BYD Sealion 7 Performance India Review: Toughest Tesla Rival?

For BYD, the Sealion 7 is their flagship EV and is a premium SUV competing with entry level luxury SUVs so a lot is riding on its shoulders.

It pretty much leaves everything in its price range behind and also competes with much more expensive SUVs.

Source : Somnath Chatterjee

Fast electric cars are the new trend with electric motors giving even SUVs the ability to out run way more expensive petrol cars. For BYD, the Sealion 7 is their flagship EV and is a premium SUV competing with entry level luxury SUVs so a lot is riding on its shoulders. We drove the single motor version sometime back while here we talk about the dual motor performance version.


Unlike the single motor, performance is on a higher scale here with 530hp and 690 Nm. As a result, the badge at the back is true where the 0-100 km/h time is 4.5 seconds. While it isn't as fast as the Seal, for a heavy electric SUV that is ridiculous speed. It pretty much leaves everything in its price range behind and also competes with much more expensive SUVs.

Acceleration in sport mode is too fast honestly but even in standard more, the Sealion 7 just flies. Be careful of getting speeding tickets. However, unlike the Seal, the Sealion 7 has much better ground clearance at 163mm and that means you don't need to crawl over speed breakers. While for an SUV, it is not a lot, we did not have any issues with it at all in tackling really large speed breakers.

The Performance version has bigger 20inch wheels and looks the part while in terms of handling, it feels direct even though a bit heavy because of its weight. That said, it feels sportier than the single motor and you can drive it enthusiastically and it not just built for straight line speed either wohi bettee grip from AWD.

In terms of range, while being less than the single motor, you can get near 500km which honestly is more than enough and for sheer performance, it's cheaper to run than sports cars!


Compared to the Seal, the Sealion 7 Performance is more practical with a sunshade for the glass roof, more proper controls and better ground clearance while performance is nearly as quick. However, we did not notice the poor rear visibility due to the sloping roofline but that aside, the Sealion 7 Performance is brilliant value for money due to its quality laden interior, performance and looks. 

For the money, the Sealion 7 Performance is actually better value than its single motor version due to its addictive acceleration. Priced at Rs 54.90 lakh, you can't get a faster SUV.