$4000 off most BYD models.
The Seal 6 Touring is the cheapest PHEV wagon and cheapest wagon in Australia. 100km WLTP range. 670L boot space, much larger than most SUVs. $35,990 + ORC.
Sealion 5 $29,990 + ORC. One of the cheapest PHEV SUVs in Australia. Cheap alternative to the new RAV4 which costs at least $16000 more.
Seal 6 $30,990 + ORC.
Sealion 6 $38,990 + ORC.
Sealion 7 $50,990 + ORC.
Sealion 8 $52,990 + ORC.
Shark 6 Premium $53,900 + ORC.
MG can't catch-up
MG have been losing sales ever since they went to their second gen products because they increased their prices.
They will have to start discounting now or they will get bypassed. BYD look to be in take over mode
I still have not seen a single MGS5 on the road despite good reviews. Quite a few MG4 Urbans though so price really is feast or famine for Chinese cars.
@Brick Tamland: Agreed - but given it's the cheapest family sized elec Suv it's a combo of strange and worrying that uptake hasn't been huge.
@iknowtj: MG must be worried. Seems to be momentum focused. MG had first wave momentum which was given to Chery which now seems to be with BYD.
@Brick Tamland: For sure - been getting stuck into the research for the next family bus, and I think to myself - if they don't sell enough, and pull it from the Aus market, will they keep parts etc for it? etc etc.
And we get less per dollar
I was looking at the MG7 start of this year as my previous car got totalled.
Saw the reviews that we get only 170kw running on 95ron compared to 192kw on 92ron in the chinese model
What gives?
Called up and no MG in sydney offered test drive.
Easy pass for me
Mg even isn't in the same quality class?
I don't think MG is what BYD is after. BYD is after Toyota sales.
MG burnt their brand a few years ago by significantly discounting vehicles on the fleet market. For those that are wondering 50% of new car sales in Australia are fleet/B2B sales. Some fleets were getting 15-25% discounts.
Brand, residual values ruined just to sell more bonnets.
BYD are doing the same now - lots of retail cashbacks and discounts and significant fleet discounts available. I'm not saying BYD are the next MG, more a watch this space and see how the market evolves over the next few years.
In China BYD overtook SAIC (MG owner) back in 2024.
In general it seems that SAIC is getting steamrolled by BYD and Greely brands.
I don't think there is any way back for SAIC in the Aussie market. There replication is tainted by rusty LDV Utes, and long wait times for parts on MG EV's.
There is no way back for MG. Agreed.
But will BYD end up like MG in 3-4 years? Who knows.
Seems unlikely.
Growing like crazy, strong model lineup. Reputation OK.
beware Sealion 5 got only 3 stars in ANCAP
And do we know why? What categories did it lose in?
Probably because it didn't have or allowed you to turn off annoying things that everyone turns off anyway
Read the report. Some post crash safety issues like the high voltage doesn't drop down to safety levels and the windows are not operable so danger when submerged. There others as well.
Afaik, ANCAP doesn't check the switching off of safety features. Correct me if I'm wrong.
@1cent2much: They do require that they need to be on by default I believe, but not that you should be prevented from switching then off.
High voltage could be an issue but that shouldn't be too hard a fix and might even be a software issue. I would be lots of cars with power windows don't open when submerged, but some of these cars come with a window breaking tool these days.
It's new 2026 standard which requires lots of safety monitoring. The car still 5 stars with previous standard and near top ratings of crash protection
ANCAP is rubbish anyway
FWIW ANCAP affect insurance premium
That is a very good point. Also no ANCAP rating, like Atto 2 DMi, can effect insurance prices too
My daily car has no rating and haven't felt insurance being different. In fact it is cheaper than my friends Atto 3.
As always insurance is different for everyone.
It will affect resale also, the rating is on the front page of your carsales ad.
Changing winds affect insurance premiums.
In WA, RAC Insurance won't insure a new car with less than a 4 star ANCAP rating.
@banana365: Not sure how true is this because I tried Sealion 5 which had 3 stars and it let me insure it. I also tried few other cars which are unrated (including atto 2) RAC WA doesn't seem to have any issue in insuring them?
@banana365: Well, then they're not sticking with what they're saying really. You can check yourself, Sealion 5 can certainly be insured.
Poor Driver protection in crash testing with poor active safety systems dragging the whole score down.
Factually incorrect for (almost) the entire lineup. It describes 1 specific outlier: newly tested BYD Sealion 5.
UBS Lab scored the 2023 model Seal highly for its structural Cell-to-Body (CTB) Blade Battery integration, 800V-capable e-Platform 3.0, & high energy density. They concluded that Chinese EV makers have a structural cost-&-technology lead that legacy Western automakers will struggle to bridge (15% better value than Tesla & 30% better than any EU EV ;)
The comment was in response to a comment about the Sealion 5
Absolutely brilliant. The car performed exceedingly well in crash test. The neg point came from having less driver monitoring which is super annoying feature. In my opinion it bings and bongs way too much and does more distractions than good. Most people turn them off any way. I wish my BYD was 3 star and without those features.
front impact 71%, side impact 93%, rear impact 87%.
Decent scores for the important stuff.
Bad scores on driver aids
71% is not a decent front impact score.
Jokes on you I've never hit anyone with the front of my car, hit them with the side instead it's 93%
Yep, increases chance of losing your legs or other injuries with front impacts!!!
It's lower for the driver. I cant remember from when I looked it up yesterday but it started with a 6 which is bad for a modern car
Also important to know this car Sealion 5 has been discontinued in China so they are selling their old junk here in Australian market. I guess still better than a 10 yr old Rav4 in terms of safety.
Selling left hand drive stock in Australia?
