BYD’s luxury brand Denza has officially entered the sports car segment with the new Denza Z, a two-seater aiming to challenge the segment benchmark, the Porsche 911. Understandably, this would also include other similar sports cars like the Mercedes-AMG GT, and to challenge the best of Europe, the Denza Z is using electric fury to make massive headlines.
That’s because the Denza Z, which comes in four versions, is propelled by a trio of electric motors, two at the rear and one at the front. For the Coupe, Spider, and Racing, the three electric motors have a combined output of 1,582 horsepower and 1,240 Nm of torque. This is good for a 0-100 kph time of 2.25 seconds for the Coupe, 2.3 seconds for the Spider, while the Racing with optional semi-slick tires is even faster at 1.96 seconds.
As for the fourth soon-to-be-released model, the Z Special Edition, Denza says it was designed around the Nürburgring Nordschleife. This model makes 1,973 horsepower and can hit 100 kph in just 1.7 seconds. More details about the Denza Z Special Edition will be revealed on a later date.
The Denza Z is underpinned by BYD’s e3 Sports Car Platform, which houses a 76 kWh lithium-iron-phosphate (LFP) Blade battery that features BYD’s newest Flash Charging technology. We’ve done a deep dive here on how it works, but to sum it up, the Denza Z can be charged at up to 1,500 kW in DC rapid charging, which allows for a 10 to 70 percent charge in 5 minutes or 10 to 97 percent in just 9 minutes. With the 76 kWh battery, the WLTP range figures of Denza Z are 409 kilometers for the Coupe, 399 kilometers for the Spider, and 380 kilometers for the Racing.
The Denza Z isn’t just meant to be fast in a straight line, because with the pursuit of becoming a proper sports car, the chassis and handling have also been comprehensively engineered. The suspension features magnetorheological dampers, while carbon ceramic brakes offer unrelenting stopping power after numerous hard laps.
The tri-motor setup also provides true torque vectoring between the left and right rear wheels, and this also became an opportunity for Denza’s engineers to let the Z execute a “Compass Turn”. This capability allows the Denza Z to pivot around its front axle through its rear-wheel steering and the two rear electric motors working together.
Now, from a design standpoint, the Denza Z features sleek LED headlights with a long hood, muscular haunches, and a black trim piece running from the fenders to the doors. It accentuates the gentle curves of the side profile, in which 20-inch wheels are fitted as standard to most versions (we have not yet seen what the Denza Z Special Edition will look like). Moving towards the back, you’ll see twin diamond-shaped LED taillights that give the Denza Z a distinct rear lighting signature. In my opinion, the Denza Z looks best as a convertible rather than as a coupe, but let us know in the comments section which one you prefer.
As for the interior, the Z offers an opulent and tech-heavy cabin–something that you can pretty much expect from a Chinese luxury EV brand. There’s a large 12.8-inch touchscreen, digital gauges, a Devialet surround sound system, and a digital rear-view mirror. You even get massaging front seats here, because why not? In terms of the overall interior quality, there’s a generous serving of leather, metal, and carbon fiber trims, along with bold color hues. It is also worth mentioning that the Denza Z has small rear seats, just like in a Porsche 911.
The Denza Z’s first market will be in the UK, with prices set at £142,900 or a whopping (around P11.8 million), £159,900 (around P13.2 million) for the Spider, and £172,900 (around P14.2 million) for the Racing. These are prices that you wouldn’t have expected from a Chinese automaker even just a couple of years ago, and yet here we are. With the sports car segment heavily favoring models with an internal combustion engine (ICE) like the Porsche 911, it will be interesting to see how this model will perform sales-wise.
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