Hi all, has anyone else compared the acceleration of the Seal Performance to that of the Sealion Performance? I test drove the Sealion Performance first and was blown away by its acceleration. Then I drove the Seal Performance expecting to be even more blown away, and I just… wasn’t. Yes, it was quick, but it didn’t have that gut mashing urgency off the line. I was a bit confused, so just to check I drove the Sealion again (but not the same one I drove first time) and again was blown away by the acceleration.

I’m rather surprised by this because the Seal is supposed to be 0.7s faster, but it just didn’t feel it when I drove it. Has anyone else had the same experience?

I’m due to collect my brand new BYD Seal U DM-i Comfort from Hendy Poole on Thursday. The finance is approved and full payment has been made, so everything is ready from my side.

Unfortunately, communication from the dealership hasn’t been great. Emails often go unanswered for a couple of days, which has made the whole process quite stressful.

My latest issue is with the insurance. Hendy don’t offer any drive-away insurance, and they’ve told me the car will only be registered on the day of collection.

They’ve given me the registration number, but it’s not yet recognised by the comparison sites, so I can get quotes but can’t actually buy a policy using the registration. The only insurer willing to insure it right now is my current provider, but the premium is much higher than the comparison site quotes.

Has anyone else experienced this with a brand new BYD?

\* How long did it take for your registration to appear on the DVLA/insurance databases?
\* Were you able to arrange insurance before collection?
\* Is it normal for the registration to become active on the morning of collection, or should I be asking the dealer to register it earlier?

It’s a 3-hour drive home, so I’m a bit concerned about getting everything sorted in time.

I’d really appreciate hearing about your experiences. Thanks

Has anyone brought a BYD from EasyAuto123 Liverpool? Seems like all the demos are now sold via EasyAuto but I’ve read some negative things and am not sure if I can trust a purchase through them, particularly interstate.

Okay, I've had my SL7 a few months now and I love it. But here's a funny as hell grievance I have with it - keen to see if I'm the only dumbarse who keeps getting got by it.

Mine is set up to turn on automatically when I open the driver's door.

I've been road tripping Tassie for the last week or so, and it has been WET. Like holy crap would you stop it already wet.

So, when I race in the rain to my drenched car and open the door, it turns on. What else turns on?

The bloody windscreen wipers. What happens then?

This idiot gets like a cupful of water thrown straight in the face.

Because I'm a catastrophically slow learner, it happened about three times before I learned to crack the door, lean back while the first splash of water goes flying past in search of a stupid driver to drown, then get in.

I love my car - even its sense of humour...

I was very underwhelmed. It was cheap and nasty feeling. It was slow. The software was buggy and everything inside, the surfaces and touch points all felt like cheap garbage.

This is from the BYD dealership in Nunawading. Thier latest model (which is apparently the 2025..)

I put it in sport and stood on it and if you think thats fast.. youve never driven a good car.

Went down the road and drove a Tesla and the difference was night and day. From the tech to the performance to the comfort to the sales staff.

They wanted 50 something for this Seal but wouldnt let me test drive the fast one. Tesla threw me the keys to a performance and said lol youll love it, see you soon and their product just speaks for itself.

The fast Seal is 70, why would you spend so much on such a shitty car when you can have a Tesla for that?

Hi Reddit,

I have seen a lot of questions from people asking owners on their experience of Sealion 7 and EVs in general..

I've owned a BYD Sealion 7 Performance from new and have now done around 15,000 km, including a road trip from NSW to Kangaroo Island in South Australia and up through the remote wilderness of the Flinders Ranges. I figured I'd share some real-world ownership impressions for anyone considering one.

The good 😉

Ok, so overall, I genuinely love the car.

The biggest surprise has been how capable it is outside sealed roads. I've driven it completely stock through dirt roads, mud in the Flinders, shallow rocky creek crossings and some fairly rocky trails. It's not an off-roader, but it's considerably more capable than a typical sedan and handled everything I threw at it.

Performance is ridiculous for the money. BYD advertises around 4.5 seconds to 100 km/h, but mine has reliably achieved 3.7 seconds on multiple occasions (obviously not through the muddy terrains of the Flinders haha). It's hilariously quick and never gets old surprising people who assume it's just another family SUV.

The interior is also far more luxurious than I expected at this price point. It feels like a much more expensive vehicle.

Practicality has also impressed me. We comfortably packed enough luggage for a small family for a three-week holiday without any issues.

Range and charging

This is probably what most tend to be curious about.

Around town, I realistically see about ~550 km from the Performance model.

On the open road at highway speeds, expect something closer to ~350 km, which is simply the reality of driving any EV around 110 km/h.

Despite that, I honestly haven't found regional touring to be difficult at all (and I have been as remote as 100km north of Leigh Creek in SA). During my trip through regional NSW, South Australia, Kangaroo Island and the Flinders, there was generally enough fast charging available. If I stopped for lunch at a fast charger, I could usually get the battery close to full before I was ready to leave. I thought I would find this inconvenient, but the reality is, we would have stopped for lunch and dinners anyway and the convenient part is, I don't need to spend time at a Servo. Many accommodations and Air BnBs are also good places to charge while travelling.

