BYD’s only been around in the UK for five minutes and it’s already launching a fancy posh sub-brand with super expensive fancy cars, but do you know what? We’re absolutely here for it.
Denza is the fancy badge in question, and its first car is set to be the Z9GT shooting brake (it’s like if you mashed up a hatchback, an estate car and a coupe).
And the price? It starts at £95,000 for the plug-in hybrid version and notches up to an eye-watering £105,000 starting price for the electric one.
We’re mostly going to ignore the PHEV (although its 63.8kWh battery is bigger than you’ll find in many actual EVs), especially because it’s not available to order until later.
The electric one has a 122kWh battery for a 373-mile WLTP range and the three e-motors (one at the front, two at the back) produce a heady 1,156hp, which results in a 0–62mph time of 2.7secs and possibly your shoes falling off or something, the human body has rarely been tested to such extremes.
It’s the tech we’re particularly excited about though – is it weird to love the four-litre fridge that sits between the front chairs and can chill things to -6ºC? It can also heat them to 50ºC if you want, perfect for getting your frozen stuff home from the supermarket or a takeaway back to the house.
You’ve got heated and ventilated massage chairs up front and in the back (just the the two outer seats, sucks to be stuck in the middle seat as ever), and rear passengers also benefit from nifty little leg rests and reclining seat backs.
The party piece you’ll want to show off to everyone is that the rear wheels can basically do whatever they like, turning and driving off in random directions – it helps manoeuvrability on the go, but also means you can do a 360º spin on the spot or crab walk your way practically sideways out of a tight parking space.
The Z9GT also debuts BYD’s latest generation battery tech, which can use the company’s own Flash chargers to juice up at an insane 1,500kW for a 10–70% fill in just five minutes. That’s barely enough time to do your business at the services.
There are currently no Flash chargers available in the UK (although BYD has been demonstrating the tech at its HQ in Uxbridge), but the Chinese carmaker has plans to get 300 of them installed by the end of 2026, including at its dealerships.
If you're waiting for the next Denzas to arrive, then there's going to be the D9 hybrid MPV and the Z electric supercar, which will bulk out the brand's offering somewhat.
