They’re basically asking: does BYD’s naming system follow a clear pattern? Like, do the names tell you which car is bigger or more important in the lineup—or is it just random?
Term
DMI
“DMI” is BYD’s label for a particular kind of hybrid powertrain. It’s basically a shorthand BYD uses so you can tell which hybrid version a model is.
Car
BYD Ato-2 DMI
They mention a BYD called “Ato-2 DMI.” The “DMI” part tells you it’s a BYD hybrid version, and “Ato-2” is the model name.
A plug-in hybrid is a car that has both an electric motor and a gasoline engine. You can charge it like an EV, and it also has the engine for when you need more range.
BYD Auto refers to the automotive division of the BYD group. The segment frames it as the part of the conglomerate that focuses on cars, distinct from BYD’s other manufacturing activities.
Company
surgical mask
A surgical mask is a medical face mask people wear to reduce the spread of germs. The hosts are using it as an example of BYD switching factories to make something else.
They’re talking about how many electric cars a company builds and sells. The point is that BYD is making a huge number of EVs compared with other brands.
The Atto 2 is an electric car that runs on a battery instead of gasoline. The podcast is mentioning it because it’s expected to start being built around Q2 of 2026. That’s the main “news” point being highlighted.
“Vertically integrated” means the company does more of the work itself, across different parts of the process. That can help them coordinate technology and reduce costs.
Flash charging means charging an electric car very quickly, like adding lots of driving range in just a few minutes. The goal is to make EVs feel more like refueling a petrol or diesel car.
A battery pack is the whole battery system in the car, not just one cell. Its design helps determine how fast the car can charge and how well it stays protected.
They’re claiming you can charge an EV so it can drive about 250 miles after only five minutes of charging. It’s meant to address the common complaint that EVs take too long to charge.
They’re talking about installing lots of very fast chargers in the UK. The idea is that the technology only helps if there are enough charging stations for drivers to use.
Denza is a Chinese car brand the hosts mention as another label that could come to the UK. They’re basically saying the UK needs more Chinese electric brands.
Yang Wang is a BYD-linked brand that’s aimed at higher-end electric vehicles. In this segment, they’re talking about it because it’s making big claims about speed and advanced tech.
The Nürburgring is a well-known race track in Germany. A lap time is just how long the car takes to drive around the whole track once, and it’s often used to brag about performance.
ATP Automotive Testing Papenburg is a company that runs vehicle tests and verifies results. Here, they’re mentioned to make the speed and lap-time claims sound more official.
Electric buses are buses powered by electric motors, typically drawing energy from onboard batteries. The hosts use the example of BYD-branded electric buses to illustrate BYD’s real-world presence in electrified public transport.
Energy storage units are devices that store electricity so it can be used later. The hosts bring it up to show BYD works in energy products too, not only cars.
A range-extender hybrid uses the engine mainly to make electricity for the battery. The wheels are still driven by the electric motor, so the engine isn’t typically acting like a normal “direct drive” engine.
CVT means the transmission can change “gears” smoothly instead of jumping between set ratios. That can help the engine run efficiently, but it may feel different than a normal automatic.
They’re talking about the online car configurator. You pick the version you want, and then the finance section estimates what the monthly payments would be.
This is the estimated total distance the car can go using both gas and electricity. It assumes a mix of driving on the battery and then using fuel.
Term
vegan pleather interior
A “vegan pleather” interior is upholstery made from synthetic materials designed to mimic leather without using animal hide. It’s typically marketed as a cruelty-free alternative and may vary in feel and durability by material quality.
Active cruise control helps your car keep a steady speed. It can also slow down if the car in front gets closer, which makes highway driving less tiring.
WLTP is a standardized test used to estimate how far a car can go on fuel and/or electricity. It’s a more consistent way to compare cars than guessing from real-world driving.
Term
heated climate seats
Heated seats warm you up while you drive. “Climate seats” is marketing language that generally means the seats are part of the car’s comfort/heating features.
Wireless smartphone charging uses an inductive charging pad in the car to power a compatible phone without plugging in a cable. It’s typically slower than fast wired charging but is convenient for daily use.
A finance calculator is a website tool that estimates what your monthly payments would be. In this case, the hosts are pointing out that the discount seems to appear only when you use the finance option.
APR is the interest rate you’re effectively paying on a finance plan. “Representative” means it’s an advertised example rate that may not match what you personally get.
BYD’s Sealion 5 DM-i is a hybrid SUV that can drive using electricity part of the time. It’s meant to be efficient day-to-day, and it can switch to a gas engine when you need more range or power.
A “mid-sized SUV” is a family-sized SUV that’s bigger than a small SUV, but not as huge as the biggest ones. It usually offers more room than a compact SUV.
The D-pillar is the structural post of the car’s body near the back of the roof. Designers often add trim or texture there because it’s visible from the side.
Term
crease below the glass house
The “glass house” is the part of the car with the windows. A crease line below it is a sculpted line in the metal that helps the car’s shape look more defined.
They’re mentioning the Ford Mustang as a reference point for how some cars use body lines to look more muscular or distinctive. They’re not saying exactly which Mustang version.
Diamond cutting is a special finishing method for alloy wheels that makes parts of the wheel look extra shiny and crisp. It can make the spokes look slimmer and the wheel look more expensive.
An undercroft is a hidden space under the floor. Here, the hosts are pointing out that the car’s battery-related packaging seems to be placed low under the cargo area.
A “pure EV” is an all-electric car that doesn’t use a gas engine. They’re comparing the battery placement to what you’d typically see in an all-electric car.
The boot floor is the flat surface in the trunk where you put bags. If the car has bulky parts underneath, that floor can be less useful or not sit as low as you’d expect.
A hatch shelf is a flat ledge you can use at the back of the car when the rear door is open. It’s handy for setting things down while loading or unloading.
The transmission tunnel is a hump in the floor caused by mechanical parts underneath. If it intrudes less, the rear floor is flatter and passengers get more usable legroom.
The Jaguar E-Type is an older sports car made by Jaguar that’s famous for its looks and driving feel. Inside, it has a simple, driver-oriented layout with two seats up front and vents in the cabin area. People talk about it a lot because it’s a well-known classic design.
USB-C is the common “plug shape” used for charging phones and many other gadgets. The car has USB-C ports so you can charge devices while you’re driving.
Vegan leather is a synthetic upholstery material designed to look like leather without using animal hide. In cars, it’s often marketed as “pleather” and can vary by brand in terms of softness, heat retention, and long-term wear.
They’re describing the seats as “vegan leather,” meaning it’s not real animal leather. It’s usually a synthetic material designed to look and feel like leather.
