Tesla Model Y vs BYD Sealion 7 vs Kia EV5: Which Electric SUV Actually Suits You?

These three cars are the most cross-shopped electric SUVs on this site. Over the past fortnight, Model Y against Sealion 7 was our single most-viewed comparison, Model Y against EV5 was second, and Sealion 7 against EV5 was in the top ten. People are clearly not picking between two of them. They are picking between all three, and then giving up and looking at pairs because that is all most comparison tools will show you.

So here is the three-way version, run against our own database rather than press releases. Every figure below is the one we hold against that exact variant, sourced from the manufacturer's Australian material. Where we hold no figure, it says so instead of guessing.

The line-ups, and what they cost

The first thing to understand is that these three do not line up neatly. Tesla sells three Model Y variants, BYD sells two Sealion 7s, and Kia sells four EV5s. The overlap is real but the ranges are shaped differently, and the cheapest car is not from the brand you would expect.

One important caveat on that top line. BYD quotes the Sealion 7 Premium at $54,990 drive-away, while the Tesla and Kia figures are list prices before on-road costs. On a car in this bracket, on-roads typically add several thousand dollars, so the real gap between the Sealion 7 and the Model Y RWD at the point you hand over money is considerably wider than the $3,910 the two numbers suggest.

The efficiency gap is the real story

Range gets the headlines. Efficiency decides what you actually pay to run the car, and here the three are not close.

*Modelled at 30c/kWh home charging. Your tariff will differ, and public fast charging costs considerably more.

The Model Y is 49 per cent more efficient than the Kia EV5 GT-Line and 26 per cent more efficient than the Sealion 7. Over 15,000km a year at 30c/kWh that is roughly $310 a year between the Tesla and the GT-Line, which is not life-changing but is real, and it compounds over a five-year ownership period.

The more interesting number is range per kWh. The Model Y RWD extracts 7.8km from every kilowatt-hour. The Sealion 7 manages 5.8km despite carrying a battery 37 per cent larger. That is why the Sealion 7 lugs 82.6kWh around to deliver 482km while the Tesla gets 466km out of 60kWh. BYD solved the range problem by fitting a bigger battery, which works, but you pay for it in weight: the Sealion 7 Premium is 2,225kg against the Model Y RWD's 1,921kg, a 304kg difference you feel in the way the car changes direction and in tyre wear.

Want to pressure-test those numbers against your own driving? Our range calculator models what speed and cold weather do to each of them, and the highway efficiency comparator ranks them at 110km/h, where aerodynamics matter more than battery size.

The Kia EV5 trap worth knowing about

Kia sells three EV5 variants with the same 88.1kWh battery. They do not go the same distance.

• Air Long Range FWD, $61,170: 555km
• Earth Long Range AWD, $64,770: 500km
• GT-Line Long Range AWD, $71,770: 470km

Spending $10,600 more to go up from the Air Long Range to the GT-Line costs you 85km of range. The all-wheel-drive system and the bigger wheels that come with the higher grades both take their cut, and the consumption figures show it, climbing from 180Wh/km to 210Wh/km across the same three cars.

This is not a criticism of the GT-Line, which is a better-equipped car. It is a warning against assuming the expensive one is the better one on the metric you care about. If range is your priority, the cheapest long-range EV5 is the one to buy, and that is true of the Model Y too: the $68,900 Long Range AWD goes 600km while the $89,400 Performance goes 580km.

Space, and the 341-litre gap

If you are buying an SUV to carry things, this section may end the comparison for you.

The Model Y's 854 litres is a genuine outlier. It is 341 litres more than the Kia and 354 more than the BYD, and of the 284 on-sale electric rows where we hold a boot figure, only 30 reach 735 litres or more. The Model Y is in that top group and the other two are not.

The Sealion 7 is the longest car here at 4,830mm with the longest wheelbase at 2,930mm, which should translate to rear-seat room, but that length is not reaching the boot. The Kia EV5 is the shortest by a clear margin at 4,615mm, 215mm shorter than the BYD, and still out-boots it.

