker of a road it gives us a good indication of what this car would
13:45be like if you drive it out in the country on some of the corrugated and potholed roads out there
13:50this is feeling great so this is one of the benefits of a softer ride means it soaks up
13:55these sorts of bumps let's see what it's like on our condensed sine wave here
13:58it's not too bad but um sort of a little shaky over that so it just shows just a little bit of
14:08tuning work required now in terms of drive modes you've got eco snowland sport and normal
14:16we'll slot it over to sport and see what it's like with a lap of our ride and handling track we test
14:21all cars back to back in the same way and it just gives us a good indication of
14:25how they perform once the speed picks up especially here with a performance car
14:30very soft and a little unruly there
14:34very overactive stability control as well unfortunately
14:47yeah a bit of body roll as well see what it's like once we're straight ahead here once you're
14:56straight ahead it really pushes you in the back really nicely there yeah it's just far too soft
15:02for mid corner bumps so when the speed does pick up and it's sitting on pretty yeah pretty decent
15:07tires like diving on the brakes there the rear end feels really quite light
15:11see what it's like um along the back here
15:15oh yeah that rear end just feels super light like right there when you transition uh to a direction change
15:27the rear end just feels like it's going to get away from you and that's that's kind of what's
15:32causing this stability control to be so overactive like it's got immense power in a straight line here
15:38like it is absolutely killing it for straight line acceleration but i'm already feeling with this brake pedal
15:44like i'm not confident that's going to have a decent amount of strength in fact i can smell it
15:51inside the cabin now so um yeah look it's it's a bit of a mixed bag there so you've got an issue there
15:56with the ride it's just too soft means you're getting body roll through corners it feels like
16:01this has been tuned perhaps for the top spec version of this car we don't get in australia which has
16:06a bigger battery and it feels like maybe they've done a ride in handling tune for that bigger battery
16:12performance version they've filtered down to this version with a smaller battery which is then
16:16lighter and even when i say lighter there's still quite a heavy car around 2.3 2.4 tons before you
16:22get passengers on board and as a result of that the rear feels quite light and unloaded and it sort
16:28of just just feels like it's wandering underneath you so yeah look as a performance car this this
16:34really isn't all that impressive when you start throwing it through the corners they i think they
16:39really need to work on stuff like the stability control tune and the ride and handling to get the
16:44most out of this because you've got heaps of power in a straight line great tires as well to give you
16:48grip and traction through mid corner but it's just the rest of it that just feels a little bit a little
16:54bit average so hopefully that's something they can work on if you look at gwm here in australia they've
16:58actually just hired the former ride and handling chief for holden and i think that just shows you the
17:03dedication that some of these companies have to ensuring that their cars are at a really good
17:09standard and certainly a car like this could benefit from a local ride and handling tune
17:13on the road noise front there is a bit of road noise coming into the cabin here from those tires
17:17they've got a sort of sportier orientation to them and as a result of that there is a little
17:22bit of tire noise that you're going to find especially on course chip roads if you want to
17:26see how this car compares to others that we've tested before we'll look at the link in the
17:29description below let's chat visibility so i can see really clearly down the front there nice big
17:34wing mirrors visibility out the back is quite poor it's a very narrow envelope there so it's a little
17:39tricky to see out of that but you do have a camera with all of all the sort of angles that you need
17:46here so it's really not the end of the world when it comes to parking in tight spaces the other thing
17:50i'll touch on briefly as well 1500 kilo brake towing capacity but key thing to remember is that this has
17:56quite a low payload and as a result of that if you do decide to use this as a tow vehicle you're going
18:01to have probably around 100 kilos of downboard weight on the rear or thereabouts it's going to eat
18:05into your payloads you're really not going to be able to load too many passengers into the cabin so
18:09it is worth just taking that into consideration if you do want to tow with this vehicle
18:13okay time to test the semi-autonomous systems we do this at 70 k's an hour using the three outer lanes
18:20so we will engage cruise control and see how well the car will hold itself within the lane so
18:29first lane here it's doing a pretty reasonable job we're staying fairly center jump over to the next
18:37lane
18:37okay wait the steering wheel to go blue there it is nice keeping us very nice and centered there as well
18:49cool all right and the outermost lane this is probably the most difficult for the car to achieve
18:54so we'll see how this goes that steering wheel to go blue it may not want to activate up here
19:04doesn't look like it likes it up here which is a shame because it did a really good job in those
19:11first two lanes i just thought it would hold us in nicely there so anyway pass in lane one and two
19:18no pass in lane three okay it's time to do a little bit of performance testing so we're going to go
19:23zero to 100 then through to 120 to see what our 80 to 120 overtaking time is like battery capacity
19:30is at 73 percent at the moment pop this into sport mode i'm going to switch stability control off just
19:38in case it gets any wheel slip off the line there and then we will see how we go so the claim zero to
19:45100 time is 4.5 seconds as per badge on the back so we'll just make sure it hits that claim so here we go
19:52nice very nice and strong off the line there there's 100 k's an hour and 120 very good felt uh nice and
20:11fast off the line there so let's see how that went so zero to 100 wow very good 4.31 seconds that is
20:18really nice and fast uh 80 to 120 2.82 seconds that is pretty impressive as well so uh very nicely
20:25done there all right uh let's go back and do a stop from 100 k's an hour all right there's 100 there here
20:31we go
20:31pretty decent from where i'm sitting uh oh nice uh 2.71 seconds 38.43 meters which is really good
20:46to put that into context the model y juniper we just tested uh over 40 meters stopping distance and
20:52weighs like 300 kilos less so quite an impressive result there um if you do want to see how this car
20:59compares to others that we've tested before have a look at the link in the description below
21:02all right let's see how fast it goes in reverse here we go
21:06all right 30 kilometers an hour okay so byd sea lion 7 what do we think um i think the car itself
21:16is fantastic but just not this one i wouldn't get the performance one it's just let down by brakes that
21:21need to be bigger pretty sloppy handling you know there's just a few little things that would just
21:25really put me off this so the entry level though you're getting basically the same package couple
21:30of different features there getting more driving range not the same explosive acceleration but
21:34if you can't match that explosive acceleration with handling it kind of defeats the whole purpose
21:38of it so um yeah i think they've done a great job with it they just need to fix those little things
21:42and maybe they will fix that stuff i mean byd is known to to just sort stuff on the go roll out
21:47software updates so these are hardware changes but hopefully they can be provided as part of an update
21:52so uh let me know what you reckon in the comment section below have you had a look at one of these
21:55have you had a test drive what did you think if you did enjoy this video please make sure you like
21:59it and you share it with your mates but until next time take it easy
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