BYD SEALION 5 DM-i

Can it really only be two & half years since we drove the BYD ATTO 3 ?  A brand no one had heard of is now mainstream & kudos to BYD for that. A combination of excellent marketing, a national dealer network & now nine models means customers are flocking to buy, none so more in the fleet & corporate sector. We popped down to Telford recently to test the latest BYD the SEALION  5 DM-i.

Tell me more ?

The BYD SEALION 5 DM-i is a plug-in hybrid SUV crossover that pairs a 1.5 L petrol engine with an electric motor & the brands Blade battery.

Trims

BYD are keeping is simple with two offered, Comfort or Design. Comfort comes generously equipped with adaptive cruise control, lane keep assistance, automatic LED headlights, a 12.8-inch touchscreen, vegan leather & rear parking sensors all standard. Design trim adds a 360° camera, wireless smartphone charging, heated front seats, welcome lighting, an electric tailgate & front parking sensors.

Prices

£29,995 in Comfort trim, or £32,995 in Design,  it will compete with thy likes of the MG HS PHEV, Vauxhall Grandland PHEV & Tiggo 7 SHS.

Powertrain & performance

BYD’s plug-in hybrid system offers a total power output of 212PS. In Comfort trim 0-62mph will take 7.7 seconds, whilst in Design spec it’s 8.1 seconds.

Battery

Comfort models use a 12.96kWh battery with an electric range of 38 miles – while the Design’s battery increases in capacity to 18.3kWh for a 53 mile range. If you include the petrol tank total driving range is as high as 630 miles.

Charging at home

Disappointingly, BYD only offers AC charging at 3.3kW, so the Comfort will fully charge in 4 hours 30 minutes, with Design taking 6 hours. On the flip side most discounted overnight EV charging rates run for 5 hours so you’ll get the battery very close to full overnight at a cheaper electricity rate.

Emissions & BIK

CO2 emissions stand at 62g/km for the Comfort so for a 20% tax payer will pay £65 per month & with the lower emissions of 48g/km on the Design, you’d pay £49 a month.

Warranty

The SEALION 5 DM-i offers the same warranty cover as its BYD range mates, so you get a 6 year/93,750-mile package.

Engine & economy

Interior

BYD interiors may be safe but they work & the twin screen set-up in the 5 is a case in point. You’re greeted by a 12.8-inch touchscreen & an 8.8-inch drivers display. At first the number of menus feels overwhelming but after a bit of time you soon work out that BYD has sensibly included permanent climate bars, a simple swipe down to reveal the settings bar & easy Apple CarPlay or Android Auto connectivity. Indeed we connected our iPhone to the 5 wirelessly before we set off into mid-Wales & utilised Waze our favourite Nav app & it all worked nicely.

Elsewhere the swooping dash is a nice touch as are the physical controls around the central gear lever which include defrosters, drive modes & volume controls. The drivers display holds a lot of info, but it’s legible as well as logical. Steering wheel controls fior media, phone & cruise control are also easy to work & understand.

Seat, dash & door finishes are pretty good with some nice soft touch fishes on the centre arm & door rests. Our test car featured a dark grey interior with orange trim on the seats, with a lighter roof lining. It does feel a touch murky onboard. The seats though are comfortable, come with electric adjustment though not height on the passenger side & plenty of leg & headroom.

Cabin practicality

Back seat passengers get plenty of legroom thanks to the flat floor. You also don’t sit too high as with other similar EV’s so headrooms excellent as well. Storage space is adequate rather than good. So smallish door pockets, medium glovebox, twin centre cup holders, twin front & rear USB’s, rear climate controls & underarm storage are useful.

Boot

The 5 DM-i comes with a useful 463-litre boot capacity, with a flat floor & square load area making access simple. The rear seats split 40:60 & if folded down the boot area increases to 1410 litres.

Safety

Plenty of standard stuff , some of which you’ll want to turn off before heading away, such as Lane Departure & Driver Attention which are both over sensitive.

Driving

A 3 hour round trip into mid-Wales over every type of road was the agenda & the 5 proved to be as easy to drive as you’d expect. It comes with light steering & a firmer ride than the larger Seal U & is all the better for it.

We took it in turns to drive & sit up-front & found the cabin to be a comfortable place to be with good insulation keeping the outside at bay. Some poorer road surfaces did let some cabin vibrations in & whilst the 5 is very easy too handle,  on some tighter winding Welsh roads the steering & the brakes became a touch vague when we drove a little quicker. In the 5’s defence almost al of the competition is the same & we’d be hard pressed to pick a car in this category that’s exciting to drive, with it performing at it’s best on the motorway or along straighter A roads.

The engine itself is quiet & the electric-petrol switchover is unobtrusive. Setting up cruise control allows for easy motorway miles & wind & road noise are kept nicely at bay even at 70mph. You will want to turn off Lane Keeping though as it’s very annoying as is the Drive Attention warning which beeps every time you look at the touchscreen which is frequently. Overall it’s a car designed for comfort rather than fun & in that respect is a typical plug-in SUV, a model the British car buying public have taken to their hearts.

Pros

Decent build quality & good warranty. Well equipped & comfortable. Loads of interior space. Low BIK.

Cons

Vanilla to drive & in the way it looks. Pure electric driving range is only average & charging speeds are slow.

Verdict

BYD is the fastest growing car brand in the UK as we write this & it’s easy to see why There’s absolutely nothing to dislike about the Sealion 5 DM-i nor is there anything that makes it stand out in a crowd of similar plug-in SUV’s. The good news is it’s attractively priced, comes well equipped & is incredibly spacious in the cabin, all plus points in the sector. On the down side it doesn’t charge as fast as some competitors & the electric ranges of both versions are not class leading. We’d expect a fair chunk of 5 sales to be in the fleet sector where it has greatest appeal thanks to it’s attractiveBIK.

BYD have made another model that will strike a chord with UK customers & we’d expect it to sell well.

3/5