BYD Sealion 7 vs MG IM6 UK (2026): which premium Chinese SUV?

The BYD Sealion 7 is made by BYD itself — no rebadge, no shell company. BYD is China's largest EV maker by volume, publicly traded on the Shenzhen and Hong Kong exchanges, and the world's only car manufacturer that also makes its own batteries and semiconductors at scale. It is profitable, export-aggressive, and deeply unlikely to withdraw from the UK. The Sealion 7 uses BYD's in-house e-Platform 3.0 and Blade Battery (LFP chemistry) throughout.

The MG IM6 is a more complex story. It wears an MG badge and comes through MG UK's dealer network, but the car itself is not an MG product. It is the Chinese IM LS6 (智己LS6) — a premium SUV developed by IM Motors (智己汽车), a sub-brand founded in 2020 as a joint venture between SAIC, Alibaba, and Zhangjiang Hi-Tech Park. IM Motors has no UK brand equity yet; SAIC is using the MG network as a launch vehicle. The good news is that SAIC is one of China's largest state-backed automakers (the force behind SAIC-Volkswagen and SAIC-GM) with deep pockets and a long UK history through MG. Neither brand is about to vanish.

On autohome and Dongchedi — China's equivalent of What Car? and Auto Express — the BYD Sealion 7 (sold as the 海狮07) scores 3.89 out of 5.0, fractionally below the class average of 3.94. That's acceptable for a platform that launched in May 2024, but Chinese owner forums carry a persistent thread about rear tyre inner-edge wear appearing far earlier than expected, often before 20,000 km. The car's ADAS system, DiPilot, is described in blunter terms still: multiple owners call it 智驾就是智障 — 'intelligent driving is stupid driving' — citing aggressive emergency braking and clumsy lane-change logic. These are not unusual complaints for Chinese premium EVs, but they matter because the same hardware underpins the UK car.

The IM LS6 (the MG IM6's Chinese identity) carries a heavier burden. Its 车质网 (China's official automotive complaint platform, operated under SAMR) satisfaction score of 2.1 out of 5.0 is the lowest Cathay has recorded for any car in active UK sale. Around 509 complaints span all model years since 2023, with paint and body bubbling, air-conditioning evaporator contamination (white powder discharge), ADAS camera fogging in humidity, and premature tyre wear among the most documented patterns. SAIC's complaint response rate of 95.2% is notably high — the company is clearly listening — but the root causes have persisted across model-year refreshes.

Buyers of both cars should understand that the Chinese version is meaningfully more capable than the UK version — especially in driver-assistance technology. This is not unique to these models; it is the nature of Chinese EV exports, where regulations and maps that underpin advanced autonomy do not transfer outside China. But the gap is worth spelling out.

The BYD Sealion 7 sold in China can be ordered with a LiDAR sensor, an NVIDIA Orin-X processor running at 254 TOPS, and BYD's DiPilot 300 'God's Eye' system capable of navigating city-centre roads without driver intervention. The UK car gets DiPilot 10, which covers adaptive cruise control and lane-keeping assist — functional but in a different league. On charging, the lower UK trims also trail: China's 610 variant charges at up to 240 kW; the UK Comfort and Design trim both cap at 150 kW.

The MG IM6 gap is similarly sharp. Chinese IM LS6 buyers can specify NVIDIA Drive Thor-U at 700 TOPS with a passenger entertainment screen, rear massage seats, and LiDAR-based highway autonomy. None of that comes to the UK. The IM6 instead offers 11 kW AC charging and the 800V architecture that underpins its remarkable peak DC charge rate, but the smart-car dimension of the Chinese product is absent. UK buyers are getting the hardware of a premium Chinese SUV and the software of a well-equipped European one.

On paper, the MG IM6 wins the headline specs battle convincingly. Its Long Range RWD offers 388 miles of WLTP range versus the Sealion 7 Comfort's 300 miles — a 29% advantage that translates to meaningfully fewer motorway charge stops. On DC charging, the gap is even more dramatic: the IM6's 800V architecture delivers 396 kW peak, while the Sealion 7 Comfort and Design trims cap at 150 kW. In practice What Car? recorded 299 real-world miles from the IM6 Long Range, and EV Database's average 250 kW over a 10–80% session means the IM6 genuinely does charge faster at HPC sites where 350 kW infrastructure is available.

The BYD Sealion 7 fights back hard on warranty and running costs. Its 8-year/155,000-mile battery warranty is the longest of any car currently on sale in the UK — 55,000 miles more than Kia's 7-year/100,000-mile benchmark. The vehicle warranty (6yr/93,750mi) is shorter than the IM6's 7yr/80k in year terms, but the battery protection is in a different league. Both cars carry 5-star Euro NCAP ratings from their 2025 assessments, though the IM6 edges the adult occupant and safety assist scores. V2L (vehicle-to-load) is confirmed standard on all Sealion 7 trims at 3.3 kW; the IM6 position is genuinely unclear — Electrifying.com lists no V2L as a specific con, while other sources claim it is available. Confirm directly with MG UK before any purchase decision that depends on V2L.

These two cars appeal to different kinds of buyer — and both offer more than most UK reviewers give them credit for.

The BYD Sealion 7 is the safer, more proven choice. BYD's industrial scale, the 8-year/155,000-mile battery warranty, confirmed V2L on all trims, and a growing UK service network add up to a car you can buy with real confidence in the brand behind it. The Comfort RWD is genuinely good value at £47,025, and the tyre wear concern, while real, is manageable if you treat the rear axle with similar respect to any powerful RWD EV. The shortcomings are honest: the 150 kW DC charge rate on the base trims is below what the class demands in 2026, and the boot is modest for an SUV of this footprint.

The MG IM6 is the headline-spec car. Its 388-mile WLTP range and 396 kW peak charging are genuinely class-leading. The 800V architecture, 4-wheel steering, and CDC suspension (on higher trims) put it in BMW iX and Audi Q6 e-tron territory on technical merit. But it carries real caution signals that no honest review should paper over. China's owner satisfaction scores are the lowest Cathay has measured. The V2L situation is unresolved. The IM brand is unknown in the UK and entirely dependent on MG's dealer infrastructure. None of these are dealbreakers — the 2025 NCAP score, the fresh UK reviews from Electrifying and What Car?, and the SAIC parent backstop give it a reasonable basis for purchase. But the MG IM6 rewards buyers who have done their homework, while the Sealion 7 rewards buyers who want to trust the badge.