This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Mahican Gielen, a radiologist in Hjørring, Denmark, about swapping her Tesla Model 3 for a BYD Sealion 7. It has been edited for length and clarity.
We live in Denmark, in the city of Hjørring, but we’re actually from Holland. My husband and I are both doctors: I’m a radiologist, he’s a cardiologist.
I bought a Tesla Model 3 three years ago. It was my first electric car, and I’d wanted a Tesla for years.
My kids even pushed me because they knew I was looking for a car. They said, “Mom, it should be a Tesla. That’s the best car. It’s a green car. It saves the planet.”
I have to say, I loved that car. It was such a big step up from the normal combustion engines and had so many cool features. I still miss it sometimes.
The first time I got a bit annoyed with my Tesla was when the company started cutting the prices. I bought mine right before, so that hurt.
Musk joining the Trump administration was the final straw. I love cars, but if owning one gets overruled by the constant noise about the CEO and people asking whether it bothers me, then the fun goes out of it.
I just didn’t want the headache anymore.
I know there is more to the company. But when you have a CEO who’s so visible, he just becomes one with the company. And I really feel bad for Tesla because I like the brand. They were so innovative and new.
But this was a step too far. It really made me say, you know what? I’m going to get rid of this car. It’s not going to get any better from here, so I’ll just cut my losses.
Buying a BYD
I sold my Model 3 for 150,000 Danish Krone ($22,000) in April, having paid 350,000 Krone for it in 2022, and I bought a BYD Sealion 7 Excellence the same month.
[Editor’s Note: BI was unable to verify the purchase price of Gielen’s BYD Sealion 7 Excellence. It starts from around 390,000 Danish krone ($59,000).]
I wasn’t going to buy an SUV, but I saw the Sealion 7 in a showroom and thought it looked amazing.
It was a little bit impulsive, but I’m really happy with it.
The build quality is on a level with a Mercedes, and the car feels really premium.
Things are different, but it has so many cool features, like a head-up display and actual physical buttons, which I missed as the Tesla didn’t have them.
The best thing about the car is how solid it is. I always tell people the Tesla felt like a toy car compared to this one, because it was always rattling.
Sometimes, when it was freezing, you couldn’t close the door because it wouldn’t catch, and when you drove the Tesla around in the rain, sometimes you would hear sloshing sounds like water was dripping in the car. So the build quality is completely different.
The range is more than enough for me, and the software works pretty well. It’s a bit slower and less intuitive than the software in the Tesla, but overall, I like it.
I think it’s great that Chinese EV brands are entering Europe. I absolutely believe that the market should be open, and they have something to offer.
For me, many European brands seem kind of boring. They do the same thing every time, and these brands do something new.
Even if people don’t buy them, it will probably make the European brands push their boundaries a bit and do more stuff. So I think it’s absolutely good for everyone if more become available in Europe.
Feature FOMO
There are a few features I still miss about the Tesla, but I’m hoping they could be added to the BYD with software updates.
The Tesla auto-locks and unlocks when you just have your phone in your bag or on you. In the BYD, I really had to get used to pushing the button on the car key to lock and unlock.
When you charged your car, the Tesla automatically opened its charger port flap and closed it again. I have been driving around with an open flap because I’m so used to it.
My kids also really loved the Tesla’s ‘Santa Mode,’ and the Tesla app has a lot more features than the BYD one.
The feature I’m really going to miss is that Tesla automatically defrosted the windows via the app. So, I didn’t have to remove ice for the last few years. It’s not a problem now, but I know it’s going to be annoying in the winter.
You could overlook some of the things that were wrong with the Tesla because it was so easy to use, it was almost like an iPhone. But in the end, some things are just not right.
Part of the reason I sold the car was because of the build quality. Mine was beginning to get a bit older, and I was in the shop with it more and more.
The path Musk has taken is extremely frustrating. It seriously hurts because I was really rooting for the brand. I think it’s sad for a company that was so promising and could have done much more.
Have you swapped your Tesla for a BYD or bought a Chinese EV? Contact this reporter at tcarter@businessinsider.com
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