Yangwang, the luxury brand of Chinese car-making group BYD, has shown off the new U7 super-saloon at the Beijing motor show. It’s expected to be the first Yangwang product to reach European shores in the coming years.
0-100km/h in 2.9 seconds
The U7 is sized and equipped to compete with the likes of the BMW i7 and Mercedes EQS but goes further even than the M and AMG versions of those cars with a four-motor electric drive system developing 1,300hp and capable of sprinting to 100km/h in just 2.9 seconds. Yangwang has not yet quoted a battery capacity nor a range for the car, but it’s thought to have at least 100kWh of capacity.
More significantly, the U7 will be able to top up its own battery as it drives, and not just through regenerative braking. The U7 uses the latest version of the company’s DiSus active suspension system which does away with air springs and hydraulics in favour of pure electric actuator control. This can allow the car to hop a few inches in the air while standing still, or even pull a wheel up and away from an oncoming pothole, spotted by the three LIDAR sensors that scan the world around the U7.
Suspension recharges the battery
Most impressively of all, Yangwang claims that the suspension can actually return charge to the battery, by converting the movement of reacting and responding to bumps in the road into electrical energy. It’s tech that has been spoken of in the past, but Yangwang seems to be the first to deliver it to market.
Thanks to the four-motor system, the U7 can also ‘tank turn’ like its bigger brother, the U8 SUV, and indeed on the Beijing motor show stand, Yangwang demonstrated that the U7 can also wiggle itself sideways to slot into a tight car park space.
In a stunt to demonstrate the car’s electric four-wheel drive system, Yangwang recreated the classic Audi Quattro advert from the 1980s, ascending a 180-metre ski jump but - taking a swipe at Audi - saying that the U7 did not need studded tyres to make the climb.
Styling from the U9 supercar
The car’s styling has been overseen by former Audi head of design Wolfgang Eggers, who also takes care of all BYD Motors group design and has a staff of more than 1,000 designers working under him. The front styling is lifted more or less entirely from the existing U9 electric supercar and uses distinctive LED ‘eyelashes’ around the main headlights. Around the rear three-quarters, the U7 looks almost like a Maserati 3200 GT but enlarged to a four-door size and shape.
The U7 will most likely be the first Yangwang product to come to Europe. It’s almost certain that the larger U8 won’t come here because it’s so heavy that driving it would require an HGV licence. The U7 costs around one million Yuan in China, which equates to €125,000, but it will most likely be considerably more pricey once it makes its way here.
And the badge? Will European buyers be drawn to a car called Yangwang? That remains to be seen, but BYD’s head of Europe, Stella Li, told CompleteCar that it was unlikely to be rebated as BYD-Yangwang to try and ease the path for European consumers, saying that “You don’t call it Toyota-Lexus.”