Lumbar adjustment is a way to change how much support the seat gives your lower back. If you don’t have it, some people may feel less comfortable on long trips.
Bolsters are the padded sides of the seat that help keep you from sliding around. More support can feel better when driving hard, but it can also feel tighter.
360-degree cameras show a stitched view around your car. It makes parking and tight maneuvers easier because you can see obstacles from multiple angles.
Term
8.8 inch rectangular screen
The car uses an 8.8-inch screen to show your driving info. Instead of separate gauges, it puts things like speed and warnings in one place.
Drive mode select changes how the car feels and responds. “Sport” usually makes the car react more quickly, while “Drive” is more relaxed for everyday use.
ADAS is the car’s set of safety and convenience features that help you drive. It can include things like warnings or steering/braking help, and the car may show what it’s doing on the screen.
Tire pressure monitoring checks whether your tires are inflated correctly. If pressure is off, the car warns you and often keeps the info on the screen.
They mean putting nitrogen gas in the tires instead of normal air. The idea is that nitrogen can keep tire pressure steadier for longer, because it doesn’t pick up moisture as easily.
They’re talking about the car’s main touchscreen size. Bigger screens often mean more functions move onto the screen instead of buttons around the cabin.
Android Auto is a way to connect your Android phone to the car. It shows certain apps and controls on the car’s screen so you can use your phone more safely while driving.
Term
climb control
They mention a setting called “climb control,” which likely helps the car handle hills more smoothly. The exact name and function aren’t fully clear from the audio, but it’s treated like a screen-controlled driving mode.
Right-hand drive means the steering wheel is on the right side of the car. That affects how the dashboard and screen controls should be arranged so the driver can reach them easily.
Seat heater controls are how you turn the heated seats on and change the heat level. If they’re buried in the screen menus, they’re harder to use quickly.
A digital assistant is the car’s voice system that you can talk to. It can answer questions and do tasks, like weather, but it may refuse certain kinds of questions.
Most cars let you pick a “mode” that changes how they drive. For example, it can make the car feel more relaxed or more responsive when you press the accelerator.
An electric motor is the part that uses electricity to help move the car. In some cars, it can drive the wheels on its own sometimes, and other times it works together with the petrol engine.
Horsepower is a number that tells you how strong the car’s power is. Here they’re saying the car makes about 96 horsepower, but it’s set up to save fuel more than to feel super fast.
“Tuned for efficiency” means the car is set up to use less fuel. It may choose to rely more on the electric motor and manage the engine in a way that saves energy.
Acceleration sprint testing is when you do a quick “launch” to see how fast the car accelerates. They used the car’s built-in timer and then drove the test runs.
Concept
overtake a lorry
Overtaking a lorry means passing a big truck. They’re saying the car had enough power to make the pass without feeling strained.
EV mode is when the car drives using electricity from the battery. In plug-in hybrids, it can switch between electric driving and using the petrol engine.
Regen is when the car uses braking to help recharge the battery. In city traffic, you brake and slow down more, so you can recapture more energy.
Term
configure that kind of stuff
They’re talking about settings you can change in the car. For example, you may be able to adjust how strongly the car slows down when you lift off the accelerator.
Term
primary damping
“Primary damping” is the main shock-absorber damping action that controls how quickly the suspension settles after bumps. It affects ride comfort and stability by controlling oscillations, and it’s often tuned to balance comfort vs. control.
Steering feedback is the “feel” you get through the steering wheel—like how much grip the tires have. If it doesn’t give much feedback, the wheel can feel a bit vague, so it’s harder to tell what the car is doing. They’re saying this car’s steering feel isn’t very communicative.
Understeer is when you turn the steering wheel and the car doesn’t “turn in” as much as you expect. The front tires lose traction first, so the car tends to slide outward in the corner. They’re saying it happens in a controlled, not-scary way.
“Damped” here means the suspension is controlling the bounce after you hit a bump. Good damping helps the car settle quickly instead of bobbing or bouncing. They’re saying the suspension is managing those bumps pretty well.
“Towards the limit” means driving so hard that the tires are close to losing grip. When you’re near that point, the car’s handling can change suddenly. They’re saying you’d have to push it really hard to notice anything unusual.
Adaptive cruise control is like normal cruise control, but it can automatically slow down if the car in front of you gets closer. It helps keep a safe distance without you constantly adjusting the pedal.
Intelligent cruise control is cruise control that uses sensors to react to traffic. Instead of holding one speed no matter what, it can adjust to what’s happening ahead.
Parking sensors are little detectors that listen for objects around the car. They warn you (usually with beeps) when you’re getting too close while parking.
Lane departure system watches the road markings. If you start to drift out of your lane without signaling, it can warn you and sometimes help steer you back.
Blind spot detection watches the side areas next to your car that you can’t easily see. It warns you when there’s a vehicle there, so you don’t change lanes into it.
The A-pillar is the metal support post at the front of the car, next to the windshield. Some cars put sensors or cameras there because it’s a stable spot that can “see” the road well.
This is a feature that tries to tell if the driver isn’t paying attention or is getting tired. If it thinks something’s wrong, it will usually warn you to stay focused.
V2L means the car can share its electricity with things outside the car. So instead of only charging, it can also run devices like a fridge or camping gear.
“0–62” is a measure of how fast a car can accelerate from a stop to 62. It’s often used to compare cars, even though it doesn’t tell you everything about how the car feels.
A battery warranty is the promise from the maker that the car’s battery will be covered for problems for a set number of years and/or miles. If it’s longer, it usually makes buyers feel more confident about keeping the car.
They’re saying the battery warranty now covers the car for more than 100,000 miles. That’s a big number and suggests the company expects the battery to last.
A “launch” is when a new car model is introduced to the public and the press. Usually there’s a chance to drive it and hear what the company says about it.
LIVE
Welcome to the Motoring Podcast, a BYD C-Line 5 DMI special edition.
Hello, I'm Alan.
Hello, I'm Andrew.
Okay, so we're having a new BYD C-Mammal to describe and discuss.
Well, it goes along with all the other C-Mammals.
Is there a hierarchy that you know of in the naming?
No, there is no hierarchy that you know of in the naming at all because it's actually
I have it here.
And I can read you the hierarchy if you so desire.
The ultimate is like the blue whale and then the bottom and the smallest city car is, I
don't know, the otter or something.
Well, the tri-wider is the trouble age, right?
The water bowl.
Even in the picture they put up with the names and the super hybrid with DM technology product
portfolio in Europe, so it might not cover everything.
They're just sort of in a random order.
So we've got the C-L-5 DMI, the C-L-U DMI, the Ato-2 DMI.
You kind of get the idea with the DMI.