On towing, the Model Y is rated to 1,600kg braked and the EV5 Long Range cars to 1,250kg. The EV5 Air Standard Range is limited to 300kg, which rules out anything beyond a small trailer. We hold no braked towing figure at all for the Sealion 7, and that is no data rather than a zero. If towing matters, confirm it with BYD directly. Our towing and payload calculator will run the sum properly on the two cars where we hold the figures.

Performance, and what you give up

All three offer a quick version, and the pricing of speed is wildly different between them.

The Sealion 7 Performance is the value play at $63,990 for 390kW, 690Nm and 4.5 seconds to 100km/h. That undercuts the Model Y Long Range AWD by $4,910 while being three tenths quicker, and it is $25,410 cheaper than the Model Y Performance. If outright pace per dollar is the metric, BYD wins it decisively.

The catch is weight. The Sealion 7 Performance is 2,340kg, which is 348kg more than the Model Y Long Range AWD and 307kg more than even the Model Y Performance. Straight line speed hides mass well. Corners, brakes and tyre bills do not.

The Kia is the slow one and makes no apology for it. The front-drive EV5s take 8.5 and 8.9 seconds, and even the all-wheel-drive Earth and GT-Line need 6.1 and 6.3 seconds. In this company that is unhurried, though 6.1 seconds is still quicker than most petrol SUVs this size were five years ago.

Charging, where Tesla still leads

The Model Y Long Range and Performance accept 250kW and complete 10 to 80 per cent in a claimed 14 minutes. The Model Y RWD takes 175kW and needs 16 minutes. Both the Sealion 7 and every Kia EV5 peak at 150kW, and Kia quotes 30 minutes for the same 10 to 80 per cent window, roughly double the Tesla's claim.

On a daily commute this is irrelevant, because you charge at home and wake up full. On a Sydney to Melbourne run it is the difference between a coffee and a meal, twice. Weigh it according to how often you actually drive beyond a single charge, which for most Australian buyers is a handful of times a year.

Safety and warranty

All three hold a five-star ANCAP rating, and the year matters more than most buyers realise. The Model Y and Sealion 7 were both rated in 2025. The Kia EV5 was rated in 2024. ANCAP tightens its protocols over time, so a newer five-star result is a harder result. This is a nuance rather than a verdict: all three are five-star cars and none is unsafe.

Warranty is where Kia pulls clearly ahead.

If you drive a long way each year, Kia's unlimited-kilometre term is worth real money. BYD's 150,000km cap will be reached in six years by anyone doing 25,000km annually, and at that point the cover ends regardless of the calendar.

So which one?

Buy the Tesla Model Y if efficiency, boot space or charging speed are near the top of your list. It uses the least energy by a wide margin, carries 341 litres more than the next car here, tows the most, and charges fastest. The Long Range AWD at $68,900 with 600km is the sweet spot of the whole group, and the $89,400 Performance is the one variant across all three brands that is hardest to justify.

Buy the BYD Sealion 7 if you want the most car for the least money. The Premium at $54,990 drive-away brings the largest battery of the three and undercuts everything else here once on-road costs are accounted for, and the Performance is the bargain of the group for outright pace. Accept that you are carrying 300kg more than the Tesla, using more energy per kilometre, and that we cannot tell you what it tows.

Buy the Kia EV5 if you keep cars a long time and drive a lot of kilometres. Seven years and unlimited distance is the strongest ownership proposition here, the Air Long Range at $61,170 and 555km is the second-longest-range car in the comparison for the second-lowest long-range price, and it has the practical shape. Skip the GT-Line unless you specifically want its equipment, because it costs $10,600 more than the Air Long Range and goes 85km less far.

You can put all three side by side yourself on our Sealion 7 against Model Y and EV5 against Model Y pages, or browse the whole field in our electric listings.