BYD Sealion 7 vs BYD Atto 2

What's the difference?

The BYD Sealion 7 Performance is well-priced and well-equipped. It more than holds its own against its mid-size electric SUV rivals. It has great motor outputs and it handles comfortably on the road. There's a lot to like here but some of the technology needs to be tweaked.

The BYD Atto 2 isn't just the cheapest electric SUV in Australia, it's also one that doesn't feel all that cheap, which is a hell of a magic trick. If it's easy, comfortable city motoring you're after, the Atto 2 delivers in spades. But if your blood type is high octane, there are better driving EVs out there.

Note: CarsGuide attended this event as a guest of the manufacturer, with meals provided.

Note: The author, Andrew Chesterton, is a co-owner of Smart As Media, a content agency and media distribution service with a number automotive brands among its clients. When producing content for CarsGuide, he does so in accordance with the CarsGuide Editorial Guidelines and Code of Ethics, and the views and opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author.

It may be named after a sea lion but it doesn’t resemble the blubbery cuteness of the creature itself. However, its sleek dynamic styling and performance outputs do call forth some of the creature's water prowess. 

This prowess is hinted at by the 20-inch alloys which are fitted with Michelin tyres and red brake calipers. There’s some Porsche-like design notes in the wide swoopy nose and LED headlights. The rear is also quite handsome with its long LED band strip and narrow window giving it a sporty silhouette.

Head inside and the Performance showcases the best BYD cabin I've sampled. There are no strange accents or panelling like there are in the Atto 3. This proves that BYD can do premium well.

The quilted leather upholstery feels supple underhand and the sports seats with integrated headrests reminds you what it can achieve in a sprint.

The swoopy design is carried over inside with the door panels. The dashboard is simply styled but headlined by an enormous 15.6-inch display that can rotate between landscape or portrait mode. Some may liken it to an iPad but it works.

The panoramic sunroof keeps things bright and cheerful but there are some simplistic elements that are hard to ignore. Like the lack of buttons, minimalist mirror cover design on the sunvisors and a rather plain-looking centre console.

Everything else flows and my favourite feature inside is surprisingly the lever door handles! They're functional but cute.

I think it’s a sharp-looking thing, this Atto 2. Kudos to BYD for not making the design look like it’s trying too hard, or like the Atto 2 is something it isn’t. It’s just smooth, sensible small SUV with styling that looks like it will age gracefully.

I like the chunky black moulding which makes it look a bit tougher than it is, plus the LED DRLs and swept back (and spoiler-equipped) roofline add a bit of visual drama.

Inside, BYD has made two pretty good choices. The first is that the cabin feels toned down from the one in the Atto 3 (which is all chunky wheel-style controls and vents). 

This one feels far more sedate and conventional in its design, which I think is a win.

The other good decision is to equip the Atto 2 with soft plastics, rather than hard scratchy ones, in places like the door panels. In some cheaper cars, you feel your elbows constantly rubbing against cheap-feeling plastics, but that’s not the case here.

Too much stuff is still controlled through that central screen, and BYD has an awkward way of shortcutting functions. They call it a three-finger swipe, meaning that if you run three fingers across the screen horizontally you can adjust the climate-control’s fan speed, while swiping horizontally adjusts temp, but it feels like a weird movement.

The cabin has space, space and then more space. Passenger comfort is all but guaranteed with the available leg- and headroom in each row.

The functions for the electric front seats means it's easy to find a comfortable position. Door apertures are wide for each row and despite a relatively low 140mm ground clearance, it's still an easy SUV to slide in and out of.

Technology looks great and the large 15.6-inch multimedia display is what catches your eye first. Graphics are sharply rendered and the touchscreen responsive. There's a lot of information and menus embedded into the display which means it's a system that will take you a beat to get used to.

It's not unique but the in-built voice assistant rarely works as it should and needs some work. Also, because of the lack of buttons and dials, all functions are accessed via the screen. I don't like this because it tends to draw your eyes from the road far more often than it should and some functions - like the heat and ventilation for the front seats - are buried in a few menus.

There is wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto but there are some gremlins that need to be ironed out. The connectivity is easy enough but the steering wheel mounted phone control didn't access Apple CarPlay. So, I couldn't hang up my phone call properly, it would instead access the Bluetooth phone menu and dial my last call. I had a few 'butt' dials this week because of it.

Storage is on par with the Performance rivals and up front the burden falls across the large glovebox and middle console but there is also a shelf underneath the centre console for bigger items, like a handbag. There are two phone cradles, although only one offers wireless charging, and two height-adjustable cupholders two drink bottle holders and small storage bins.

In the rear, you get two device pockets and a map pocket on the back of each front seat. There is a fold-down armrest with retractable cupholders and a small storage pocket (think Kindle-size) and there are storage bins in each door.

The boot capacity is a decent 500L and the floor can be adjusted to two heights, one offering a level loading space. There is also a frunk storage of 58L for any cables or random bits you don't use often. Under the boot floor there is also enough room for cables and the tyre repair kit. The powered tailgate can be access via your keyfob as well.

For a flagship grade, I would have expected a few extra amenities in the rear, like climate control and sunshades but it does have directional air vents, reading lights and a USB-A and C port.

The Atto 2 measures 4310mm in length, 1830mm in width and 1675mm in height and it rides on a 2620mm wheelbase. It also sits on BYD’s fully-flat EV platform, which helps to maximise space in the back seat.

I’m 175cm tall and could get comfortable behind my own driving position, with enough knee and headroom to ensure I didn’t feel cramped.

There are two ISOFIX attachment points, one in each window seat in the back as well as USB-A and -C connection points.