The Ato-2, the C-L-6 Touring, the C-L-6 and then the C-Line 5.
And that's ignoring the pure electric offerings as well.
But the Ato-2 is smaller than the C-L-5, so I don't know why it's in the middle.
And it's just, I don't know, it's all awfully confusing.
Well, BYD, something to work on for next time there's a driving day that you can help
us all understand what the hierarchy is in terms of naming.
Yes, the folks at BYD are lovely and stuff, but certainly nobody standing on the stage
appeared to, and these were corporate executives and training people and product managers.
But none of them seems to bat an eyelid at these somewhat strange naming.
BYD do name all of their stuff after C-Mammals, by the way.
I have no idea why C-Mammals would be chosen, but this is what happens in corporate marketing
departments.
There we go.
Right.
Sorry, I took us on a tangent.
Before we'd even begun, I do apologize everybody.
Alan, what is the BYD C-Line 5 DMI comfort?
Before we get to that, which is a far less exciting answer than you, well, it's about
as exciting as you're anticipating, really.
Let's talk a little bit about BYD, shall we?
So I was, and what I was doing, I was at the launch of the BYD C-Line 5 DMI, and in that
there was all the usual stuff, because it was quite far from here.
They put me up in a nice hotel overnight.
They gave me some alcohol and some food, and the company of some motoring journalists
I hadn't seen for quite some time, so it was all very, very pleasant.
Good.
Yes, it was.
Even the other motoring journalists were very, very pleasant, so there we go.
But yes, they made a big point, obviously.
The launch, by the way, to journalists, we were the first group who was through the great
launching machine.
It was us, there were dealers, fleet buyers, and influencers to come after the journalists.
It's quite a big show, quite kind of, I think, probably some of the big presentations in
the big room were quite generic to cover stuff for all of those different categories.
Okay, so sorry, I'm just trying to give you an idea, and there's some stuff on show.
We'll talk about that later.
But also introduce people to BYD as well.
There's a lot of that, and I think that I'm going to take this.
I mean, I took Copia's notes when I was sitting there in front of the presentation, so I'll
be darned if I'm not going to share them with you.
Globally, BYD built and shipped.
A BYD stands for Build Your Dreams.
You probably all know that.
BYD Auto is the car part of their conglomerate, really, during COVID.
They were the world's largest.
They didn't share this with us, but happened to know this from other reasons.
BYD were the world's largest producer of the cloth face mask, the surgical mask type things.
They just swiveled their entire company and went,
hey, we've actually got all the machinery we need to do this.
Let's do it.
In about three days, they basically turned vast swathes of their company into mask
making to support China and all sorts of places.
I believe at the time, they sacrificed the chance of an awful lot of profit to do good
instead and sell them for basically cars and all of that kind of stuff.
They're pretty big and they do more than just cars.
They build all that.
We'll talk about it in a little bit, but they build all their batteries and all of these
kind of things are all done in-house, maybe way.
Globally, though, they built and shipped about 4.6 million cars in 2025.
That made them the world's biggest EV manufacturer, I think, past Tesla.
That's quite a lot.
It's quite a lot, yes.
I think the EVs were mixed in there.
There is some other...
These, of course, we're going to talk about plug-in hybrids today.
New energy vehicles.
New energy vehicles, quite.
But even the EVs outside the last year in 2025, they shipped more vehicles than Tesla.
They sell in over 33 European countries, not counting other ones anywhere else.
They made big gains recently in France, the UK, Germany, and Spain.
They're currently building a massive factory in Hungary and aiming for production to start
in Q2 of 2026.
That's going to build the Dolphin Surf, the Atto-2.
Please don't ask me to describe these vehicles.
There are two other secret models and secret models is not their model name.
They're not letting on.
Globally, they have 120,000 research engineers working on vehicles and stuff.
Yeah, I was going to say.
Because they control the whole, well, if it was tech thing, it would be the tech...
The tech stack.
The tech stack, yeah.
They have the whole stack for the car, including their own ship and stuff.
So, I imagine they are from all walks of that element to try and make it more efficient,
better, cheaper, whatever.
In the same style as Hyundai and Kia, as well.
They're very much in that particular space, too, that's a whole vertically integrated job.
I knew you knew the consultancy words for all that.
Yes, exactly.
Their major current project that's going on alongside the vehicles or the enabling the
vehicles is flash charging.
It's to do with the way that the batteries are and how they work the battery packs.
They call them the bleed batteries.
I don't really know why they call the bleed batteries.
They just say it an awful lot.
Yes.
They're very proud of them.
Yes, they are.
They seem to be very good batteries.
But this whole flash charging is so you can get 250 miles of charge in five minutes.
That's 1.2 miles per second of charging.
So, similar to if you were filling up with petrol or diesel.
That's the whole aim, yes.
Is that if you know, in their EVs, that you can charge this quickly.
Which removes yet one of those things that people bring up to say why they don't like an EV.
Yes, and they're not just doing this as a theoretical idea.
They're planning on building 300 flash charges in the UK in 2026.
Oh, cool.
As well as bringing the BYD brand there, looking to bring the Yang Wang and Denza brands to the
UK too, because what we really need are more electric Chinese car brands to add to the
brand soup, which there is right at the minute.
Isn't Yang Wang the superfast?
Yes.
That was all about going to be heavily computerized, shall we say.
There was a slide on that, which I didn't include in our shared notes here.
But I think it is the Yang Wang superfast.
You've obviously been paying attention to some of this stuff.
No, I do occasionally read articles for our weekly news show.
Yes, they're claiming the fastest car in the world.
Officially certified Nurburgring lap time of six minutes 59.157,
and a top speed of 496.22 kilometers an hour.
I'll let somebody else work that one out.
That's probably quick.
Yes, officially certified by ATP Automotive Testing Papenburg in Germany.
They do some things which are quite impressive and quite on place,
which isn't bad from the vehicle who built their first, well,
they built the world's first mass produced plug-in hybrid electric vehicle in 2008.
BYD also built commercial vehicles.
Of course, there's 98,000 electric buses on the road already,
not necessarily all in the UK, but you will see there are a lot of electric buses
that are BYD branded in the UK.
They also built forklifts, et cetera, all sorts of little commercial stuff.
Last but not least, energy storage units.
If you're an expert in batteries, it's a sensible thing to be going off into a tangent of.
There are 75,000 of those in the world already.
Great thing about energy storage units, of course,
is that they're a good way of using up batteries from your cars,
if you've got spare ones or whatever else and absorbing any excess capacity you might have there,
and also end of life.
The C-Lion 5, however, to go back to the question you asked me some minutes ago, Andrew.
The C-Lion 5, DMI, is mid-sized SUV, is about the most popular segment in the UK and Europe.
