Spy pictures of a new Denza flagship SUV, possibly called the N9, have emerged. Although Chinese media initially speculated this car was known as the Tang L it has now been confirmed that it will be part of the Denza brand rather than the main BYD brand.
Pictures show that this car is the largest SUV yet from the Denza brand and given that the existing SUV models are known as the N7 and N8 logic suggests the new car is called the N9. Furthermore, a previous tweet by Zhao Changjiang, GM of sales at Denza, showed a shot of a large camouflaged SUV with a message saying it was the flagship. These latest spy shots show a car looking much like the one in the prior tweet.
From the spy shots we know that the car is still some way off, probably at least half a year from launch. We can see that the design of the lights has yet to be finalized and installed. Fast and slow charging ports are on the right-hand side of the car, with one of the pictures showing these uncovered.
We can see from the pictures that the car is large and probably a similar size to the Li Auto L9 and Aito M9, cars the Denza most likely will compete against. It should feature a large and comfortable third-row space and may only come as a six-seater to prioritize comfort.
Denza last year said it would introduce 8 new models within 3 years. It also said at the time that it would introduce three flagship models one of which would be the N9 SUV to be released at the end of 2024.
Powertrain for the new model is likely to be similar to the setup in the Denza Z9 GT, which is also one of the flagship models, and so we can expect both fully electric and PHEV versions. In the case of the EV version of the Z9 GT it has a 230 kW motor on the front axle while the rear axle has two motors with 240 kW each. The PHEV version uses a BYD479ZQA 2.0T engine from BYD which has maximum power of 152 kW. It also has three electric motors with the front getting a 200 kW peak power TZ210XYD motor whereas the rear axle has two TZ220XYAV motors, each with up to 220 kW.
Given that the Z9 GT is 5180 mm long and has a wheelbase of 3125 mm this should give us some idea of the dimensions of the new N9. The Denza N9 will come with some form of driving assistance with at least higher spec versions using Lidar.
Denza originally started life as a 50:50 joint venture between BYD and Mercedes-Benz. Sales were never good and in 2021 Mercedes-Benz watered down its stake to 10% and since then the brand has gone from strength to strength.
Source: Autohome
