One benefit of its size in comparison with its competitors is the amount of interior space on offer, and as this is the sort of car you will buy for its size, let’s start there.
For rear occupants, the BE11 excels. There is a limousine-like spaciousness back there that is missing in most of its key rivals, with sufficient legroom for anyone of any size, and just enough headroom for people over six foot. It’s the same story up front: the standard-fit panoramic sunroof makes the cabin feel light and airy, and the generously-sized footwells mean your legs have a chance to stretch out. Its 467-litre boot is only average for the class, and compares to the KGM Torres EVX (839 litres), Enyaq (585 litres), and Ariya (466 litres).
There are plenty of storage compartments and cubby holes, however, and overall fit and finish is passable, with soft-touch materials lining the front and rear door cards and dashboard. Skywell boasts about its cars having “industrial heritage”, and thus the quality to back that up, but you don’t have to look very hard to find evidence of frivolity. The rose-tint finish of the door handles and trim pieces looks tacky, the wood veneers feel as fake as they look, and, on our brand new test car, some of the plastic surfacing was already scratched.
Which brings us to another less successful attribute: the infotainment system. It runs from a large 12.8in touchscreen, which you get as standard alongside a 12.3in instrumentation display. Evidence of new-brand weirdness arises from the moment you turn it on, when you’re greeted by a message in Chinese alongside another saying “Good afternoon , Dear User”.
Dig a little deeper and you’ll spot more bad punctuation, alongside horrible graphics and haphazard menus seemingly placed at random. The actual definition of the display is pretty good, but the way in which buttons and menus are presented is not.
Nor is its functionality. It took three attempts and two phones to connect to Apple CarPlay, and there is a frustrating amount of lag once you’re connected to it.
Skywell has seen fit to omit a physical volume button for the passenger, instead burying it in the infotainment screen. The only issue with this is that, when connected to Apple CarPlay, the adjuster is five clicks away. And because CarPlay removes the permanent bar for the air conditioning controls, those are three clicks away.
You will likely need to use smartphone mirroring for much of the time, too, because the native satellite navigation system – called TurboDog 9 – is not fitted to early cars. Later models will have it, but the system cannot be retrofitted in spite of the application appearing on the screen.
It’s not very often that you will hear us complaining about a lack of ADAS functionality, but it is a requirement for all new cars. Because early BE11s underwent their European Type Model Approval before July 2024, and thus did not have to comply with GSR2 regulations, they will not be fitted with these systems.
This means that you can expect a safety rating of less than five stars when they are crash tested. Skywell says it is “looking into” introducing ADAS systems in the future.