Seal of approval

BYD's first entrant to the local midsize-SUV segment may be diving in at the deep end, but it's certainly not sinking...

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Price: R689 900 0-100 km/h: 8.33 seconds

Top speed: 170 km/h

Power: 160 kW

Torque: 300 N.m

CAR Fuel index: 5.80 L/100km

CO₂: 24 g/km

Of the numerous Chinese automotive manufacturers to recently set up shop in South Africa, none has created quite the groundswell of attention that BYD has.

Even from afar, we've all heard how this firm has surpassed Tesla to become the largest EV producer globally and produced 4.3 million vehicles in 2024 alone...all of this in just 20 years of operations. And while the company’s sales figures and dealership expansion here (currently sitting at 13 sites with a projected 35 by the end of 2026) are modest when compared to other Chinese automakers here in SA, its focus on NEVs (New Energy Vehicles) rather than the affordable four-cylinder petrol models and the occasional hybrid offered by its rivals is part of a more measured approach that anticipates a more EV-reliant motoring future. While BYD has the resources to sustain itself over the inevitable period of market familiarisation required for any Chinese firm to succeed here, it's nonetheless a brave gamble in the face of other Chinese marques that have gone full-bore into the SA motoring sphere with high volumes of affordable ICE products being sold via swiftly growing dealer networks. And it’s against this background that BYD's Sealion 6 must gain a foothold in the SA market. It's a tall order, but our first experience of the Shenzhen-based firm’s hybrid midsize SUV has been a promising one.