Think of it as Nissan cash go size.
That is basically it in your mind.
It's Nissan cash go size.
The DMI in the name shows that it is a plug-in hybrid electric vehicle
with BYD's super hybrid FEV system.
What that means is that it is EV first, as opposed to an engine plus some battery.
It's an EV with an engine.
It's not, for the sake of clarity, a range-extender hybrid.
The engine can drive the wheels without the battery.
It is connected to the wheels physically through a magic gearbox.
We can't actually work looking back to all my notes and the press release.
We can't tell you if it's a CVT or a traditional automatic.
I suspect it's probably related to a CVT.
Either compare the wheels.
Okay.
That's what it is.
It is an EV first plug-in hybrid.
We'll talk a little bit more about what that means in practical terms later on
when we come to the driving section.
Okay.
BYD says the average price for petrol SUV in that CD SUV segment is $31,500
and £68 as a result of the two C-Line 5 trim levels straddle that line.
First is the comfort trim, which comes in at £29,995 on the road.
And at £32,995 is the design trim.
So obviously design trim is more design-y than the comfort one.
Ironically, a design trim includes more comfort than the comfort one, but there we go.
Thanks, marketing.
Nobody actually buys new cars outright these days, especially not in this sort of segment.
Those numbers turn into £299 per month with a £1,999 deposit comfort spec
and £319 a month with a £2,999 deposit for the design spec.
Both of those prices are based on 49 months, 6,000 miles per annum,
and that comes in at 2.9% representative APR.
Those other deals are probably available.
That's just what they showed us on the big screen.
And that's what happens when you go to the...
Well, it's roughly what happens.
We'll come back to that when you go to the finance part of their configuring.
In case you haven't noticed, they are competing on price.
They are competing on price.
They're competing a bit on kit and they're competing on practicality.
Those are like the three pillars of all of this.
And I want you to bear those in mind as we go through as you listen through this.
The phrase price of a petrol tick of a plug-in was repeated many times in the stage presentations.
Comfort trim gives up to 616 miles of combined fuel and battery range.
It comes with a vegan pleather interior, 12.8 inch touchscreen, 8.8 inch driver's display,
intelligent and active cruise control, Android, auto, Apple CarPlay, and keyless entry.
All the standard.
Design trim builds on that.
You get up to 631 miles of combined range.
And those are combined on the WLTP, by the way.
Okay, so it's WLTP, not the Chinese one.
No, those are WLTP, not Chinese.
So set up to 631 miles combined range.
That's petrol and electric, 360 degree cameras, heated climate seats, electric tailgate,
and a wireless smartphone charging, okay, which isn't bad.
There are four colors available.
Well, no, there's one color available, but there are four choices.
Four choices of exterior tone.
You can have Atlantis blue, which is a lot like the sort of Mazda,
Micah blue, blue Micah.
So it's really quite nice.
It's maybe a little bit more blue than that Mazda one.
It's quite a nice, quite nice color.
It's distinctive without being offensive to anyone at all.
And it's just like a die-hard Celtic fan or something.
That is the non-taxed option.
And it's the color as well.
That's good to see.
And it's the color, yes.
So we actually have here is a non-color tax.
Because the obsidian black, the time gray, which is a sort of graphite attack,
and polar white are all £850 each.
Well, well done, BYD.
You are going to teach people to not select those
by charging them if they were going to be silly.
Because I've seen the blue that they have.
It is, as you say, it's a really nice blue.
It's, it's quite-
The blue's nice.
Quite calm.
It's not, it's not a bright blue.
It's a muted blue, but it looks nice.
It suits the cars.
It does.
It's a nice color.
The second best, by the way, is the graphite.
The black was a little bit funereal.
And the white was a bit.
What detailing there is in the body styling,
we'll come back to this shortly.
That is very lost in the white, to be honest.
Yeah, yeah.
It's not great.
The one that I drove was Comfort Spec in polar white.
So that combination costs you £30,845 on the road.
Or does it?
Because if you go in and use the Santander Powered Finance
calculator on the BYD website,
you magically get a discount of £1,569.39.
That means that if you put down a £3,100 deposit,
you pay £293.46 a month with an optional £12,762
on final payment.
That's on the same £49.00, £6,000 a year.
And works out as exactly the 2.9% representative APR
that we could talk about earlier.
But if you go to the cash price,
then you don't get the discount.
It seems it's only when you're looking at the finance calculator
that there is a rebate.
Okay, okay.
Well, okay.
You've given us a comprehensive breakdown of the company.
Sorry, lots of background.
No, I think it's important because BYD are a newish company
and maybe not everybody who's listening to us knows that much about them.
I wouldn't do the same for BMW, put it that way.
Yes.
Getting special treatment then.
We've now got a good inkling of what the car is in terms of spec price
and your options that way.
Yes.
So then, what is it like to look at apart from being a mid-sized SUV?
Well, do you know what, Andrew?
It's a mid-sized SUV and there's not a lot more than that
to be said about it.
It's a bit insurance advert car.
It is not wonderfully distinctive,
but it is not in any way shape or form offensive.
Yes.
It would be very difficult to actually find something about this
that made you an ooh, I don't like that type of reaction.
Okay, it's very difficult as someone talking about it to try and explain that.
It is the generic form factor and they've put some effort.
There is some textured silver paneling on the D pillar,
which looks quite nice against the gray and the blue.
It's completely lost on the white, so you lose that.
They've put quite a nice coat bottle attempt to give it some sort of hips,
I guess, crease below the glass house along the body side.
And that's quite nice and quite distinctive.
There's an American muscle cart which plays the same trick.
I can't remember which one it is.
I don't think it's the Mustang.
And that's quite nice because the way that they've formed that,
it makes it start to look like there are wheel arches that stick out a little bit,
but it's a bit dissonant.
It's pure sort of graphical and aesthetic trick
other than they're pulling on you.
So there's been some effort has put into these things.
It's not just been left completely generic,
but it is definitely an offensive.
The headlamps are quite nice.
The grille isn't overly showy.
So, you know, the front of a JQ is a bit much.
It's definitely a hint of the Hannibal Lecter about it.
Absolutely not the case with the BYDs generally or particularly the C-Lion 5.
Very much European styling type looks at a stretch.
But you know what I mean?
Yeah, but of like 15 years ago with some more modern detailing and stuff like,
you know, the wheels, they're 18 inch, they're black painted,
but then diamond cut to make them the spokes look thinner and all of these kind of tricks,
which people have been manufacturing and playing for years
to try to make the wheels look more expensive than they are.
There's some nice chrome bright work and highlights, you know,
the bit along the wind, just underneath the windows.
