CHINESE PUZZLE (some text hidden) --NONE--

By Jonathan Crouch

BYD's premium brand Denza spearheads its luxury model line-up with this car, the Z9 GT. With standard-setting technology, it aims to re-write the rulebook for performance-orientated EVs and PHEVs. Jonathan Crouch takes a look.

Ten Second Reviewword count: 54

There's never been a luxury performance Grand Touring model quite like Denza's Z9 GT. For a six-figure sum, this stylised high performance Shooting Brake delivers the Chinese motor industry's current state of the art technology for full-EVs and Plug-in Hybrids. Even if you don't want this car, you can't help being impressed by it.

Backgroundword count: 213

BYD's Denza brand begins here with something quite different, a big uber-powerful Shooting Brake-style crossovery kind of estate, the Z9 GT. Picture something combining the genes of Porsche's Panamera and Taycan Cross Turismo models and you're somewhere near the kind of car this Z9 GT is trying to be. Which means it's trying to be very premium indeed, as is Denza's remit in the BYD empire, where it fits in above BYD's mainstream models and sits alongside the conglomerate's Fangchenbao off-road brand, both marques positioned under the Chinese company's ultimate Yangwang nameplate. Taking on the big posh German makers with large luxury sector products is something that premium brands from mainstream car makers have frequently tried and failed at over the years - Infiniti, Genesis and Maserati are just three recent examples. But with Denza, BYD is certainly giving what might seem like an almost impossible objective for a fledgling car maker its very best shot. The Z9 GT was the first model it launched in Europe and is offered in both Plug-in Hybrid and full-EV forms. It's the latter version that's garnered the most headlines because it's one of the fastest-charging electric cars ever made and it's the cheapest way to get more than 1,000PS in any car you can currently buy.

Driving Experienceword count: 747

It seems like only yesterday that the German premium makers were engaged in a power output battle with cars developing 500 to 600PS. An EV era in which extra horsepower was simply a software tweak away raised the stakes further, but even so, few expected that the 1,000PS barrier would be breached by a relatively mainstream model quite as quickly. Yet that's what the EV version of this Z9 GT manages, with power to spare - 1,156PS to be exact. For perspective, we'll tell you that its two most obvious (and considerably more expensive) rivals, Porsche's Taycan Turbo S and the Audi RS e-tron, both put out 925PS. Both competitors are slightly faster in the real world though, because neither has to lug around anything like as much as 2.9-tonnes, this Denza's kerb weight. And that means the huge 122.5kWh battery that largely accounts for this bulk is considerably limited in the range it can provide - to 373 miles. For class perspective, the 122kWh battery in a Mercedes EQS 450+ can take you 542 miles. But that car doesn't have 1,210Nm of torque, the result of a tri-motor AWD system that uses a 313PS motor on the front axle and twin 422PS motors at the rear. Consequently, 0-62mph vanishes in just 2.7s en route to 167mph. And the standard carbon ceramic brakes stop you just as quickly. A single-motor EV model with the same battery and single-speed EV transmission will join the line-up - and might be the version to have. Or at least it might be assuming you don't want to consider a Z9 GT variant we might find ourselves slightly more tempted by, the Plug-in Hybrid. It lacks the tri-motor EV model's headline-grabbing performance stats, but is still pretty ground-breaking for a PHEV, particularly one based around a humble-sounding 2.0-litre turbocharged four cylinder engine. Here again there's a tri-motor system, with a 270PS unit at the front and a couple of 252PS rear motors. They're all energised by one of the biggest drive batteries ever fitted to a PHEV, 63.8kWh in size allowing for an EV range of 126 miles. Thanks to a combined output of 776PS, 0-62mph takes 3.6s en route to 162mph. The powertrain is designed to work as an REX range extender at low speeds (under 62mph) and as an ordinary full-Hybrid above that. So, with the powertrains understood, what of the car? Well with all that weight to carry about, there are obviously severe limitations on how 'sporty' the handling can be, so it's not surprising to find that the engineers opted instead to focus on the 'GT' part of this model's nameplate. That generally means creation of an uber-fast, uber-comfortable Grand Tourer, which is very much what this Denza is - but of course, there's more to it than that. Key to the GT remit is the dual-chamber air suspension system, which will float you impressively over the poorest surfaces. It adjusts itself of course to your chosen drive mode (Eco, Normal, Sport or Snow) and can have its ride height changed for challenging tracks. Under a provided centre screen 'DiSus' menu, further options are available to alter suspension stiffness and there's a 'Vehicle Motion Control' system to make suspension, braking and steering adjustments in as little as 10 milliseconds. There's also a provided 'Boost' paddle which when held down for a few seconds sends the car into its fastest 'Sport+' drive mode. The Z9's e3 platform (pronounced 'e cube') has been designed to work with the second generation version of parent company BYD's 'Blade' battery technology. And includes even more effective 'cell-to-body' packaging with the battery integral to the car's platform, in this case allowing for a 32% increase in chassis stiffness. That platform incorporates independent rear-wheel steering (allowing for a supermini-like turning circle of just 5.35-metres) and enables individual Wheel Torque Control. Which is used for the car's 'Compass Turn 360' feature, so-called 'pivot turning' where the front wheels lock in place and the rears turn and steer - so the vehicle rotates within its own footprint, this for times when incredibly tight manoeuvres are needed. Individual Wheel Torque Control also allows for a so-called 'crab walk' function where the car can drive diagonally up to 8.5-degrees. If after all that you still can't fit this 5-metre-long 2-metre-wide Z9 into the space you have in mind, there's a self-parking feature that can work either in-car or, if you're standing outside it, via an app on your 'phone.

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