BYD put the Sealion 08 on sale in China on 2 September, at the top of the Ocean range. It is a five-metre SUV sold in eight configurations, as a plug-in hybrid or as a battery-electric car, and both use the second-generation Blade pack.
Affected#
Nobody’s current car. This is a new model in China, and BYD has not announced it for Europe or Morocco.
It matters as a marker of where the second-generation Blade has reached. Until now that pack was announced technology; it is now the battery in a mainstream SUV, in both drivetrains, at a mainstream price. What the second generation changes at cell level is less settled than it looks — BYD published an energy-density gain and a charging curve and no chemistry at all. See LFP vs NMC for what is and is not known about it.
Confirmed#
| Price | 229,900–279,900 yuan, about $33,800–41,200 |
| Versions | eight, plug-in hybrid and battery-electric |
| PHEV pack | 55.843 kWh second-generation Blade, 350–400 km CLTC on electricity |
| BEV pack | 115.072 kWh second-generation Blade, 800–900 km CLTC |
| PHEV engine | 1.5 T, 115 kW, with one 200 kW motor or two |
| BEV motors | 370 kW rear-drive, or 215 kW front plus 370 kW rear |
| 0–100 km/h | 5.9 to 3.9 seconds by version |
| Size | 5,115 × 1,999 × 1,800 mm, 3,030 mm wheelbase |
| Driver assistance | God’s Eye 5.0 |
BYD reported more than 12,000 firm orders in the first 24 hours.
Unconfirmed#
- Anything outside China. No European or Moroccan launch, price or specification exists, and BYD has not said one is planned.
- Real range. CLTC is the most optimistic of the cycles. A 900 km CLTC figure is not 900 km on a motorway, and no WLTP number has been published.
- What a firm order is. The figure is BYD’s, and the report does not say what deposit makes an order firm or how many of the eight versions it covers. Chinese launch-day order counts are a marketing metric and are not audited.
- Flash-charging speed. The car supports it; no peak or average charging figure for this pack has been published.