It's the grass that then goes into that deep pillar.
Detail is quite nice and I'm quite upset that I was actually lost in any of the pictures I took
just because.
Similarly, the chrome detail at the top of the grille, the headlamps are quite nice.
The tail lamps, they're almost the sort of best practice of tail lamps.
But they are there, they exist, they're clear, they do tail lamp stuff.
And that's where we can talk about it.
And that's where it sort of sits in the whole thing.
Remember earlier on, I was saying we're talking about price,
we're talking about practicality and we're talking about features.
None of those come into the looks.
The looks are, okay, let's not offend anyone.
Yeah, it will work anywhere in the world.
Nobody's going to have a problem with it.
You will struggle to remember what it looks like well enough to pick it out of a police
identity parade.
It's an every man car and it's, if it was sitting on the driveway outside,
it wouldn't necessarily know what it was, but they wouldn't go,
God, what are they bought?
They wouldn't want to go, oh, that's quite nice.
Okay, then you have exhausted your ability to describe the slightly generic looks of it.
How about the inside, is it more, there's a more personality on the inside?
There is definitely an inside.
Yes, Andrew, I think we can completely agree.
The inside is the inside.
Price, okay.
I'm detecting a theme developing now.
The trouble is, it's so hard to not sound like you're being rude about it and I'm not
being rude about it, but it's what it's about.
It is performing perfectly to the brief.
That's the thing with this.
It's totally to the brief and it's totally what BYD is saying it is.
They're not, oh, I hope you're not saying, where's the special life?
Lifestyle vehicle for young professional people.
It's not, that could be, no reason why it shouldn't be, but if long professional people
want something that's super practical, cheap to run, cheap to buy, etc., then that's what
it is and is super practical.
And adding to that practicality is the inside of the car, Andrew.
It is black.
Okay.
That is the only color choice you can have, the configurator makes you think that maybe
you choose a different color.
Maybe if you choose a different spec, you might get the option of a different interior color,
but you can't, it's always black.
That said, if it was actually another color, it would be a nice place to sit.
I just don't, part of it, remember everyone, I don't really like black interiors and color.
That makes it a little bit tricky to start with, but again, we're talking practicality,
we're talking an offensive black interior in a car.
A boot space, because we are the motoring podcast, we do start at the back of vehicles.
It's flat, it's square, it's not particularly tall, but it's still 463 liters of volume
up to the boot cover with the seats up and 1410 liters with the seats down.
And that's pretty decent.
That is definitely competitive, if not towards the top end of the class.
Okay.
The actual one, if you open the hatch now, of course, it was the comfort,
so we had to do that ourselves.
Of the humanity.
I know, I know.
Thoughts and prayers, thoughts and prayers.
Exactly.
Power tailgates, what a waste of time.
Sorry, I'd much rather do it myself.
In there, thankfully, there is a light, it is very dark.
There is a light, there are no curry hooks though.
Boo.
Boo hiss.
There are little cubbies at the side where you can stand up wine bottles or whatever else.
Okay.
Or keep on one side, there were some charging cables there, so they were in at the side,
you didn't have to open everything up.
What did surprise me was that it's a plug-in hybrid and there was an undercroft.
Oh, wow.
Because normally when you've got a plug-in hybrid and stuff, people,
they put all the batteries up at the back.
Yeah, yeah.
Now one thing about the blade batteries is that the blade batteries are very thin.
So what they've done is they've put the blade batteries underneath
much like you would expect in a pure EV.
That means they can have space actually under that normal boot floor.
So the boot does get compromised here.
I mean, the blade batteries are one of the reasons the side looks kind of blind
is because of course that then makes everything a bit taller because you have to house them.
But it's an aesthetic trade-off, but it means more practicality.
Yeah, going back to what I was saying at the start.
Curiously and unusually, the luggage cover is hard.
It is not a pull-out roller blind or anything like that.
It is hard and it is a two-parter and it's hinged in the middle
so that whenever you open the tailgate, the back half sort of pops up.
That means you can use it as a coat or hatch shelf as well,
and it means it's better because of keeping any noise and whatever else.
Because it's got a little bit more weight than just a piece of cloth or mesh.
So that was a surprisingly good quality part of it.
Moving around to the rear seats.
Oh, I know 12V or anything back there that I could find.
Rear seats, they're broad, they're flat, and they sit sort of almost three.
Instead of being two and a half, it is two and three quarters.
Okay.
I don't understand like I'm being demeaning.
I'm not.
Again, it's back to practicality.
That might well be a popular winning decision with mini cab drivers
or similar private hire drivers.
Again, also lots of new space and nearly no transmission tunnel intrusion.
And the rear doors opened really quite far as well.
Lots of easy to get in and out, plenty of space.
I mean, I only sat in it briefly, but plenty of space when you're in there.
You could sit behind yourself, et cetera.
Yes, yes, yes, yes.
Each of those back doors has a small cubby.
You can maybe fit a bottle of water in there.
And there's a map pocket in the back of each of the front seats.
Central armrest falls down.
There's a pair of cup holders in there as well.
Okay.
That's sort of permanently there as opposed to any sort of fancy,
flippy OT, lovely mechanism, e-type setup.
In the middle, two in front seats, before the back seats, there's a pair of air vents.
There's another little storage hole that you could lose a mobile phone into.
And a pair of USB-C charging ports.
One of them has a single lightning flash on it.
And the other one has a double lightning flash on it.
So I don't know if it's a much higher output and could possibly power a laptop or something,
as opposed to just charging or powering a phone.
I'm not quite sure.
Okay.
All the seats are black, vegan leather.
Okay.
I don't know if that means the pleather is made from vegans,
but I suspect it's made from oil based products at some point.
They're vegan pleathery.
They just feel like mid range leather.
Be exactly what the marketplace is expecting if you were going in and
buying one and you didn't know anything about the company.
Basically.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Yeah, yeah.
They're perforated, so you're not going to stick to them like old vinyl seats.
It is very dark in the back, but that's just because the headline is black.
The seats are black.
The carpets are black.
The door trims are black.
They have tried to alleviate it a bit.
There's some silver plastic bright work on the doors and around the air vents in the middle.
There's a little badge that says BYD design as well in the middle.
So the backseat passengers can admire it.
And they have put some contrasting orange stitching as well on the doors and on the seat.
It sounds like it really needs like a decent sized bit of glass in the roof.
Yeah, or just another color.
Well, yes, that's a different color.
There is a low window line though.
That's one of the things.
Often when we say all the back of the car is very dark,
it's because there's that very sharply rising shoulder,
which we've done everything.
Yes.
This doesn't have that.
This has a low flat one.
