The Denza Z9 GT Can Park ‘Backward’ and Travel on Three Wheels at 110 MPH

BYD has created a new premium brand. Its first model, the Z9 makes 870 horsepower. Here’s how it drives.

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Photo by: Motor1.com

Apr 12, at 3:00pm ET

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Chinese manufacturer BYD is bringing its new premium brand, Denza, to Europe. The name for its first model, Z9 GT, is meant to summarize its positioning in the market: Z being the “highest” letter in the alphabet and 9, in Chinese numerology, being synonymous with prestige.

The Denza Z9 GT is a large, sporty station wagon designed to demonstrate BYD’s technological capabilities. The rear wheels can steer independently and “spin” in the opposite direction, allowing the car to pivot on the front and park without maneuvering. It can also do a 360° U-turn in one place and change lanes by steering all four wheels, imitating a crab.

There’s so much adjustability, the Z9 GT can even keep the car on the road even if a tire explodes, up to 180 km/h (111 mph). In the video of our test drive above, you’ll be able to see this capability in action.

2025 Denza Z9 GT: Exterior

The Denza Z9 GT is 17 feet long, 4.9 feet high, and 6.5 feet wide, with a wheelbase of 10.3 feet. The dimensions and shooting brake layout of the body are comparable to those of a Porsche Panamera Sport Turismo, with a design language that was defined under the supervision of Wolfgang Egger, formerly of Alfa Romeo and Audi.

Photo by: BYD

Designers say silk, a material that rests lightly on shapes in a fluid, elegant way, inspired them to define the shapes of the Z9 GT. This basic idea guided the definition of the body, influencing the split headlights and a swooping line break that starts at the front wheel and continues along each side of the car.

The design team behind the Z9 GT also created the new Denza brand logo, which, unlike BYD’s logo, does not use the brand letters, but rather a stylized symbol.

2025 Denza Z9 GT: Interior

The passenger compartment of the Denza Z9 GT also embraces the idea of softness and sinuosity associated with silk. It’s seen in the enveloping shape of the dashboard, which continues onto the door panels, and in the shape of the seats, equipped with heating, ventilation and massage.

In a quest to break into the luxury segment Denza uses high-quality materials such as leather and aluminum, supplementing the OLED the Dynaudio sound system. There’s also more subtle details, such as the refrigerator under the front center armrest and the much bigger refrigerator between the rear seats.

To top it all off, there’s a large amount of space available for passengers, which has been prioritized over luggage. The quoted cargo capacity of less than 17.6 cubic feet, in fact, is less than you’d expect from the storage area of a car of this size.

Photo by: BYD

2025 Denza Z9 GT: Driving

For this first dynamic test, organized by BYD during Milan Design Week 2025, I was able to attend a series of demonstrations that show off how all of the Denza Z9 GT’s features worked.

Powering the car is a plug-in hybrid system with a front-mounted 2.0-liter four-cylinder turbocharged engine making 207 horsepower, flanked by an electric motor capable of providing traction to the front wheels (via an E-CVT continuously variable transmission). It can also recharge a 38.5 kWh battery built with BYD blade-type batteries, incorporating LFP chemistry and a cell-to-body scheme to optimize construction.

Photo by: BYD

There are two more electric motors on the rear axle, for a total system output of 870 hp, allowing for a 0-62 mph time of 3.6 seconds. Both rear wheels can steer independently and turn forward or backward simultaneously, to perform the maneuvers described above, reducing the turning circle to 30 feet (compared to about 39 feet for the smaller Tesla Model Y or Alfa Romeo Stelvio). Tread wear, however, seemed more than negligible to me, due the friction with the asphalt during the slipping phases between the wheels and the ground.

On a test track, I was able to drive on a selection of different surfaces designed to evaluate the suspension’s capabilities. The dampers are electronically controlled pneumatic units, and in practice, delivered great comfort to the Denza Z9 GT’s ride.

I didn’t have the opportunity, however, to provoke the car enough to understand how the systems keep the weight in check. Denza says the production version will come in at anywhere between 6,060 and 6,170 pounds, depending on final specs. I also didn’t have a chance to explore all of the hybrid system’s capabilities.

Denza says the Z9 GT can travel 124 miles in fully electric mode, according to the Chinese CLTC standard. That should translate into around 99 miles, according to the European WLTP cycle. DC charging power comes in at 82 kW.

2025 Denza Z9 GT: Pricing

The plug-in hybrid-equipped Denza Z9 GT that I tested should arrive in Europe in February 2026. The fully electric version is expected towards the end of 2025. It’ll come with a 100-kWh battery, with Denza promising 965 horsepower, a 0-62 time of 3.4 seconds, a range of 391 miles in the CLTC cycle (about 348 miles WLTP) and 270 kW of charging power in direct current DC.

Pricing has yet to be revealed, though we can make an educated guess by looking at prices for higher-end BYDs. The BYD Tang, for example, sells for around 73,000 euros. The Denza Z9 GT, therefore, should be positioned above that figure, seeing as how Denza is now the most premium brand in BYD’s lineup.