One thing I also noticed is that during holiday periods, chargers just off the major highways were often much quieter than some of the petrol stations we drove past.

For day-to-day life I charge almost exclusively at home. I drive roughly 700 km per week, and home charging has been more than enough for my needs. I probably pay about $60-$70 PER MONTH for that sort of mileage and I am yet to change my energy plan to an EV plan.

The annoyances 😒

I have no real reliability concerns so far and build quality has been solid.

Most of my complaints are software-related.

Android Auto occasionally develops a delay in the audio, and disconnecting and reconnecting the phone fixes it (irritating).

The driver monitoring system is EASILY my biggest annoyance. Even looking at Google Maps on the built-in infotainment screen can trigger warnings. SINGING you favourite tune can result in a little coffee cup icon telling you to fuel your caffeine habits while simultaneously having a break (the ai thinks your are yawning because your mouth is open)

The child presence detection is another feature that I understand from a safety perspective, but it becomes irritating when it sounds the alarm because someone is just sitting in the car while parked.

The real frustration is that both systems have to be disabled every single time you start the car. I wish BYD would simply let owners save those preferences.

Would I buy it again?

Absolutely.

It isn't perfect, and BYD still has some software polishing to do, but the combination of performance, luxury, practicality and value is genuinely impressive.

After 15,000 km including some pretty remote touring through rural NSW, rural VIC, and rural SA, I'd have no hesitation using this vehicle!

Is there anything I should be asking the dealer about the vehicle? What should I do to prepare? There’s an app right?

Hello everyone, i'm interested in buying a new car and i don't mind the new BYD models i'm wondering what model people recommend, i do about 1 hour of city driving in stop start traffic per day and currently live alone so i do not require room for more than 2 people. Thank you

So, bought the multi-tail portable EV charger from Jaycar the other day as an upgrade to my older InChargex unit.

Get it home, plug it in and at the end of the charge session, it gives an error "Relay Breaking Fault". It did this again the following charge session.

Turns out that the communication protocol of the charging unit is not entirely compatible with BYD vehicles. You'd think that Jaycar would know to tell their staff this, as I found out after purchase that it is a well known, documented issue (even on their own website help section).

Will be returning it for a full refund.

With Origin energy recently adding BYD to their electricity plans, has anyone had much success in getting things set up? On following their instructions I could see the car in the app, but I think I broke something with either the car or my Sigenergy AC charger app.

I have,
- Atto 3 Scheduled for charging between midnight and 8 AM
- Sigenergy AC charger scheduled for charging between midnight and 8 AM using fast charging.

I'm wondering if one of these is blocking Origin? Anyone else had the same experience? I've asked Origin and am waiting feedback

Hi all!

Its been close to 1 month since owning the new BYD Sealion 5. Everything is running smoothly, until this week, where the wipers started skipping, eventhough the windshield is wet.

Even after a quick wash of the windshield and wipers, its still skipping. The only time it stops is when I increase the wipers speed to the max.

Just wondering what can I do to fix it, or have anyone experienced the same thing.

Our 6 week old atto 1 just got its first OTA update. My partner has the car at work so I'm just wondering if anyone happens to know what was in the update? Or where I can find out?

Cheers

Hi everyone,

I recently ordered a BYD Sealion 8 Premium from BYD dealer on 14 June 2026.

I am trying to understand whether my situation is normal, or whether I should push back further.

The main issue is that my finance has already been settled by the dealer yesterday, but I still have not seen the car, I do not have the vehicle, and I have not been given a clear ETA for delivery.

I only found out the finance had been settled after receiving a welcome email from the finance company. This is concerning because I am now financially committed, but I still do not know when I will actually receive the car.

Is this normal or even allowed? Should finance be settled before the customer has inspected or taken delivery of the vehicle, especially when there is no confirmed delivery date?

The second issue is the $1,000 discount. I was told that if I bought the car that day, I would receive a $1,000 discount. At the time, I do not recall being clearly told whether this discount was only for dealer stock, BYD stock, or subject to any other stock condition.

After placing the order, I was later told I would not receive the $1,000 discount because the vehicle was not in stock.

A few days after ordering, I received contract/signature documents with a vehicle allocated with a VIN. I also checked the Australian Government RAV public search, and the vehicle appears to have a RAV Date of Entry before my order date.

I understand RAV entry may not necessarily prove the car was physically sitting at the dealership. However, because I was told I would get $1,000 off if I bought that day, and the stock condition was not clearly explained to me at the time, I am now questioning why the discount is being refused.

Has anyone else had a similar experience with BYD dealer?

Is it normal for finance to be settled before delivery when there is no confirmed ETA?

I just want to understand whether this is normal dealer process, or whether I should escalate the matter further.