BMW 850I vs BYD Sealion 5

What's the difference?

Does the world really need a car as outrageously loud, over-the-top, exclusive and stupidly fast as BMW’s new 8 Series? Obviously not, but BMW clearly felt that its range, and its customers, could do with something like this. On paper, and even from the kerb, it seems a strange beast - luxurious and yet lightning quick - but from the driver’s seat it just instantly makes sense. And makes you smile. Scarily, there’s an even faster 8 Series Competition version to come…

Cars that don’t always appeal to enthusiast buyers are often seen by manufacturers as a way of not bothering with the dynamics. Good enough is, apparently, good enough. Thankfully, BYD hasn’t taken that path here and the local suspension tweaks have turned what could have been a me-too product into a bit of a dynamic class leader. And even if buyers can’t verbalise the benefits of that, they will still be subliminally enjoying them with every kilometre.

The other stand-out feature is the price-tag which represents an awful lot of car for the money. And, in such a price-sensitive market as this one, that will get the BYD over the line for a lot of families. That it also offers a vastly better driving experience simply makes the value equation – and the purchasing proposition – even stronger.

In terms of improving on the car it’s replacing, the new 8 Series pretty much smacks it out of the park. Time has not been kind to vehicles fitted with pop-up headlights and the previous 8 Series, which roamed the planet in limited numbers from 1989 to 1999, with now-unimaginable V12 engines, seems a strange-looking beast, with its tiny little kidney grille almost hiding beneath a BMW badge.

The new M850i is a simply stunning looking beast, particularly in Coupe form (the Convertible is not ugly, but it just doesn’t look as complete). Extremely wide and menacingly low, it seems to loom over whatever patch of ground its parked on, giving off an air of magnificent malevolence.

It looks fantastic when followed from behind, but it’s the front view - featuring the thinnest headlight design ever seen on a BMW for a sleek, Iron Man-like face - that really grabs your attention.

Proportion, poise and big old 20-inch wheels give it plenty of presence, while the way the glasshouse tucks in at the rear only magnifies its powerful hips.

BMW has also thrown plenty of design flair at the interior, where you’ll find the unusual yet fabulous-feeling glass gear lever (there’s more of this sparkly, cut-crystal-like stuff on the volume knob, Start button and iDrive controller).

Not only does it feel truly unique and expensive in your hand, but it has an 8 buried beneath it, which shifts and shimmers as you try and see it through the many angles of the glass.

Elsewhere, the cabin is swathed in merino leather and feels undeniably classy, with a touch of modernity via its big screen, but it’s still not quite as beautiful as the cockpit you’d find in an Audi of a similar price. Close, but not quite.

The interior of the Sealion 5 feels pretty well-made and there are soft-touch surfaces on most of the touch-points. The steering wheel, too, is thick and chunky and nice to hang on to. But there’s a lot going on in terms of different colours, textures and surfaces, and it can all look a bit busy, despite the high-tech boardroom overall flavour. It’s also worth mentioning the trim material is synthetic but does a great job of looking and feeling like real leather.

Externally, there’s not a lot to grab the eye. Sure, it’s not an unpleasant looking vehicle, but neither does it stand out from the mid-size SUV pack. At least BYD decided against those cheap-looking plastic tack-ons on each wheel-arch.

At the very least, you’d have to say the 8 Series is fit for purpose. The seats are hugely comfortable for long journeys, so that’s practical, there’s a handy tray for your phone, where it will be wirelessly charged, and there are two cupholders in front of that, and storage for bottles in the doors.

No human larger than primary school age will ever sit in the back, so there’s not a lot going on back there.

In terms of boot space, it’s reasonably capacious at 420 litres, or 350 litres for the Convertible.

Here’s the other big shock relative to the price-tag of the Sealion 5: This is not a small car. Based on the price, you might have been thinking the vehicle would be a compact SUV. And you’d have been wrong. This is a proper mid-sized SUV with room for five and luggage and an overall length of 4.7 metres and change. And to put that into some kind of perspective, that’s just 30mm shorter than the Sealion 6 which costs about $9000 more at its starting point.

The wheelbase is long, too, and the 2712mm between the axles helps make the interior even more spacious. That means there’s lots of stretching room in the front, but also that a grown adult can comfortably sit in the back seat behind another grown adult at the wheel and still have enough room in every direction. The window sills are commendably low in the rear seat, too, ensuring even littlies can see out.

The biggest problem in the back is that the seat cushion is a bit flat, but, like the front chairs, it’s still pretty plush.

With all five seats in place, the Sealion 5 boasts 463 litres of luggage space and the cargo area is well done with storage pockets at each side, a light and an under-floor tray designed to transport charging cables and a tyre repair kit. Yep, that’s right, there’s no spare tyre of any sort here. No surprise, really.

Fold the rear seat down and you’re suddenly looking at 1410 litres of cargo space and your SUV is now a panel van.

As well as the dual-zone climate control, the Sealion 5 also offers a single USB -C and a USB-A charging port in the front and rear compartments.

