Skywell BE11 test drive | The Car Expert

Make and model: Skywell BE11
Description: Mid-sized electric SUV
Price range: £36,990 to £38,995

Skywell says: “Generously equipped and competitively priced, the mid-size SUV promises to help remove the barriers to EV affordability and accelerate the UK’s transition to zero-emission mobility.”

We say: A car that underestimates the UK market – it comes with plenty of equipment but frustrating infotainment, poor driving dynamics and an out-of-date safety specification.

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Introduction

It’s quite likely that of all the new Chinese automotive badges now appearing on UK roads, few potential buyers will recognise that of Skywell. Although it’s backed by one of China’s largest bus makers, Skywell appears to have rather modest ambitions – at least, for now.

As we report in our feature on Skywell, rather than set up lots of UK outlets run by the biggest dealer groups in the style of BYD or Omoda & Jaecoo, Skywell’s UK importer had by the end of November 2024 secured a mere ten UK sites. By the end of 2025, it hopes to have closer to 50, but until then it will be selling just one product, a mid-sized electric SUV called the Skywell BE11. 

What is the Skywell BE11?

Skywell’s first foray into the UK market relies on a mid-sized electric SUV that has been on sale since 2020 in China. It comes in front-wheel-drive form only, with two battery sizes, offering a maximum official driving range of more than 300 miles.

Both versions coast less than £40,000 and follow the latest trends in boasting long standard specifications – in fact Skywell doesn’t have an options list. Everything is contained within the on-the-road price, with a seven-year warranty to boot (eight years on the battery).

All of that, plus a generous predicted residual value prediction of 43% after three years or 30,000 miles, has Skywell claiming much interest in the BE11 from those running company cars. But is it a good option for the consumer electric adopter? 

First impressions

On initial viewing, the Skywell BE11 looks big for a mid-sized SUV. Well, that’s because it is. It measures up at more than 4.7 metres long, which outstretches most rivals, while its also slightly wider than the likes of the Skoda Enyaq, Nissan Ariya, and even the KGM Torres.

Drivers who don’t like to make a visual statement with their car will find the BE11’s styling appealing, because it is totally innocuous. This could be any SUV in any car park, with features such as the bluff front end typical of electric vehicles when EVs were still a new thing. 

We like: Reasonable proportions
We don’t like: Anonymous styling

What do you get for your money?

At first glance, the Skywell BE11 appears to be quite a bargain. The two options cost £37K and £49K – so even the more expensive version with a driving range of 304 miles scrapes in under the £40,000 ‘expensive car supplement’, which after 1^st April will add an annual £410 to your road tax bill.

There is also no options list, Skywell following today’s trend of offering lots of standard equipment. And that equipment list is long, including wireless phone charging, keyless entry, a 360-degree around-view monitor, an electric tailgate opened with a gesture towards it and an opening panoramic glass roof.

There are, however, some oddities. For example, the door mirrors are electric and heated, but while the front seats do get the electric adjustment, they don’t come with heating, a first-level entry on the standard equipment lists of most cars.

A more pertinent point is the BE11’s electronic safety specification, or rather the lack of it. As mentioned, this car has been on sale in China for four years, and its European type-approval process started long before the most recent upgrading of the safety regulations. So while the car does come with such basics as a suite of airbags, electronic stability control and autonomous braking, you don’t get all of the more recent accident-avoidance features such as blind-spot detection, lane-keeping, speed limit alerts and the like.

Remarkably, at the first UK test drive of the BE11, Skywell management seemed to justify such omissions by commenting that most drivers tend to turn such systems off. They then admitted that, should Euro NCAP assess the BE11, they would not expect the highest of scores…

We like: Lots of equipment
We don’t like: Paucity of electronic safety aids

What’s the Skywell BE11 like inside?

The generous exterior proportions of the Skywell BE11 translate to frankly gargantuan amounts of interior space. Leg and head room in the rear is almost to limousine standards even for taller occupants, and without requiring those up front to do any forwards moving of their seats.

It’s a surprise, then, that the boot isn’t that big. The specified 467 litres is adequate and more than that in the Nissan Ariya and Ford Mustang Mach-E, but less than the Skoda Enyaq and a great deal less than the KGM Torres EVX. Skywell has not quoted the space liberated by folding the rear seats, possibly because folding them is a lot more complicated than it should be.

