Is this the worst car on sale in 2025? I took the Skywell BE11 on holiday to find out

July 2, 2025 Matt Allan

The Skywell BE11 has become a punching bag in the automotive sphere, but is the large electric SUV really as bad as some people say?

There’s a bit of a truism that, in the modern age, there is no such thing as a truly bad new car.

There are a handful of exceptional cars, lots of mediocre ones, and some that aren’t as good as rivals but still get their basic functions right. It’s very rare for a car to be universally derided as actively bad.

Yet that’s what’s happened to the Skywell BE11 ever since it launched in the UK in late 2024.

This is a car that has been called “nowhere near good enough” and “almost certainly the worst [car] you can pay legitimate human currency for”.

Everybody who heard I was expecting one on test expressed sympathy. It’s not a normal response, even among cynical journalists.

But is the Skywell BE11 really that bad? I packed up the family and headed off on a 400-mile road trip to find out.

Skywell BE11 design, interior and technology

First, a little background. Skywell is a joint project between Skyworth – a TV maker – and the Nanjing Golden Dragon Bus Company. It’s another Chinese newcomer looking to nab a piece of the growing UK EV market with a mid-to-large-size family SUV that aims to win fans through a relatively low price and high specification.

Visually, it’s nothing special. It’s certainly not the worst looking car on sale right now (step forward the BYD Dolphin Surf). There are hints of MG, Peugeot and BYD at the front and an almost Mercedes-like full-width light bar at the rear, but the overall effect is something large and largely anonymous.

On first glance, the interior is a similar story. It’s a familiar layout with a big central touchscreen, digital instruments and broad two-level centre console. Climb in, though, and things go downhill.

Material quality is poor – from the rattly faux-wood dash trim to the very-faux-leather upholstery. There’s a brittleness and shininess that’s reminiscent of an MG from five years ago, and the ill-fitting floor mats grab attention by looking and feeling like they’ve come from a dodgy eBay seller. Such things perhaps shouldn’t matter but they speak of things being done on the cheap.

From a family perspective, the BE11 scores well for passenger space. My three kids fitted across the rear bench fine and there’s generous rear legroom. That does come at the expense of those in the front, where things are cramped if you’re taller than average. It’s also hit and miss on the storage front. There’s plenty of space for odds and ends around the cabin, but the boot is just 467 litres. That’s on a par with the Ford Explorer but some way behind the Renault Scenic or Skoda Enyaq.

Skywell BE11 interior image — The Skywell BE11’s interior is spacious but beset with quality problems

Also on the positive side, the 12.8-inch infotainment screen is sharp and surprisingly responsive. Sadly, though, everything, from the comically noisy air conditioning to patchy driver assistance, is sunk in a quagmire of poorly designed menus and sub menus.

Theoretically, the BE11 has built-in sat nav but our car’s Turbodog9 (yes, really) didn’t have any mapping info installed. It also allegedly supports Android and Apple mirroring but our attempts to connect were met with an invitation to download a third-party app, which we declined.

Not helping the negative impression of the tech were other issues such as an audio system that forgot my chosen source every time I stopped, and a tyre pressure warning that was constantly going off – warning that all four tyres were the same pressure as each other and the same as when we started our journey.

Battery, motor and performance

The Skywell BE11 comes with a single 201bhp front-mounted motor and a choice of 72kWh or 86kWh batteries. The smaller battery offers up to 248 miles, while the larger one I tested officially returns 304 miles.

In the real world, driven sensibly, I reckon you’ll see around 260 to 280 miles, which is acceptable. Less acceptable is the 80kW maximum DC charging, which will leave you waiting 45 minutes for a 10-80% charge where an Enyaq will take 24 minutes and an Explorer around 28 minutes.

The 201bhp from the motor is a bit weedy compared with most rivals and while it’s reasonably responsive at low speeds, once you get beyond 45mph it quickly runs out of grunt.

SKywell BE11 driving image — The Skywell BE11 driving experience lags behind every rival

Not that you’ll want to drive it quickly anyway.

Lexus is about to launch its steer-by-wire system. In the meantime, Skywell appears to have patented steer-by-elastic-band technology. The connection between the steering wheel and the road wheels is vague, sluggish and poorly calibrated, leaving you almost guessing what the car will do next. It’s a similar story with the throttle and brake pedals, both of which have an odd sponginess and lack of linearity that’s particularly concerning when it comes to the unpredictable braking force.

That said, once you get past the bungee-cord controls, the chassis is no worse than the BYD Seal U. The Skywell’s high-speed ride is perfectly good, although it does get a bit lumpen and crashy around town.

Skywell BE11 price and specification

New models from unknown brands often live or die by their value and Skywell is hoping to attract buyers with a small price for a big car.

The BE11 starts at £36,995 for the smaller battery version and £39,995 for the larger one.

That’s relatively cheap for a car of this size. £37k is mid-spec Kia EV3 money – a car in a full class below.

However, £40,000 will get you into a Skoda Enyaq which even in its most basic SE L 60 form offers better range and a substantially higher quality product.

Skywell boasts that the BE11 is “fully loaded as standard” and there are some spec highlights compared to alternatives. All models get LED lights, a panoramic sunroof, electrically adjustable front seats, (alleged) wireless smartphone mirroring, a 360-degree parking camera and powered tailgate.

However, fully loaded doesn’t extend to blind spot monitoring – something that is virtually standard at any price. It also only gets single-zone air conditioning, “dumb” cruise control rather than adaptive and, apparently, no on-board sat nav. A basic Enyaq is far better equipped for the same money.

In the Skywell’s favour, the top-spec car is still cheaper than the similarly budget-focused KGM Torres EVX, and offers better range and comparable space.

Verdict

So is the Skywell BE11 the worst car on sale in Britain? That might be going too far, the GMW Ora 03 is utterly hateful, and somewhere there’s probably a Ford dealer trying to offload a pre-reg Ecosport onto some unsuspecting pensioner.

But the BE11 is virtually impossible to recommend.

Each taken in isolation, most of the car’s faults could probably be forgiven. There are other cars out there with cheap interiors or glitches in the infotainment or poor chassis dynamics.

But the Skywell crams them and so many more issues into one underwhelming package that would be hard to recommend at £30,000, let alone £40,000.

In its favour, it’s spacious and has a reasonable range. But everything else about it feels like a half-finished product that’s been rushed to market. There are far, far better options out there for the money.