News spy shots have been exposed of the Denza sports car, which was first seen last month. It is a two-door sports car and largely a production version of the Fang Cheng Bao Super 9 concept shown by BYD last year. Chinese media have compared the shape to the Lotus Emira and claim that it will cost less than half the price.
Denzaβs sports car is expected to debut at the Shanghai Auto Show in April. It will also likely be one of the Denza models to find exports.
Reports indicate that the performance will be comparable to that of a Porsche 911. Chinese media believes that the car will be a four-seater, but at Car News China weβre not so convinced due to the sharply sloping roof line behind the B-pillar. Furthermore, the Super 9 concept was only a two-seater.
The spy shots seem to show that the new car is relatively small and compact. Although still very much a design in progress, the car spied seems more complete than in the previous shots.
It has a streamlined front with multiple air vents. Thanks to the slopes of the windshield and the rear canopy, the passenger compartment forms a bubble. At the rear, there is a ducktail finishing off the tailgate.
We can see from the spy shots that the car is low-lying but also has large wheels. Furthermore, the overhangs, both front and rear, are very small, with the wheelbase taking up most of the length of the car.
Surprisingly the car does not feature side view cameras but rather has conventional mirrors. There are, however, concealed door handles to keep drag down.
The camouflage scheme of the new car is typical of Denza, leading most media to believe that the car will be branded as such. It is possible that the car will use the Denza e3 (Yi san fang) platform.
Given that the sports car is likely to be a flagship model, it will almost certainly have a three-motor setup similar to that seen on the Z9 GT and N9 SUV. This consists of a single motor on the front axle and a motor on each of the rear wheels.
There is already a rendering of what the production model might look like from Speed partner Speedstersr.
Autohome is claiming that the car will be sold for around 300,000 yuan (40,900 USD); here at Car News China, we believe that this is very much a lowball figure and expect prices to be considerably higher, more likely around 500,000 yuan (68,200 USD).
Alternatively, prices may really be that low, and the car will not be pegged as such a high-end vehicle and will compete with the MG Cyberster, which in China has prices starting at 319,800 yuan (43,600 USD).
Source: Autohome