The Sealion 5 also offers a V2L (Vehicle to Load) function, meaning it can power camping or on-site work equipment and even act as your home’s battery.

The plug-in hybrid in question is the BYD Sealion 5. It has a claimed EV-only range of better than 100km, relatively quick charging, a decent sized battery, adequate performance, enough interior space for a family, good safety and lots of equipment. Oh, and it costs just $33,990, before on-road costs, in its entry-level Essential form. Incoming!

Equipment-wise, that sub-34K sticker gets you a 10.1-inch central info-screen, an 8.8-inch driver display, digital radio, a six-speaker stereo, wireless connectivity for Android Auto and Apple CarPlay and dual-zone climate control.

Throw another four grand on the table and you move up to the Premium version which adds plenty of kit for the $37,990 ask. That includes a panoramic sunroof, automatic tailgate, roof rails, heated and electrically folding mirrors, one-touch power windows, a six-way powered drivers seat and four-way powered co-pilot’s chair, a heated and ventilated driver’s seat and wireless charging.

The step up from Essential to Premium also includes a battery upgrade, and we’ll cover that off in the Under the Bonnet section below.

Truly, there is one impressive engine sitting under that big, hulking bonnet. The M-fettled 4.4-litre V8 has two turbochargers located inside the V of the block for “immediacy of response”, and they certainly deliver that.

Peak power of 390kW is delivered between 5500rpm and 6000rpm while its hefty 750Nm of torque is on song, for effortless overtaking, from 1800rpm all the way to 4600rpm.

Looking at those rev figures it’s clear to see that you are initially launched by a huge wave of torque and then, while you’re still drawing breath, the power really kicks in. 

All that grunt equates to 0 to 100km/h in just 3.7 seconds, which is very fast indeed, and you also get to enjoy a growly, guttural soundtrack, thanks to the standard Sport Exhaust.

The Convertible has the same engine with the same figures, but it’s slightly heavier and thus takes 3.9 seconds to hit the tonne. Which is still stupidly fast for this much car.

Both variants of the Sealion 5 have the same driveline – mostly. They each use a 1.5-litre petrol engine teamed with a single electric motor, both driving the front wheels. Unlike the bigger Sealions, there’s no all-wheel drive version. Power peaks at 156kW and torque at 300Nm.

Why a non-turbocharged engine? BYD tells us the non-turbo engine helps keep cost out of the vehicle and, since the engine really only runs to power the electric motor and charge the batteries, it does so at a relatively constant engine speed, negating the need for a wide spread of petrol power.

The only major difference is that the Essential version has a 12.9kWh battery-pack, while the Premium gets a bigger, 18.3kWh pack for longer range, but precisely the same output and, therefore, performance.

A single-speed transmission is part of the BYD driveline package, also made possible by the fact that the vast majority of the driving of wheels is done by the electric motor.

Good luck ever matching these figures, with all that V8 temptation beneath your right foot, but the claimed number, at least, is 10.4 litres per 100km for the Coupe and 10.6 for the Convertible. During our launch drive we would have been absolutely nowhere near those figures.

The Premium’s bigger battery claims to up the official NEDC range from the Essential’s 71km to 100km. BYD reckons with the 52-litre fuel tank brimmed and the car operating at its claimed 1.2 litres per 100km efficiency, the range of either version is just on 1000km. In the real world, that’s likely to be closer to 800km (especially with some highway running thrown in) but it’s still one heck of a solution to range anxiety.

There’s no DC charging function for the Sealion 5, so forget about commercial fast chargers. But on a 3.3kW AC power outlet, the maker claims the Essential can reach full charge in under four hours, while the Premium’s bigger battery will take under six hours to fully charge. A Type 1 charge cable is included.

There is a sizeable distance between driving a small, lithe sports car that can sprint from 0 to 100km/h in a scorching 3.7 seconds, and then piloting something that feels as large, and louche, as a cruise ship that can do the same thing.

Accelerating in the M850i is an experience that can only be described as hilarious. There’s just so much mass attempting to move so quickly that it defies belief. The way the nose rears into the air, and the rear end seems to dip towards the ground, brings to mind a bucking bronco, although a feisty polo pony would probably be more appropriate.

It’s easy to see why this car is all-wheel drive rather than the traditional BMW rear-driven layout, because there’s just no way you could get all that grunt to the ground with two wheels, or not without some serious power oversteer issues.

For a car that weighs more than 1.8 tonnes, the 8 Series is surprisingly fluid and involving on winding stretches of road. It feels hunkered down and hammered into the road, which is less of a surprise, but the steering is so perfectly weighted and the power delivery so well calibrated that it really encourages you to push on, and rewards you sense of adventure with smile-widening pace.

It’s quite something to suggest of a car that costs a quarter of a million dollars, but the M850i actually exceeds your expectations in terms of driving joy. On paper, it looks like a straight-line bully, or merely a very grand grand tourer, and it does eat up the miles on a freeway with class and ease, but when you want to point it at a mountain pass, it excels there as well.

