BYD Sealion 6 review: A long-distance relationship
The Chinese brand’s Sealion 6 DM-i is wooing those who can’t commit to EVs and want a long-distance relationship
[KUANTAN] Straight after a four-day, 1,200-km road trip in Malaysia, I rushed home and smooched the wife, as married men are wont to do.
“Is that a car key in your pocket, or are you just happy to see me?” she asked, with a glimmer in her eye. To my total consternation (and her bitter disappointment), it was the key to a BYD Sealion 6 DM-i that was now sitting at Vantage Automotive.
Maybe I’d subconsciously separated the Sealion 6 from its key because I felt the car deserved a bit of rest, after hauling me through half of Malaysia. That beats my wife’s theory, at least, that I had it on me because I am, in her words, a “forgetful git”.
In any case, there is no rest for BYD and its five dealers this year. Having registered 3,827 new cars here in the first five months of the year, the brand has set itself a target of 10,000 sales for 2025.
To hit that, it needs the Sealion 6 to succeed where no one else has. The five-seat crossover is a plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV) with a 18.3 kWh battery that can propel it for a claimed 80 km. When that runs low, a 1.5-litre engine fires up to generate electricity and keep things moving. It also helps the front-mounted motor shove the car along, if needed.
That makes the Sealion 6 a kind of gateway electric vehicle (EV). The average driver here can do two days on battery power, then recharge and repeat. And when the mood strikes, long road trips are a simple matter of heading out the door with your bags and passport.
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To prove the point, BYD handed a convoy of cars to the media and sent us glamping in Janda Baik, climbing the steep hairpins of cloud-covered Genting Highlands and skimming across the country to Kuantan, before trotting back to Melaka for a bit of culture.
None of the six cars made it to 900 km before needing fuel, which is disappointing. Between the 60-litre tank and BYD Blade Battery under my bum, I was expecting to at least match BYD’s range claim of 1,100 km. Some plain hybrid cars without plug-in technology can go that far, after all.
But then they generally don’t feel like EVs to drive, which is the Sealion 6’s trump card.
It gets underway with a smooth, silent surge, and unless you’re really going for it or heading up Genting’s steeper sections, you won’t notice the engine waking up.
To be sure, 8.5 seconds to 100 kmh isn’t slow, and the instant response to the accelerator pedal makes you feel well armed for the cut-and-thrust of daily traffic.
Between the leisurely steering and the general refinement, the Sealion 6 isn’t a sporty car, but it’s an excellent cruiser. Long days behind the wheel were a breeze, thanks to a quiet cabin, cushiony ride quality and chairs that felt like upholstered marshmallows.
That said, it’s not quite as plush as the Sealion 7, the newer, pure-electric crossover that has quietly become BYD’s best-selling car here. Unlike that car, the Sealion 6 has no head-up display, memory seats or supple Nappa leather.
But the Sealion 6 does come with a glass roof (with an actual sunshade), powerful air-conditioning, a sharp 360-degree parking camera and proper mirroring for both Apple and Android phones.
It’s roomy, too. The back seat is family-ready, and the 574-litre boot swallowed four journalists’ gear without bursting at the seams. I’d have liked bag hooks and somewhere to stash the luggage cover, but if you ask me, the Sealion 6’s biggest challenge is pricing.
As a PHEV, the Sealion 6 qualifies for just S$2,500 in pollution rebates, while the electric Sealion 7 enjoys a S$40,000 discount. That means the Sealion 6 will cost slightly more than the Sealion 7, despite being older, slower, less refined and not quite as posh.
That sort of maths might explain why PHEVs have never taken off here. Only about 200 of them found homes in 2024. Still, with EVs all the rage now, PHEVs might catch some of that buzz, and the Sealion 6 is very much for anyone keen on an electric car but not quite ready to break up with Big Oil yet.
Yet, given that other plug-ins offered the same proposition to little success, the Sealion 6’s mission isn’t to conquer the PHEV market, but to establish it.
BYD Sealion 6 DM-i Engine 1,498 cc in-line four Engine power 98 hp Engine torque 122 Nm Electric Motor 197 hp, 300 Nm System Power/Torque 218 hp, 300 Nm Battery Type/Capacity Lithium Iron Phosphate (LFP) / 18.3 kWh Charging Time/Type 2.8 hours (7 kW AC), 1.3 hours (18 kW DC) Electric Range 80 km (WLTP) Combined Range 1,100 km (WLTP) 0–100 kmh 8.5 seconds Top Speed 180 kmh Fuel Efficiency 0.9 L/100 km (combined) Efficiency 18.8 kWh/100 km Agent Vantage Automotive Pte Ltd Price Upon application Available July 16
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