Boot space is a not cavernous, but also not tiny, 380L with the rear seats in place, growing to 1320L with the rear pews folded flat. Both models also offer a V2L (Vehicle to Load) connection, too, so you can power up household devices.

This thing really is cheap. The BYD Atto 2 arrives with a two-model range kicking off with the Dynamic, at $31,990, before on-road costs, before stepping up to the Premium at $35,990 BOC. They both get the same motor and battery, by the way, so the extra money comes down to extra kit.

The Dynamic rides on 16-inch alloys wrapped in cheaper Westlake rubber, scores LED headlights and DRLs and gets rain-sensing wipers and heated wing mirrors. Inside, there’s a 10.1-inch central touchscreen, an 8.8-inch driver display, synthetic leather seats with manual adjustment up front and wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto linked to a four-speaker stereo.

The Premium rides on 17-inch alloys wearing better Hankook rubber, and there’s a panoramic glass roof with a shade and roof racks. Inside, the central screen grows to 12.8 inches, and there’s an eight-speaker stereo and a wireless charge pad. Your seats are now electronically adjusted and heated and cooled. Plus there’s some extra safety stuff, but we’ll cover that off in a second.

The Performance is all-wheel drive and is fully electric with dual motors, a squirrel cage induction motor located at the front and a permanent magnet synchronous motor at the rear. Together they produce up to 390kW of power and 690Nm of torque.

This gives the flagship grade a 0-100km/h sprint time of just 4.5 seconds. There’s obviously ample power to be had here which will delight EV fans who like that tummy-falling sensation when accelerating.

Both Atto 2 models share the same powertrain - a front-mounted electric motor producing 130kW/290Nm which is sent to the front tyres. It feels fairly sedate, even under flat-footed acceleration, though BYD reckons you can knock off the sprint to 100km/h in 7.9 seconds.

The Sealion 7 Performance has a blade battery with a large 82.56kWh capacity which supports a 456km WLTP driving range. This isn’t terrible for city drivers but a regional driver will likely want a longer range. BYD includes a portable charging cable with the model.

Charging is sorted via a Type 2 CCS charging port which accepts up to 11kW on an AC charger and up to 150kW on a DC charger. On a 150kW DC charger, you can go from 10 to 80 per cent in as little as 32 minutes and that increases to more than eight hours on an 11kW AC charger. All of the figures are quite good and help with the general day-to-day convenience.

The official energy consumption figure is 20.4 kWh per 100km but after doing a healthy mix of open-road driving and city stuff, my average has popped out at 19.1kWh. I reckon it's a solid result for a ‘performance’ grade but I didn’t find the regenerative braking to be particularly strong on this model.

Both models also share the same battery, a 51.1kWh LFP unit, which should unlock a WLTP driving range of 345km. AC charging is pegged at 7.0kW, so a good match for a standard home wallbox, while DC fast charging is 82kW. Using the latter, BYD says you should go from 10 to 80 per cent charged in 38 minutes.

The Performance grade offers plenty of power that is delivered wickedly quick without feeling overwhelming when you have to accelerate. You still feel in control, which is very important when you have outputs like this does.

The steering is responsive and light enough for quick lane changes. The general on-road handling is quite refined but there is more roll in corners than you’d expect and this is the only time the power can make the handling feel a tad wobbly.

Surprisingly, there isn't a one-pedal function and the regen braking isn’t particularly strong. It’s difficult to ‘creep’ forward in this in stop/start traffic where it can feel a bit jerky at times, so it handles best on the open road.

Visibility is mostly good but the rear window is narrow and a digital rear-view mirror would have been welcomed in this model. Suspension is sports-firm but forgiving over bigger bumps. 

The 360-degree view camera and surrounding sensors makes this super easy to park and honestly, you shouldn’t have any trouble manoeuvring the Sealion 7.

Your drive experience in the Atto 2 very much depends on what you ask of it.

Or to put it another way, the first half of my drive route was a breezy run through the city and suburbs, then onto the freeway, before arriving at our destination. 

It was probably 60 kays or so, and across it all the Atto 2 felt quiet and comfortable, with enough power at its disposal to easily get up to speed and stay there. 

In the second half, though, I hunted down some twisting roads and cracks started to appear. The ride is pretty solid and there isn't huge amounts of body roll during more enthusiastic cornering. 

But the steering is vague and there's plenty of slack – you can turn the wheel a fair bit without eliciting much response from the tyres.

Interestingly, turning the wheel with a bit of aggression also produced a weird sound up front, like you could hear the mechanicals shifting the tyres.

The tyres make a difference, too, with the Premium's more expensive Hankook rubber far happier to hang on without squealing than the Dynamic's Westlake tyres. 

But context is key here. The Atto 2 is an accessible, affordable city-focused EV, and it performs those duties admirably. But if you're sold on a car-driver connection, there isn't much of that on offer here.

The Atto 2 is yet to be assessed by ANCAP but there’s no shortage of stuff. The entry-level car gets six airbags, rear parking sensors and all the usual traction tech. Then there’s active cruise, lane departure warning, blind spot monitoring, cross-traffic alert in both directions - the list goes on. In fact, the only things the Premium adds on top are a 360-degree camera and front parking sensors. 

The Sealion 7 is covered by a six-year/150,000km warranty which is good for the class. The battery is covered by an eight-year/160,000km warranty which is a normal term.

The Sealion 7 gets a 10-year capped price servicing but it’s expensive compared to some of its peers at $4157.

Servicing intervals are spaced at every 12 months or 20,000km, whichever occurs first.

BYD’s warranty is an okay six years but just 150,000km, which is underwhelming compared to the best in the business. The battery is covered for eight years or 160,000km.

BYD vehicles typically have 12 month, 20,000km service intervals with capped price servicing, but the details are yet to be confirmed for the Atto 2.