A week ahead of the Shanghai Auto Show, BYD put the Yangwang U9 centerstage at the launch of its DiSus vehicle body control system.
Photo by Fan Jianlei
By PAN Tao
Chinese EV maker BYD has unveiled a new technological system for stabilizing rides across rugged terrain, around sharp turns and even through shallow water.
WANG Chuanfu, founder and CEO of the company, said the DiSus system, known as Yunnian in China, has filled in a blank in the industrial landscape. Until now, China’s domestically-developed assisted-driving systems have done little to stabilize the vehicle in extreme circumstances.
“With the new system, the car can run safely, even on three wheels,” said Wang. A BYD video shows a car doing exactly that.
The result of five years of work and at a cost of billions of yuan, DiSus is the central feature of BYD’s new premium brand Yangwang.
But with just a week to go until the Shanghai Auto Show, BYD couldn’t resist showing off the Yangwang U9 during the launch event, and it might not have been the smartest PR move. The U9 is quite a vehicle, and the Yangwang series is unlike anything else in the BYD stable. When the U9 is in the room, it’s hard to focus on the intelligent body control system.
The Yangwang U9 is the EV maker’s all-electric supercar. It offers an acceleration performance from 0 to 100 km/h in around two seconds and is priced somewhere north of 1 million yuan (US$150,000). That’s the kind of money that will get you a BMW i8 or Lotus Evora, both genuine super cars.
In previous presentations, BYD has shown off the system’s moves to some shocked acclaim. The internet is laden with slick videos of the Yangwang U8 executing 360-degree tank turns, accelerating on ice and skimming across shimmering lakes.
Against the tide, BYD did exceptionally well last year, selling 1.9 million vehicles worldwide and making a net profit of 16.6 billion yuan, more than the previous five years combined. Revenue grew 96.2 percent to 424 billion yuan.
In the process, BYD toppled FAW-Volkswagen as the best-selling passenger carmaker in China and spent 20 billion yuan on research and development.
The world's biggest EV maker expects sales to as much as double this year. BYD’s goal this year. Overseas business is also on the rise. In the first two months, BYD sold 25,000 cars overseas, the same number as were sold in the first six months of last year.
The carmaker plans to start production in Brazil to support expansion in Latin America.