Also note that its not just a BYD thing. The current RAV4 is untested with ANCAP. It won't get tested until Toyota roll out a "tech change". To me, this suggests an expected score of less than 5*
All good, I'm not planning on crashing it anyway.
Sealion 5 is the old architecture (rebadged to Australian market) so most of the newest ADAS tech weren't there, which was the main reason it scored so low. Atto 1 for example had 5 stars even though technically Sealion should have performed better if it had the same ADAS as Atto 1. Atto 2 DMI being the latest of the DMI version with latest ADAS software will surely get 5 stars but they have no plans to test it. Go figure.
Hopefully sealion 7 will be 40k soon
That would be an awesome price, but a 10k drop like that feels like it will be years away. Maybe 3+ years.
Though what makes you think its a recent drop? Cause at 40k I would be willing to buy a BYD 7, just not for 50k
I wouldn't bother with anything PHEV, just go straight full electric.
lol must live in a city
Go regional, you'll still see EVs everywhere - many have 400-500km ranges now. Still suits majority of people. It would be rare for people to do more than that in a day, and if they do, EVs aren't for them.
For the majority EVs are fine, even out of the city.
It'll take a while for people to not become rusted on to petrol stations.
@[Deactivated]: Even better shopping cart if you live rurally and have to drive 50 or 100km to do the weekly shop. Enormous fuel saving potential.
Besides, most people who live regional live in towns where everything is 1-2km away.
Both are perfect use cases for EVs.
@tp0: my wife does 5k a year in a Suzuki swift., would you swap it for a ev ;)
please confirm payback time?
would you swap it for a ev
I wouldn't.
Confirming my second suggestion that people who live "regional" actually live very urbanised lives. Far more urbanised than people living in the suburbs of our cities.
@tp0: My daughter also has a swift and does a lot more k's, cost her $98 to fill it from empty this week, couldn't believe it. FFS.
@[Deactivated]: Similar sized EV to charge on a cheap overnight power plan could work out around $4-5 (8c/kW plan).Once it's time to replace the Swift, it would be worth considering.
@[Deactivated]: I was talking about your daughter's swift who you said does a lot of km. If her car is only 25k after 5 years, then she doesn't do a lot of km at all.
@[Deactivated]: Try to offload it now while there are still some people willing to buy a petrol vehicle.
@[Deactivated]: Base auto swift $25,990 drive away.
Base Atto 1: $19,900 drive away.
If she is buying a new car anyway, There is an instant $6k saving, then ongoing running cost savings.
A bit off topic, but I read an article about capital city's international flights and how Adelaide is considered a regional airport. So yes, I see lots EVs.
Those are not rural ev's though, you wouldn't use an SUV on a farm.
There's a few prev options I have seen, but you also need to think If it broke down where are you going to get it fixed ?
There's a reason they use LandCruisers
Even Euros are very rare in regionals.
Yep, I've seen 1 once in CQ.
Coz that range only gets to halfway to anywhere. I'm sure the one I saw must be owned by a retiree, not in a hurry to get anywhere.
Like 70%+ of Australia
most people do live in a city and rarely drive out of it
The ring of steel was taken down. You are allowed to leave now.
@Brick Tamland: But you're talking to city people - most of whom would shit themselves driving out of their city. For those people, a world where only EVs exist is perfectly feasible.and many can't envisage a situation where you wouldn't want/need an EV. The bizarre world we live in, in 2026.
@R4: You can tell who the Melbourne people are in national parks because they are usually driving a Tesla or BYD down the wrong way on a one way road.
87% of Au population to be specific.
if you live regional seems likely you'd have a house where you can charge at home. unless you love paying for petrol or inexplicably live over 200km from where you work, it seems like an ev would be a no-brainer regionally…
@[Deactivated]: Instead of deducting the tax, just don't pay tax in the first place. Either by not paying for petrol (and paying pennies for electricity comparatively) or by not paying GST on charging via a novated lease.
@[Deactivated]: So is charging costs. I'm on lease and charge solar. Ev makes me money when I claim "charging costs" via km method.
@[Deactivated]: He charges for free and then claims it costs him money because the government gives you tax discount on the kms driven not the kwh charged. So effectively double dipping: free fuel + tax discount.
Unless someone drives over 400km a day on a regular basis. Full Ev is the best option.
I do but not everyday.
@[Deactivated]: If it's regularly. Then it's not the car for you.
In its current state, EVs don't match people who travel long distances or tow heavy loads daily.
Once in a while, it's fine because there's charging stations around. But not as cost effective as charging at home.
Eventually the tech will change.
@Windows98: Even if on the long trips the EV works out a little higher due to the fast charging rates, overall it's still far cheaper due to the remainder of the year mostly charging at home.
Unless you need a 7 seater, and don’t want to pay $90k plus for an EV
Different people have different requirements. PHEV may not suit you but it suits others.
Which suggestions for full electric?
I would agree to you if BEV doesnt cost $10k-$15k more to the equivalent PHEV. That's a lot of petrol for PHEV and you can use full EV mode for your daily commute. I think the reason BEV is much preferable now is because FBT exemption when buying through NL, once that's gone i think PHEV might become more popular.
need some full EV wagon options which are coming soon.
Zeekr 7GT
To me, this still looks like a bloated SUV rather than a wagon. I'm looking for longer wheelbase, with a more flat back door rather than sloped - ie more like a Commodore wagon and less like a liftback (ie Mazda 6 liftback).
VW ID.7
Too bad VW Australia are too boneheaded to bring it here.
Looks like BYD are getting serious about taking over and dominating now.
I wonder if MG will have any answers of their own this month?
They would have to be losing sales now.