As the Denza N9 SUV readies for its launch around the end of the year, it is slowly shedding its camouflage. The latest images show the car undertaking hot weather testing, probably in the area around Turpan, and wearing little more than various slogans.
At first glance, these seem a jumble of nonsense, such as “Hot soy milk in the morning, ice cola in the evening,” but each appears to be some form of clue about the car and its specs.
The car will be the flagship SUV model for BYD’s premium Denza brand, which BYD recently took sole ownership of after buying out Mercedes Benz’s remaining 10% stake.
Based on the slogans, we can tell that the car has rear-wheel steering and will use the same e3 (Yi san fang) platform as the Denza Z9 GT. This allows individual use of the three electric motors in conjunction with the rear-wheel steering, thereby enabling various maneuvers, such as pointing the nose into a parking space and then using the motors to move the rear into the remainder of the parallel space.
One slogan says, “Doesn’t measure 5.3 meters,” so we can probably assume that it is longer than that. The car is believed to have been benchmarked against both the Li L9 and the Aito M9. The latter has already achieved more than 500,000 sales, and so BYD is likely hoping to emulate that success with the Denza.
And if you’re wondering about the soy milk cola comment, this alludes to the fact that the N9 will have a storage box with both heating and cooling functions. It might even, like the Z9 GT, have two.
From the spy shots seen so far of the interior, it’s expected to be quite similar to the Z9 GT. Meaning it will have a 3-screen design and a crystal drive selector knob. The car will have a 2 + 2 + 3 seating layout, with the second row having independent seats.
It’s widely expected that the powertrain of the N9 will also be similar to that of the Z9 GT and that the car will come in both fully electric and PHEV versions. The Z9 GT, in its all-electric version, has a 230 kW front motor while it has two electric motors at the rear, each with a peak power of 240 kW, giving a combined total of 710 kW. The PHEV version of the Denza Z9 GT gets a BYD479ZQA 2.0T engine and three electric motors. Maximum power of the engine is 152 kW, and the front motor is 200 kW, while both rear motors are 220 kW each. Unless the N9 goes for even more powerful motors, it will likely use the same.
Source: Fast Technology
