BYD’s Denza with electric MPV to Europe

Electric cars have been available in various forms in Europe for a while now. There are electric sedans, liftbacks, hatchbacks, station wagons, crossovers and SUVs. With the arrival of the MG Cyberster, there will soon even be an electric roadster on the market. There are hardly any electric MPV-like vehicles next to the Volkswagen ID Buzz. This may change thanks to the Chinese car manufacturer BYD. That takes the electric Denza D9 to the IAA in Munich.

BYD says it wants to introduce the European public to what they are high end sub-brand by parking the D9 on the IAA trading floor. BYD further says the European market “to tease with a glimpse into Denza.” Although showing one model does not immediately mean that BYD has plans to actually bring Denza to Europe, you may wonder why the brand takes the trouble to introduce the ‘sub-brand’ to the European customer. In any case, we do. In fact, for several reasons.

In August last year, AutoWeek was able to report that BYD in Europe had also recorded the design of the Denza D9 in Europe. In itself that is also not irrefutable evidence for the arrival of Denza and the D9 to our region. But there’s more. Earlier this year, two brand new BYDs appeared in the Netherlands. The Song Plus and – indeed – the Denza D9. The Song Plus has now been confirmed as a BYD Seal U for the European and Dutch market. The Denza D9 not yet, but together with the patent registration in Europe and the fact that BYD is now dragging the electric MPV to the IAA, there are quite a few reasons to suspect that the D9 is also headed this way. We are still awaiting a response from BYD.

The electric Denza 500, just like the 400, is a curious combination of a compact MPV and a sedan butt.

Denza D9

Denza is a brand that originated in 2010 from a collaboration between BYD and Mercedes-Benz/Daimler. In 2014, Denza introduced its first model in the form of the somewhat curious 400. That was an electric MPV-like with a sedan butt that used the platform of the then current B-class. The 400 was renamed 500 during a facelift in 2018. A few years ago, Denza introduced a plug-in hybrid SUV: the X. It has now been facelifted and is now called N8. Daimler largely exited Denza in 2021, with the result that BYD now owns 90 percent of the brand’s shares.

The Denza D9, caught earlier this year in the Netherlands.

And what about the Denza D9? With its length of 5.25 meters, that is quite a clocky MPV that is supplied as a plug-in hybrid and as an EV. The electric version has a battery pack of over 100 kW and – according to the Chinese CLTC cycle – will travel about 620 kilometers on a full battery.