BYD takes aim at Tesla Model Y with competitive Sealion 7 electric car pricing

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The 2025 BYD Sealion 7 electric car will start below $60,000, and has been tasked with stealing sales away from the Tesla Model Y to make it the brand's new all-electric best seller.

Australian importer EVDirect's CEO David Smitherman said the Sealion 7 family electric vehicle (EV), sized slightly larger than a Toyota RAV4, will likely shoot straight to number one for BYD.

"I expect the Sealion 7 to be the number one selling electric vehicle in our range," Smitherman said in a media statement.

"We aim to deliver really competitive pricing across the variants that will make this an enticing prospect for Australian drivers."

For it to achieve its goal, it will need to outsell the Seal and Atto 3 which notched 6393 and 5751 sales respectively in 2024.

Overall, however, the Shark 6 plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV) that has secured 5000 orders since going on sale in October 2024 and before the first delivery to customers later this month will likely be BYD Australia's outright best seller.

The Sealion 6 PHEV – which found 6198 new homes in 2024 to be Australia's best-selling plug-in model – could also prove more popular than the Sealion 7.

For reference, Tesla sold 21,253 examples of its Model Y last year to be Australia's most popular EV.

The confirmation of a sub-$60,000 starting price for Sealion 7 is not unexpected, given the base car is priced close to a Seal Premium in the UK, which is positioned at $58,798 before on-road costs in Australia.

It remains to be seen if BYD can match other Chinese-sourced EVs like the Tesla Model Y (starting from $55,900), Kia EV5 (from $56,770) and XPeng G6 (from $54,800), but the price leader in the segment is the Leapmotor C10 (from $45,888).

At least two grades will be on offer, the more affordable Premium and upmarket Performance – the latter of which can accelerate from zero to 100km/h in a claimed 4.5 seconds.

Rated driving range is also set to exceed 500km, according to BYD, thanks to an 82.5kWh battery pack, but local buyers will miss out on the larger 91.3kWh unit available overseas.

Safety systems on offer include adaptive cruise control, autonomous emergency braking (AEB), lane-keep assist, and a surround-view monitor, while nappa leather seats and panoramic sunroof can also be found on the equipment list.

Full pricing and specifications are expected to be revealed closer to the Sealion 7's mid-February Australian launch date.

However, BYD has confirmed four colour options – Cosmos Black, Atlantis Grey, Shark Grey and Aurora White – with expressions of interest for the new model now open on the brand's website.

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