Denza is making a big play in Europe with the Z9GT, and it wants charging speed to do most of the talking.
The BYD-owned premium brand said its flagship shooting brake will debut in Europe on April 8 at Paris’ Palais Garnier.
Alongside it comes a new pitch for what EV charging should look like: “Ready in 5, Full in 9, Cold Add 3”.
What that means is Denza is claiming the Z9GT can go from 10% to 70% in five minutes, from 10% to 97% in nine, and from 20% to 97% in 12 minutes even at -30°C.
BYD said the system is built around a revised Blade Battery and a charger capable of up to 1,500kW through a Chinese-market connector.
That sounds suitably dramatic, and it is. But it also points to the obvious problem: Europe does not yet have public charging infrastructure that can fully exploit that figure.
Reuters reported that BYD will only start rolling out its own flash chargers in Europe from this summer. So the car may arrive before the charging ecosystem does.
Denza is also talking up the Z9GT’s broader appeal with a 122kWh battery, up to 800km of range in rear-wheel-drive form, and a triple-motor version with more than 960PS and a 0-100kph time of under three seconds.
BYD has yet to clearly spell out the homologation basis for that 800km figure in Europe-spec form.
Denza can talk up the car all it likes, but the real test is whether Europe’s charging network can keep up.