The cabins of the first pre-production versions of the BE11 were dominated by a huge central touchscreen of some 15 inches, but this has now been reduced to 13 inches due to the simple fact that the screen blocked the start button behind it. Sadly, this is just about the only positive thing we can say about this system, which on our test car proved to be just about the most frustrating lump of electronics we have encountered on a car for many years.

Most of the car’s functions, extending to such matters as adjusting the brake settings and the regenerative braking, are contained within menus on the touchscreen, and actually trying to navigate to them is a time-consuming and frustrating experience.

On the subject of navigation, early production versions of the Skywell BE11 don’t come fitted with the company’s own satnav system, which goes by the not exactly encouraging name of ‘Turbo Dog 9’ (Note, too, that buyers of early cars will not be able to have the system retro-fitted). This should not matter as the car boasts smartphone integration, except that on the evidence of our test drive it doesn’t – several efforts to get an Apple CarPlay connection proved fruitless.

Combine this with an audio system that struggles to maintain a quality radio signal, plus the driver’s own information screen that provides only the most basic of information, and you have an electronics setup that will not cause any sleepless nights among potential rivals.           

On a plus point, the fit and finish of the cabin is generally reasonable. The seats are upholstered in an artificial leather-and-suede combination, while the surfaces include a wood-like veneer and ‘rose gold effect’ trim that looks to be a fair quality.

We like: Plenty of space
We don’t like: highly frustrating infotainment system

What’s under the bonnet?

The Skywell BE11 is powered by a single electric motor putting out 204hp and 320Nm of torque, mounted on the front axle and producing a 9.2 second 0-62mph time. Said motor is another of the changes made since pre-production versions of the car, now supplied by BYD.

There are two battery sizes. The ‘Standard Range’ model employs a 72kWh unit offering a combined cycle range of up to 248 miles. In the ‘Long Range’ variant the capacity goes up to 86kWh and the range to 304 miles.

Charging options are behind the curve when compared to rivals. The BE11 offers 11kW AC charging and DC charging but only up to 86kW. Most makers quote 10 to 80% recharge times on a DC charger, Skywell offers 20 to 70%, and that takes 36 minutes on the Standard Range car, three-quarters of an hour on the Long Range – think full lunch rather than coffee stop…

What’s the Skywell BE11 like to drive?

There is one environment in which the Skywell BE11 seems totally at home – cruising along a motorway. Travelling in a straight line, even at 70mph, it’s a comfortable thing to ride in. No doubt an aid to this was another of the pre-production feedback changes, a reduction in wheel size from 20 to 19 inches.

That’s where the fun ends, however. For a start this is a dormouse of an electric car. A 62mph sprint time of 9.2 seconds is not quick for an EV, but based on the BE11’s road manners, you would not want anything more rapid – this car does not encourage spirited driving.

Much of this appears down to the tyres, UK-spec cars getting the same rubber, made by Giti in Singapore, as other markets, and they are really not up to the task. Kicking down on the throttle produces the laziest of responses from the motor (you certainly can’t do typical EV-style overtakes in this machine), and when the power does come in, the tyres feel on the edge of their grip levels, even on a bone-dry road.

Cornering is not something you’ll hurry in the BE11. As well as the limitations of the tyres, the steering is almost impossibly light, with the driver getting very little sensation of what the front wheels are up to. Meanwhile only by changing the braking from ‘Comfort’ to ‘Sport’ do you get the kind of response that is normal on rival offerings.

Unfortunately, that setting is deep within the touchscreen menus, as are the regenerative braking controls – these, by the way, are on a continuous sliding scale rather than three or so distinct settings, and this would be a good idea if it didn’t require breaking into the touchscreen to adjust it.

We like: Ride quality at motorway speed
We don’t like: Very light steering, no connection with road

Verdict

Skywell believes its combination of lots of equipment and strong residual values will make the BE11 particularly appealing to business buyers, while adding that all potential customers will like the saving on VED that the sub £40k purchase price produces.

Overall, however, this is a car that seems to revive the long-banished image of both Chinese and Korean product in their earliest days, of budget basement vehicles with anonymous styling and questionable road manners.

Yes it’s cheap, but you miss out on almost all of the ADAS safety aids that are standard on several – much better – rivals. Add to that an infotainment system that you will want to throw something at, and road manners that do not encourage anything above a careful cruise, and the value-for-money aspect of the BE11 becomes rather less of an attraction.

Skywell will launch its first car designed specifically for Europe, the Q electric hatchback, towards the end of 2025. It will need to be significantly better than the BE11 to spark the slightest interest among UK buyers.

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