We drove the new 8 Series back to back with BMW’s also-new Z4, and what really stood out was not just the gulf in power and poise, but the huge difference in the ride/handling balance.

The M850i really can soak up the worst our roads can throw at it with aplomb, while still making you feel connected to the ground beneath you, and inspiring confidence, and its abilities really did make the Z4 feel very brittle and hard indeed.

To be fair, we didn’t get to throw this big luxo-barge at any sections of really sharp S-bends, or 35km/h corners, and no doubt it would be challenge for it to change direction quickly, but through fast sweepers it really does excel.

And as far as its grand-touring design brief, it absolutely nails it.

You don’t have to drive very far to realise that the local input into the Sealion 5’s suspension and steering have been worth the effort. BYD Australia has a local engineering team on call these days, and it shows here.

Actually, the steering is not the highlight; it has some weight but not a whole lot of feel, or, indeed, feedback for the driver. The ride and handling combination is what stars. Obviously well-damped, the suspension allows for a ride that is both complaint and quiet, without causing the car to wallow around like some jacked-up designs can with their higher centre of gravity.

In fact, the BYD is athletic to the point where keener drivers will find it an entertaining drive; hardly something that can be said for the majority of medium SUVs.

Performance is strong without being overwhelming and even though the Sealion 5 has that signature electric-drive feeling of effortlessness, the accelerator pedal has been calibrated to avoid the neck-snapping surge of grunt off the line. As such, it emerges with a fairly flat acceleration curve, and no hint that the petrol motor is cutting in or out.

Until, that is, you bury the throttle all the way at which point the petrol engine takes a few second to join in. And when it does, it’s pretty vocal – shrill, almost – as it catches up with the rest of the car and starts directly driving the wheels. To be fair, though, this is not going to be a common occurrence in everyday life thanks to the flexibility of the petrol-electric system for 99 per cent of circumstances.

On the move, the cabin is perhaps most notable for its soft, plush seats that are a nice change from the church pews of some manufacturers. And although the driving position is about right, taller drivers might prefer a steering column that extends out another few millimetres.

The driver display screen is another source of annoyance. It’s pretty small and contains lots and lots of information, to the point where the typeface is too small to be read on the run by anybody who relies on reading glasses.

Passive safety in the Sealion 5 starts with no fewer than seven airbags including full-length side-curtain bags. 

There’s also a front-centre airbag, something we’d like to see in more cars, particularly at this price-point. Child restraint points in the rear seat are the ISOFIX type.

The BYD gets pretty much the full suite of driver aids, including autonomous emergency braking, blind-spot monitoring, rear-cross traffic alert with active assistance, stability control, active cruise-control, traffic-sign recognition, front and rear collision warning and tyre pressure monitoring.

The Sealion 5 also incorporates a driver-attention monitor which seems better calibrated than some earlier efforts from some of the Chinese carmakers. Also improved in calibration terms is the lane-keeping assistance which is still too violent for our tastes, but more subtle than some of the competition’s systems. But while the savagery of this system has been toned down, it appears to have been at the expense of sensitivity and, time and time again, the cameras missed road markings that were faded or dirty.

The major safety benefit in paying more for the Premium variant is the addition of front parking sensors and a 360-degree camera instead of the Essential’s simple reversing camera.

The Sealion 5 has not been ANCAP tested as yet, although BYD says this is largely down to ANCAP’s scheduling rather than any hesitance on BYD’s part.

BMW is sticking with its not-very-industry-leading three-year, unlimited-kilometre warranty, and says its customers are happy with that, rather than the five- or seven-year warranties some other companies offer. When you’re paying this much for a car, it seems a trifle mean, frankly.

Like all modern BMWs, the servicing requirements for your M850i are controlled by the Condition Based Servicing (CBS) system, which means that “advanced algorithms monitor and calculate the conditions in which a vehicle is used, including mileage, time elapsed since its last service, fuel consumption and how a vehicle is driven”. 

That information allows the car to decide for itself when an annual vehicle inspection or oil service is due.

BMW offers two fixed-price servicing plans, under its BMW Service Inclusive (BSI), which is available in two packages: Basic - $2,290 for five years/80,000km or $5,170 for Plus.

Like other BYDs, the Sealion 5 comes with a six-year/150,000km warranty. Some of the competition have unlimited kilometre warranties, but to be honest, 150,000km in six years is going to be beyond the need and aspirations of most owners.

The EV battery is covered by an eight-year/160,000km warranty, and let’s not forget, BYD was a battery manufacturer before it started making whole cars. Certainly, the company is very bullish about the quality and safety of its 'Blade' battery technology, claiming it easily passes the technically-daunting 'nail-puncture' test.

BYD plans to have capped-price servicing for the Sealion 5, but no pricing announcements have been made yet.

Servicing also falls into line with other BYD models, so that means 12 months or 20,000km intervals.