Upgrading from our MG4 to a Model Y or BYD Sealion 7 — which actually copes better with the school holiday coast run?
We've had the MG4 for two years now and home charging at the Hills District house has honestly been a non-event — plug in overnight, never think about it. It's the trip down to the South Coast every school holidays that's the sticking point. Boot's fine for two kids but once you add the pram-adjacent gear for the youngest, the esky, and my husband's fishing stuff, we're playing Tetris every single time.
We're looking at trading up to something bigger and it's basically down to the Model Y or the Sealion 7. Did the Model Y test drive last weekend and it felt sharper to drive, but a mate who's got the Sealion 7 reckons the boot swallows everything and doesn't even need the rooftop pod we've been using.
400km round trip with three kids (3, 9 and 12 now) means we need whichever one is actually less stressful to charge on the way, not just on paper. Anyone done that exact run — Sydney to the South Coast in school holidays — in either car and can say honestly which one made the day easier rather than just which one has the bigger spec sheet number?
Filed under: Road Trips & Regional
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10 answers
10 ANSWERS
@bazza_wJuly 28, 2026
Sealion 7 wins on boot space, not close. Charging's the trade-off — DC peak tapers earlier once you're past half, the MG4 doesn't have that problem because it never had much peak to lose in the first place. For a two-hour trip like yours it barely shows up either way.
Wait so is it just the last bit of the charge that's slower on the Sealion or the whole curve? Genuinely don't know how the bigger BYDs compare to my MG4.
Just the tail end really, past about 60% is where it stretches out. Under that they're close enough you wouldn't notice on a one-stop trip like this one.
@jonno1985August 02, 2026
Two hundred k each way isn't the trip that catches people out, it's assuming the pin on PlugShare is still accurate. Check the last week of check-ins before you go, not just whether the site exists. Did the same coast run last month and one of the Ulladulla bays had been faulted four days straight with nobody flagging it on the app icon itself.
Is there a specific window before a trip where you'd actually trust the app, like same day only, or does a few days out still count as reliable enough?
Same day's ideal but not always realistic when you're planning around a whole family's schedule. Inside 48 hours I'd still trust it for a site with more than one bay. Where I get properly cautious is anything past about a week old, especially a single-bay site, because one fault report early in the week just sits there uncontradicted with nothing newer to say it's fixed. Multi-bay sites are more forgiving since a stale check-in gets balanced out faster by other people using the other plugs.
@hanny_bJuly 31, 2026
Didn't think about the app check-ins being stale, that's actually more useful than anything the spec sheet tells me. Adding PlugShare history to the list of things we're checking before we commit to either car.
@petey_fxJuly 30, 2026
Whichever one you land on, throw a Type 2 cable in the boot regardless. Mate got caught at an untethered unit near Mollymook with nothing to plug in, whole detour just to find a tethered site instead.
Most of what we've seen touring that stretch is tethered these days, for what it's worth. The old 15A blue outlets at the caravan parks along there are still handy as a backup even without a cable, just don't expect anything fast out of them.
@just_lurking22August 01, 2026
Following, need to decide by spring too.
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