So that even if kids are in kid seats, kids can still see out the windows.
Well, that's good.
I'm sure that's not the primary reason for it,
but that is what happened.
What will happen?
Good visibility from the back seats.
It's good as well, really.
Front seats have our sort of tall backed fixed headrests job.
I guess it's because they're cheap to build and make.
It's one less components required, yeah.
Less components and less engineering, separate headrests are quite complex actually.
They were moderately comfortable.
They were just fine for the sort of air and a half each way that the driving route was.
Not sure what they'd be like over longer distances.
Only the driver's seat and height adjustment.
They didn't, from memory, they didn't seem to be a lumbar adjustment on either.
On those.
But other than that, they were right.
Okay.
Reasonably supportive on the side on bolsters without being overly bolstered either top or
bottom.
Okay.
The steering wheel is round.
That might seem like a really obvious statement, folks, but it isn't these day.
It's a three spoke job of the two horizontal spokes.
One spoke has the infotainment controls.
The other has the cruise controls and a configurable shortcut button as well.
And I sit in our comfort mode.
There was a button blank on the steering wheel.
Oh, how retro.
I know on the design spec, then that's what engages and turns off your 360 degree cameras.
Okay.
Storks are there, pretty standard in operations.
There's some fiddly little buttons and bits on them, on the very ends of them,
which you can use to scroll through stuff on the screen in front of you.
Trip computer study, really, and it's just not unusual and pretty standard.
Instrument binoculars be replaced by a simple 8.8 inch rectangular screen.
It shows speed, dry, what drives mode select you've chosen.
If you're in drive and sport and all that kind of stuff.
What the car kind of sees in front of you from its ADAS system and a number of icons,
various cruise control and ADAS-y type things.
And of course, the more you turn off, the more you get a bit of peer on there in orange
in front of you.
It also seems to be really, really keen on showing you your tire pressures.
It's impossible to get rid of the tire pressure.
It needs to show no playing and stuff.
Well, that's how you get the 631 miles, Alan.
Next, you'll be filling them with nitrogen or whatever it is,
the whatever's the special gas that they use.
The special air.
Yes.
Nitrogen.
Oh, it is nitrogen, right.
It's good because if you don't use the non-special air, you only get 70-odd percent of it is nitrogen.
The middle of the dashboard has that 12-point whatever-inch screen
that shows you all the entertainment sat in the car, play the Android Auto and has
detailed controls for things like the climb control and all that.
Buttons are AF in the DC Line 5.
Do not expect to find too many buttons, especially not right in front of you.
On this 12-inch screen, has it been designed for right-hand drive as in
the stuff that a driver may want to prod at on the screen is on the closer side?
Do you remember?
The thing is, I don't remember because we tried to have a play with the screen
and we kind of gave up and just used the Android Auto.
Okay.
There were two of us sharing the tires myself and Phil have.
I'm sorry, Phil.
I know, so we used Phil's Android Auto because it was a little bit better than the car one.
And whilst we were doing that, Phil was, whilst I was driving because I drove first, Phil was
investigating the screen and all the wonderful options that it presented to us.
Okay.
Along the way, we discovered that unlike some other BYDs, the screen does not rotate.
There does seem to be space for it to do that BYD wanted it to do that,
but they don't seem to want to do that, sadly.
We were actually quite looking forward to seeing if the screen rotated because then
that would give us something interested to play with as we were driving.
For the passenger to play with as we were driving along.
Children.
Yeah.
Sorry, it was good actually because I declared early on that it wasn't fair to play seat
heater roulette if the seat heater controls were hidden in menus on the screen.
Okay.
But actually we were saved by having the comfort mode which doesn't have the seat heaters.
Oh, related to that is we tried out the Hay BYD.
Unfortunately Hay BYD decided that she wasn't going to understand either of us.
So that's the digital assistant.
That's the digital assistant.
It was perfectly okay.
We asked it some pertinent questions about Chinese politics and she refused to answer them.
Asked about the weather and it was mostly okay, but do you know what?
My phone does that.
I can do that with Siri on my phone when I'm driving if I want to.
On the other hand, I can just either look out the window and see what the weather's like
or I can wait until I've stopped.
No, we must be able to do whatever we want whenever we want it.
Immediate gratification Alan.
Come on, that is society today.
Yes, yes, it is great.
However, the dashboard is a sandwich of materials is what I've written down here.
It's, it's, you know, unless you like buttons, it's perfectly attractive to look at.
It's a soft touch black at the top, there's a sliver of silver plastic,
then there's a swathe of dust attracting piano black across the middle.
There's a bit more soft touch and then there's another fillet of silver plastic that leads
down into the silver center console.
Supposedly there is a surfboard style upper contour to the dashboard.
I don't know what that means, but the champ who's in charge of all the training was very,
very pleased by it.
So I felt I should pass it on to everyone.
No, no matter how hard you squint at the photos, you still can't see it.
I looked at it in person.
I still couldn't see what a surfboard style upper contour was.
On to sort of postcard please to Alan at Motoring Podcast here.
Moving down sort of between the knees, between passengers knees, I guess, the center console
starts with a pair of very low set air vents.
There's a phone storage space underneath those and it leads back to a driver's selected nubbin.
There are buttons around the driver's selected nubbin.
They are for things like hazard lights, some of the infotainment stuff,
key H back control controls, things like you press it to defrost the front windscreen and
stuff like that and the heated rear screen and mirrors, all that kind of thing.
There are actual genuine buttons.
Yeah, quite low down though, aren't they?
Yeah, there's also drive mode selection and then a little scrolly volume thing for
infotainment or volume and all that.
Behind all of that, there's a couple of gut holes, there's an armrest with storage space
and underneath all of that, all of that center console is another storage gallery,
there's a little balcony underneath which has USB-C and 12.4 sockets for charging stuff.
Yeah, it's just a lovely two-tier system that they have.
It is, it's quite attractive, it's not bad, it generally works.
Although, you know, we only had the car for maybe three hours in total
and a passenger to whom we could say, can you find out how to turn this on, turn that off,
do the next thing.
Again, not really wholly representative of ownership.
Yeah, but it's a first drive, it's like you said, a limited time you're in the car and able to have it.
So yeah, that's understandable, anyone listen, if they've listened to us for a long time,
they understand the differences between these things.
So I wouldn't judge that because I think in real life you'd kind of know,
you know, roughly where the button is and for example, defrosting the screen is something I
very rarely have to turn on whilst I'm driving. It tends to be before I move away
or I'm waiting for the car to defrost at which point it's okay to look down and go,
oh yeah, it's the second one in from the back.
You know, so I think that didn't fuss me too much, okay.
