BYD Sea Lion 07 ready to roar for 2025 UK launch

The BYD Seal has been a well-received flagship for the Chinese car company in Europe and the UK – but it could be outsold by its sibling, the Sea Lion 7, when it lands in showrooms here in early 2025.

The Sea Lion 7 is the sister vehicle to the Seal, and one designed to appeal to those after more practicality. It has similar front-end styling cues as the Seal, with the ‘X’ motif, but has a slightly jacked-up profile and black cladding around the wheelarches to give a pseudo-SUV stance. 

It’s a five seater, and BYD claims a boot capacity of 500 litres, or up to 1,769 litres when the rear seats are folded down; those numbers are comfortably clear of the Seal’s, but slightly shy of what’s on offer in a Volkswagen ID.5.

Inside, the Sea Lion 7 features a similar dash treatment to the Seal’s, with a rotating 15.6-inch touchscreen infotainment system and a small digital instrument panel.

The new model shares the same e-Platform 3.0 architecture as the saloon, and BYD says it will be offered with rear and four-wheel drive. The single-motor version should produce around 308bhp, while the dual-motor model is likely to boast up to 523bhp – good for 0-62mph in 4.5 seconds and a top speed of 134mph.

The Sea Lion 7 gets a larger 91.3kWh battery than the Seal (82.5kWh), although the taller profile is likely to mean that it only offers slightly better range than the saloon’s 428-mile maximum. Charging speeds of up to 230kW will be offered, allowing the Sea Lion 7 to get from 30 to 80 per cent charge in 25 minutes.

BYD expects the car to reach UK dealers by the first quarter of 2025. There’s no word yet on pricing, but given its crossover positioning, larger battery and greater practicality, we’d expect it to be priced slightly higher than the Seal. That could give it a starting figure of around £47,000.

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