BYD Sealion 5 Review 2026

With its BYD Sealion 5, this Chinese brand faces its toughest test yet as it takes on a multitude of popular family-sized SUVs. Can it possibly compete with some of the most popular cars on sale in the UK? We'll find out for sure once we've driven it — for now read our BYD Sealion 5 DM-i preview for everything you need to know. 

We might as well deal with this first. Yes, the car you're reading about here is called the BYD Sealion 5. No, we don't think that's a very good name, but the Chinese car brand does have form here. In fact it has a whole Ocean Series of cars incorporating various Dolphin and Seal models, as well as a larger Sealion. 

That's the all-electric BYD Sealion 7, but the Sealion 5 is only going to be sold as a plug-in hybrid — or DM-i, for Dual Mode Intelligent, in BYD-speak. An electric version is sold in China but it remains to be seen if that will also make its way here. 

The Sealion 5 is not quite as new as you might think, being much the same as the BYD Song Pro, which first went on sale in China in 2019. 

The BYD Sealion 5 will be targeting some of the best-selling family SUVs around. It will need to tempt buyers away from well-established rivals, including the Hyundai Tucson, the Kia Sportage and the Nissan Qashqai, all of which made the UK's top 10 selling cars list in 2025.

Also making the top 10 was the Volkswagen Tiguan, although its better value cousin, the Skoda Karoq, is a closer rival to the BYD given its pricing.

Prices for the BYD Sealion 5 start at a fiver under £30,000 reflecting its maker's value-focused strategy since it arrived here in 2023. That means there's a generous amount of standard equipment for the money. 

One problem for the Sealion 5 could come from a newer Chinese brand. The Chery Tiggo 7 also offers a lot of gear and a plug-in hybrid system for exactly the same price. What's more, there's an even cheaper non-hybrid version, which could prove tempting for those whom a PHEV doesn't suit the needs of. 

Also from China is a further newcomer in the shape of the Geely Starray, a PHEV which is also near enough identically priced to the BYD. 

At 4738mm long the BYD Sealion 5 is a bit larger than several of the cars it's having a pop at, somewhere between the Tucson and its bigger Hyundai Santa Fe sibling, to give you some idea. 

The 463 litres of boot space is underwhelming considering the Sealion 5's generous proportions but this could mean BYD has maximised space for passengers. Indeed, BYD claims it has 'class-leading levels of interior space' although it hasn't specified by what metrics. 

Its interior features a sleek, minimalistic design which, if our experiences with other recent BYD products is anything to go by, should be of pleasingly good quality. By contrast the exterior doesn't do much for us. It's generic from some angles and fussy from others. Not ugly, but not exactly handsome either. 

BYD Sealion 5 DM-i: Range and charging times

The official electric-only driving range of the BYD Sealion 5 DM-i Comfort is 38 miles, while the Design manages 53 miles. That difference is due to battery size with the Comfort's 12.96kWh pack being trumped by the Design's 18.3kWh unit. For comparison, the Chery Tiggo 7 is good for 56 miles. 

Curiously, the Sealion 5 can only recharge at a maximum AC rate of 3.3kW rather than the usual 7.4kW which most UK home wallboxes are able to supply. This means that for a 15-100% recharge it will take around 4 hours 30 minutes for the Comfort and approximately 6 hours for the Design version. 

While we'll keep an open mind until we've driven the BYD Sealion 5, other models in the range we have tested leave room for improvement when it comes to ride and handling. Many of which share much in common with the Sealion 5 under the bodywork, have felt unsettled and numb.  

There are no surprises with its underpinnings, featuring commonly used strut suspension arrangement at the front and an independently sprung multi-link rear. The dampers are of the passive variety so their levels of firmness or softness can't be adjusted. 

Both versions of the BYD Sealion 5 DM-i use the same 1.5-litre, four-cylinder petrol engine and an electric motor to give a combined output of 212PS and 300Nm.

As the Design model has a larger capacity battery, it's also heavier at 1785kg compared with 1724kg for the Comfort. That difference is sufficient to make it slower in the 0-62mph dash, taking 8.1 seconds while the Comfort manages the same in 7.7 seconds. Neither figure is particularly special, but that should be more than enough performance for most. The top speed of each is the same at 106mph. 