And the heybyd thing would actually, do you know what it did actually do?
I should probably be talking about this on the tech.
We could actually make it put the windows up and down.
Yeah, I know.
There was a little bit of a, so that's what those switches are for, isn't it?
We could make it put the windows up and down and we could set the temperature on either side
and it knew if you were talking from the passenger side or from the driver's side,
so you could say set my temperature to 21 degrees and it was set temperature to 21 degrees.
Well, the temperature actually ended up at 21 degrees was a different question,
but you could actually ask it to set it.
Okay.
Oh, up above, up the top, above the rear of your mirror, pop down sunglasses holding,
yes, and a pair of matte lights.
Okay.
And whenever you put the visors down, you open to look slightly thing to see the mirror,
then it turned on little lights above the vanity mirror as well.
And it did it automatically.
You didn't have to slide the thing open and then flick the little switches you do in many mainstream cars.
Okay.
So those are just nice little touches.
Like I say, I'm sensing a bit of a theme.
Driving wise though, what's it like driving?
Well, you can go forward, you can go backwards, and if you want,
you can turn the steering wheel thing and you can go left and you can go right in either direction.
Well, it seems to have the bases covered then.
It does.
It has a 1.5-litre petrol engine helping the electric motor along the 1.5-litre unit,
but so 96 horsepower.
Because it's been tuned for efficiency.
Okay.
But combined with the electric motor, it puts out 212 horsepower,
which means that it boasts and can create a not doing not to 62 miles an hour sprint
in 7.7 seconds, according to the specs.
Did it feel like it could?
Well, Phil and I discovered that if you went into sport mode,
and if you poked another couple of buttons on the infotainment thing,
you could put it into a timer mode.
And the timer mode would let you then in sport mode would let you then time
a not to 60 and a not to not to 30 and not 62 not to 31.
We discovered that it timed us at 7.8 seconds on the sprint,
given we sort of pulled over to the side of the road and then rammed it.
That once would make sure that everything was fine on a road with a 60 mile an hour limit.
Then it did that.
It's worth mentioning that it declared that it was a not to 100 mile an hour time,
because somebody hadn't proofread what was deep in the menus.
But, you know, 7.8 seconds when the official numbers 7.7 seconds, that seemed all right.
Yeah.
It didn't like it.
I mean, it sounded like something was being murdered, but it did it.
But that's quick enough for most people who drive.
It's more than quick enough.
The whole thing, it was perfectly quick.
You know, I was on truck casual, I pulled out to overtake a lorry,
and it was fine.
It held the speed up up hills just fine.
Definite difference in refinement when it was mostly EV mode,
as opposed to when the battery was much, much lower and it was mostly petrol engine mode.
When it was running where it was mostly EV, then actually the motor coming in was pretty seamless.
When it was running in mostly engine, then it was less happy, much less happy.
But that made significantly more noise doing so.
That said, if you weren't hooping it, it was fine.
It wasn't as refined as it might be.
Definitely better when it was still had quite a lot of battery charge.
And it was perfectly quick too.
Okay.
But I spoke about EV mode there.
Design spec will do 53 miles EV only.
That's pretty decent.
Yeah.
I think that's hitting the EU's requirement for significant EV distance out of the plug-in hybrid.
And also, if we relate this back to a story we covered a few months ago about the actual
reality of EV and plug-in hybrid ownership, 53 miles will cover most people's
week for distances they actually use their cars for.
Yeah, and more regen.
If you're doing that in urban and semi-urban areas, then you're going to get regen.
It's going to work better.
You can change the regen and everything as well.
So you can configure that kind of stuff, should you want.
Handling ride steering, firmly in the fine category.
You know, primary damping is a bit wall away.
Secondary is a bit jittery.
The steering doesn't really give any feedback.
If you hoof it into a corner, it will understeer in a very safe manner.
It's fine.
It's safe.
There is nothing about it which is going to catch people out.
It's definitely not in any way dangerous.
It could be tuned a little better for a little more comfort.
Just to sort of take things out that are quite damped perfectly and some
ridges you were hitting the next one was still recovering.
But really, between Phil and I, there was still even quite a lot of debate about this
because we decided that really it was fine.
Unless you were concentrating and trying to do something that was going to test it
towards the limit so you could work out what was what, then it was going to be just fine.
And most people would never notice, find the reasons for those.
It definitely wasn't in any way sick making or any of the other things that really matter
when you've got kids in the car.
It was perfectly fine.
It was good.
You know, you're never going to be in any auto car best handling day ever.
But let's go back to practicality, low price and kit.
And you know, those, it doesn't really matter.
It's perfectly fine.
You're never going to say, I'm going to take this, I'll take the BYD for this trip
because that'll, it'll make it fun.
What it will do is it'll make it stressful and fuss free.
I mean, which is the whole aim of the car.
Again, what the average person on the street is looking for?
Yeah.
This is not a car enthusiast car.
Technology then?
Yes.
Talked a little bit about the hey BYD thing.
I think we've covered that.
It was adequately adequate enough.
He could do stuff, but would you ask it to put the windows down?
No, you'd press a little switch because you're human.
In reality, someone will try that.
And if it doesn't work first time, they'll never try again.
Then it's there, but it doesn't matter.
It's a fun show off thing.
And you know what?
If it works when you're showing it off, that's just fine.
BYD boasts a whole bunch of level two ADAS features,
and they had to give us a whole slide about it.
And this is the bit that makes Andrew turn peace.
Well, I like the fact they're saying level two only.
Yeah.
Yeah, yeah.
Well, they're not, you might have noticed,
there's not a lot of overselling going on here,
which is quite nice to be perfectly honest, quite refreshing.
But you get adaptive cruise control,
you get an intelligent cruise control as well,
front and rear parking sensors,
lane departure system, forward and rear collision warning,
which was pretty twitchy in places.
Yeah.
It was the bit that,
it was the one bit that got a bit annoying.
Okay.
It wasn't a huge fan of narrow Welsh lanes
where we're having to dodge a little bit,
because of course the day that all of the cars
were going along them, because there was a car launch,
was the day that they were out cutting the hedgerows.
So there were sticks and all sorts of stuff across the place,
whilst also trying to make sure that,
trying to avoid so you didn't puncture them,
puncture the tires and all that kind of fun stuff.
That sort of set it off, it was quite bad situation.
Okay.
Rear and cross traffic alert and braking seem to work.
The door open warning warns you when the door was open.
Blind spot detection work just fine.
It did have quite an annoying,
are you paying attention camera thing?
Or mounted on the A pillar?
Oh, on the A pillar.
Yeah.
When most of the function you're trying to work out what stuff is,
is on a ruddy great screen in the middle,
where you might have to tap it a couple of times to get to stuff.
