BYD actually hasn't had a seven-seat product in its Irish lineup yet, but all that looks set to change now that the Chinese giant has confirmed the new Ti7 SUV will be right-hand drive. It's been confirmed for the UK market, and it should be lined up for Ireland in due course.
Exactly how big is the BYD Ti7?
Really big. Properly big. Like, it's in the middle ground between a Toyota Land Cruiser and the stretched eight-seat Land Rover Defender 130. It uses some of the same mechanical bits as the Fengchangbao B5, which is due to come to this neck of the woods later this year as the Denza B5, and which will be a direct Land Cruiser/Defender rival, although the B5 has a more rugged ladder-frame chassis, while this Ti7 has a more car-like monocoque body.
That does mean it's not quite as rugged as it looks - the Ti7 can't match the likes of the Defender for approach and departure angles when off-roading, and it can 'only' wade through 600mm of standing water, not the 900mm of the Land Rover. Whether this actually makes any difference to real buyers remains unanswered for now.
What engine does it use?
The Ti7 gets BYD's Dual Mode Performance (DM-p) plug-in hybrid system, which uses a 1.5-litre turbo four-cylinder petrol engine, allied to a large 34kWh 'Blade' lithium-iron phosphate (LFP) battery. That battery drives two electric motors, which power the front and rear wheels, and when you fully charge it, the Ti7 has a claimed electric-only range of up to 130km.
BYD hasn't quoted a full power figure for the DM-p powertrain, but it must be pretty juicy, as this massive seven-seater has a claimed 0-100km/h time of just 4.8 seconds.
There is an all-electric version of the Ti7 available in China, but even on the lenient official Chinese CLTC test that only has a range of 469km, so it's unlikely to come here.
Is it good looking?
It's a big thing, the Ti7, and it's definitely lifting design cues both from the slightly smaller Denza B5, and from those two big rivals from Toyota and Land Rover. It's tall and bluff, with a roof that drops into a perfectly vertical tailgate, which features a door-mounted spare wheel for that rugged 4x4 look. Up front, there's a titanium-look panel in the front bumper, and a squarer, more upright look than we've been used to from BYD up till now.
What about the inside?
BYD hasn't issued any official figures for boot volume yet, but we're going to take a wild guess at 'massive' being a pretty safe bet. There are three rows of seats, for seven people, and going by the massive space of the smaller Denza B5, we suspect that there'll be adult-sized space in the third row.
The dashboard is very much in keeping with BYD's current style - big digital displays for driver instruments (12.3 inches) and infotainment (15.6 inches), and not much in the way of physical switchgear. In contrast to the swoopy cabin style of most current BYD products, the Ti7's cabin is much more horizontal and blocky in its look, with lots of handy storage spaces and shelves. In the Chinese market, as standard, the Ti7 gets twin panoramic sunroofs, a built-in fridge, and even a roof-mounted drone so that you can film yourself mountain-biking (or maybe try to work out what's closed the motorway you're sitting on).