BYD drives 7-seater crossover S7 for family

Hou Yan, BYD Auto Sales Co General Manager, introduces the S7 crossover at the new car launch event on Oct 20, 2014, in Beijing, China. [Hao Yan / chinadaily.com.cn]

Chinese carmaker BYD impressed the audience when its General Manager Hou Yan and a team of six staff members filed out of a flashy brown BYD S7 at a new car launch ceremony on Monday in Beijing.

"BYD S7 is a real seven-seater. You can tell when the car is capable of carrying seven adults, and the rear seats can be folded completely flat," Hou Yan, BYD Auto Sales Co General Manager, told the audience.

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Unlike some simple flimsy rear seats, seemed built for children, the newly launched BYD S7 installed two genuine leather rear seats with separate headrests. All the seats in all the versions of the model are covered with genuine leather.

Folding the two rear seats flat, the crossover expands its 365-liter trunk to 1,084-liters. Up to a 2,398-liter capacity is also possible when the three seats in the second row are also folded.

"This car targets Chinese families and also business demands, and we set the price at a friendly range," said Li Yunfei, deputy general manger of the company.

The new model has three versions priced from 119,900 yuan ($19,600) for the base model. The mid-range one is priced at 129,900 yuan, and the top version is 139,900 yuan.

"We hope to see sales volume around 5,000 units a month, in the balance of sales and manufacturing," Li continued.

The new car employs a power train of 2-liter turbocharged direct injection all-aluminum engine with six-speed automatic-manual shift gearbox. The engine has a maximum output of 151 kW at 5,500 rounds per minute, and torque peaks at 320 Nm at 1,750 to 4,500 rpm.

All the cars come with two airbags for front seats, and the mid-range and top versions have two more side airbags, and two more air curtains covering the whole window area.

The models are equipped with safety systems consisting of Antilock Brake System (ABS), Electronic Brakeforce Distribution (EBD), Electronic Stability Program (ESP), Traction Control System (TCS), Hillstart Assist Control (HAC), Electronic Parking Brake (EPB), Tire Pressure Monitoring System (TPMS), Brake Override System (BOS), six parking sensors, and ISO-FIX for child safety seats.

BYD S7 has built-in a larger than iPad 10.2-inch TFT touch screen, and this time the system has an entertainment and internet connectivity service, instead of the CarPad on the G5 sedan, launched last month.

It carries the company's new air freshener system that measures and improves the air quality inside to achieve excellent conditions. The system may reduce the PM2.5 particles in four minutes from 500 micrograms per square meter to below 50 μg/sq m, according to the information provided.

BYD's new S7 7-seater crossover was launched in Beijing, China, Oct 20, 2014. [Hao Yan / chinadaily.com.cn]