Of course you're not looking at the flipping road,
because you've taken away the simple muscle memory method
of finding stuff via a button to put it on a ruddy great screen
that you have to reach for.
And also you might miss tap because you're on a Welsh road.
The driver alertness thing,
it and the from the forward and rear collision warning got turned off.
Okay.
Because they were just too annoying on the test road.
Many of these things, something intelligent and adaptive cruise controls and stuff,
couldn't really test them out properly on the driver.
The driver, it did cover across a number of types of road,
but it just wasn't long enough, just didn't have the car long enough,
or in sort of conditions, super familiar conditions,
to be able to test those properly.
Okay.
Turning all of them off, did involve going right through all the menus.
You had to go right through all the menus every single time.
It looked annoying.
Yep.
One other little bit of tech, which is kind of useful,
is that all of them include V2Load or V2L.
That's you can plug something into the car, or it can be plugged into your...
You can plug some.
No, you can plug some into the car up to 3.3 kilowatts,
so you can use it to power stuff.
If you're American-style camping or something,
then you can do that, or you can use it to power a fridge.
Okay.
Or any of the other things that people might wish to power with them.
What they actually had at the launch bit was they had it powering
one of those grabber, fair grow, arcade grabber machines.
The great thing was, the arcade grabber machine was on free vend.
Only took me eight attempts to move this dolphin,
and this is a segment that was working really well on an audio podcast,
to move this eight-inch long stuffed dolphin across till I could actually coax it down the
chute and actually get it.
Toy stuffed dolphin, not an actual stuffed dolphin.
It's a toy stuffed dolphin, yes.
It's a furry eco dolphin.
Goodness knows how anybody was going to get any of the key rings.
It was impossible.
It was easier to get the dolphins than the key ring.
So, yes.
So, you could also use it for something useful,
but I'm quite happy with my little toy dolphin.
There we are.
Excellent.
It doesn't even squeak.
Cool.
Without allowing the plushy dolphin influence your decisions,
and you're verdict on the car, Helen,
what did you think overall then?
What was the conclusion after the day of driving it that you came to about this?
If you buy cars on the basis of practicality, price, and, yeah, not really much else,
maybe kit, but practicality, price, and kit, then this is the kind of car you want for you.
It's not going to offend anyone.
You want to get from me to be.
It's perfectly okay.
The way of getting from me to be, this is enough for you.
I need and transport.
You need and transport, and your kids, and some of their stuff, and that kind of situation.
And you don't really, you just kind of drive in because you need to drive for airings and stuff,
and you're not driving the car.
It's just fine.
If you're a car person, the only reason you want this is so that you can have something
more interesting as well.
If you need a sensible, sensible daily, this is a sensible, sensible daily.
It's available at a reasonable monthly cost that's not going to make you walk out of the
house every day and go, why did that buy that thing?
It's not a hair shirt, but it's not an interesting thing.
There's not certainly an unexciting car, despite the 0-62 mile at a time.
If that's the case, perfect, decent choice.
I can completely understand why you would buy one.
I wouldn't buy one myself, but I can understand why you would.
From what you've told me there, and what you've told us all earlier in this,
then it seems like BYD have nailed their remit, which is to make a car that won't offend anyone,
and we're majoring on price and practicality, which is what a lot of people use to go and buy a car
because they need transport and they need to do certain things with the least amount of hassle.
As long as this is reliable and we've not heard any horror stories of BYD's being
returned on mass or anything. They've just increased the battery warranty since then.
It's just very ridiculous. Is it eight years, nine years?
Well, it was always eight years, but it's now up to over 100,000 miles.
That shows faith in the product. As long as there's not going to be a terrible reliability
thing, and I think the quality of the interior, I didn't really talk about that too much,
but it feels nice enough to start with. I've no reason to believe it's not going to hold up
for reasonable use over the next six years. I don't see why not. I feel like I'm damning
with faint praise here, and I don't really mean to. But it's a very non-car enthusiast car,
and the heck of a marketer for that. It's becoming a very busy market.
You look in the top 10s every month, how many of those are genuinely exciting cars?
They are just fine. They're fine, and they do a job,
because that's what most people want and need. It's only us weirdos that go into detail of
to the depths of the footwell to go, oh, here's the hard plastic. Haha.
Some hard plastics, yes. It's not really into that.
The cornering ability of the car was not quite what I was expecting
when driving it, how no one else will ever drive it.
Some of those people were on the launch as well. It's very nice, some of those people.
I think job done by BYD. I'd say so.
But it sounds a bit. Like you say, as long as the reliability is there and everything,
and we've not heard horror stories yet. We're quite the opposite, actually. Yeah.
Thank you to BYD for inviting me, putting me up for the night. Feeding me.
And thanks, obviously, to Phil Hough of a professional pickup and 4x4. I've got that
right, haven't I? Oh, you're giving me abusive, I've got it wrong. Professional pickup and 4x4.
So if you do want to know about professional pickups and 4x4s, then do go to the site.
There it is. Interesting and informative and incredibly useful as well.
Otherwise, don't forget, until now and next time, give us any feedback,
share your thoughts and show at motoringpodcast.com on Blue Sky,
at Motoring Podcasts on Instagram and Facebook, or via the contact page of
www.motoringpodcast.com, the hub of all our activities. Please don't forget to leave a
review and rating on Apple Podcasts, YouTube, or however your podcast app will let you do such a
thing. Andrew, for feedback to you, what's the best way to get in touch?
Best way to get in touch is if you search me on LinkedIn, you'll find me there under my name.
And Alan, if people want to know even more details about the BYD C-Lion 5 DM-I,
what's the best way for them to do that personally?
Best way is normally Blue Sky, where I'm at AJB Bradley, that's B-I-D-L-U-I dot B-Sky dot
Social. We'll be back before very long. Until then, I've been Alan Bradley.
I've been Andrew Clews. And Safe Motoring.
About this episode
BYD’s Sealion 5 DM-i is presented as a mid-sized, EV-first plug-in hybrid aimed squarely at the UK’s crowded C/D SUV class. The hosts focus on its price-led positioning, long WLTP range claims, and practical cabin packaging, then test the 1.5-litre hybrid system, ride, and driver aids. It comes across as a sensible, well-equipped daily driver with useful space and decent tech, even if the safety warnings and lack of excitement are part of the trade-off.
Alan was invited to the BYD Sealion DM-i launch. In this episode he tells us all about his first impressions of the car as well as give us some background on the company.
If you like what we do, on this show, and think it is worth a £1.00, please consider supporting us via Patreon. Here is the link to that CLICK HERE TO SUPPORT THE PODCAST