Most of the time, the motor powers the front wheels, with the engine working as a generator to keep the battery topped up. The engine can also directly power the front wheels if the driving situation demands it.

There's no Euro NCAP rating for the BYD Sealion 5 just yet. While there's no guarantee it will match them, every BYD model the safety body has tested so far has achieved the full five-star rating. 

As standard, all versions of the car get adaptive cruise control, lane-keeping assistance, blind-spot detection, front and rear collision warnings, traffic sign recognition, autonomous emergency braking and seven airbags. 

Behind the BYD Sealion 5's rear seats is 463 litres of luggage space. These fold in a 40/60 split to open up 1410 litres of boot volume. Neither figure is particularly impressive compared with its rivals, particularly considering the Sealion 5 is bigger than them.

The Chery Tiggo 7 is one of the less capacious options among family SUVs, but it still does better than the BYD at 488 litres, while the Hyundai Tucson easily beats both with its 558-litre capacity. 

BYD boasts that the Sealion 5's 2712mm wheelbase 'helps to deliver excellent rear legroom'. While that is longer than the wheelbases of the Tiggo 7 and the Nissan Qashqai, it's marginally shorter than the Tucson's.

We will be able to judge the Sealion 5's practicality properly when we test it. 

Another relative unknown at this stage is how high quality levels are for the BYD Sealion 5, both in terms of the materials chosen and its overall construction.

We have high hopes based on the fact that all BYDs we've tested so far have been impressive in both regards, with a general feeling of solidity overall.

All versions of the BYD Sealion 5 come with an 8.8-inch digital instrument cluster and a 12.8-inch infotainment touchscreen. Here it remains one that rotates between landscape and portrait modes, instead being fixed in the former position as in the BYD Seal 6. It's gimmicky rather than useful and, if it's anything like in other BYDs, it generally works better in landscape anyway. 

Unfortunately, you do need to use the touchscreen to adjust the climate control's setting, but that isn't to single-out BYD for criticism here as it's common across many cars. You do at least get shortcuts for the temperature of each climate zone permanently displayed along the bottom of the screen, but they're not big, which could make them tricky to use on the move.

The Sealion 5 has two pairs of USB-C ports (18W and 60W) — two for front-seat passengers and two for those in the rear. Design specification models also have a wireless smartphone charging pad. 

Prices for the BYD Sealion 5 DM-i start at £29,995 for the Comfort model while the larger battery and elevated equipment levels push the Design version up to £32,995.

In terms of the competition, the Hyundai Tucson starts at £33,105 but jumps to £39,410 for the cheapest plug-in hybrid version. The Nissan Qashqai, which doesn't have a PHEV to choose from, is upwards of £30,615.

The most affordable plug-in hybrid version of the Chery Tiggo 7 also costs £29,995, while the Geely Starray EM-i nips in below both at £29,990.

It'll be the same £195 a year for Vehicle Excise Duty (VED) on the BYD Sealion 5 as any other car, while its pricing ensures it's not close to the £40,000 for the addtional Expensive Car Supplement. 

There are two official fuel economy figures for both versions of the Sealion 5 you should be particularly interested in. One is the weighted WLTP Combined cycle figure, which assumes greater use of the car's electric-only running.

You are looking at 104.6mpg for the Comfort version with its smaller battery and 134.5mpg for the Design. Over longer distances, it'll be easier to replicate the regular WLTP figure, which is 53.0mpg for both cars.

Using Ofgem's current 27.69p/kWh price cap as a guide, a full recharge of the Sealion 5 Comfort's battery will cost £3.59 and £5.07 to do the same to the Design's. You could slash those figures by getting onto a variable rate electricity tariff and timing your charging sessions to coincide with cheaper off-peak periods.

The BYD Sealion 5 is offered in two levels of specification — Comfort and Design. Along with its additional equipment, the Design also has a larger capacity battery.

The BYD Sealion 5 DM-i Comfort comes with the following as standard:

• 18-inch alloy wheels
• LED front and rear lights
• 8.8-inch digital instrument cluster
• 12.8-inch infotainment system
• Electrically adjustable front seats 
• Rear parking sensors 
• Vehicle-to-load capability

The BYD Sealion 5 Design builds on the above with:

• Electrically operated tailgate
• Heated front seats
• Front parking sensors
• 360-degree camera 
• Wireless smartphone charging pad