The Denza Z9 GT is the world’s fastest car—fastest at charging, that is. It’s by no means slow in speed (we’ll get to that), and it is packed to the brim with bleeding-edge tech (we’ll get to that, too). But, trust me here, it’s the formidable charging tech BYD has brought to bear here that should get you hot under the collar.
Many auto brands claim charging times that are, shall we say, massaged. Not so with the Denza Z9 GT. I sat in the car and personally watched it go from 10 percent to full in just over 9 minutes. It makes all other EVs look like they are standing still in this department, and the Z9 GT heralds a new age of electric cars that will confound gas faithfuls whose primary argument has always been that you can’t fill EVs quickly.
Denza is BYD’s “premium” EV brand, here to bother the likes of Porsche and Polestar, and the Z9 GT is its opening salvo in Europe, intended to scare the hell out of the Western competition with a heady mix of performance, everything-as-standard abilities such as crab-walking and all-wheel steering, and an electric architecture miles ahead of any competition.
Photograph: BYD
Yes, the Z9 GT has all of these, but in a rushed attempt to prove it deserves to be considered by consumers alongside the high-end German carmakers, BYD has unwisely abandoned its winning strategy of offering more for much less, and is here offering more for more.
You’re used to seeing the Chinese company seriously undercut competition, right? Well, hold onto your hat. This Z9 GT will cost €115,000 in Europe. That’s roughly $134,000. This is a staggeringly punchy price, going against one of the primary brand values we associate with BYD, and to add insult to injury, the same car sells for just £55,000 in Australia, and about £45,000 in China.
How on earth can BYD justify such a huge price hike for Europe? It certainly can’t all be blamed on tariffs, shipping, homologation, dealer networks, or even a costly Daniel Craig-fronted global ad campaign. I asked BYD, and the only other reason I got for the thumping price increase was “market contextualization.” Which, to put it simply, means BYD thinks it can get away with charging more in the EU.
But you can’t price your way into the premium market. Just because you charge the same as Porsche, doesn’t mean buyers will think of you in the same way. This smells like, in the West, BYD is trying to force its way into this part of the market without earning the brand value. Trust at this price level is built slowly, and buyers spending six figures tend to stick to what they know. We’ll see very soon if such a bold, or foolhardy, strategy works out. And all this doesn’t even factor in the painful second-hand value hits premium EV owners are facing. Porsche Taycans can lose half their value in just one year.
