BYD Sealion 5 vs Mercedes-Benz S600

What's the difference?

This is the most affordable plug-in hybrid available in Australia – as this review is published – but it’s got a lot more going for it than just that.

The 2026 BYD Sealion 5 is a mid-size SUV wearing a BYD badge that has been thrust into the public’s awareness by the popular BYD Shark 6 – as well as by widespread criticism of brand's less popular aftersales shortcomings through much of 2025.

It’s also a plug-in hybrid that is showing up as the nation faces a fuel crisis, despite many remaining sceptical of going ‘full EV’.

The Sealion 5 has a long list of features, of course, plus a claimed four-figure driving range. Is this BYD too good to be true?

We grabbed the entry-level Essential to find out.

Imagine a car that can pretty much drive itself, if you let it. And it’ll do that while you get a massage, pump some Beyonce, and enjoy the fragrance of a field full of flowers… And then, it can teach you to do stretches and exercises in the driver’s seat.

It may sound like fictional fiction, but it’s factual fact. And it’s the Mercedes-Benz S-Class 2018 model, which has taken the so-called ‘wellbeing’ of the driver to a new level.

The facelifted model has seen plenty of styling changes and some tech upgrades, and while making the flagship car in a particular brand’s line-up is often a task fraught with issues, the German company’s big, expensive, luxurious, limousine is undoubtedly a more thoughtful car for 2018.

But just remember, its predecessor was considered - at least for a little while - as the best car in the world by some automotive journalists. 

Now Mercedes-Benz has updated it, and it reckons it’s better than before, bringing a bunch of new technology, new engines, a reworked model range and, perhaps not essentially, but still pleasantly, lower pricing.

Read on to see how Beyonce factors into the equation.