The list of high-quality authors It took us less than two years to go from breaking the game to taking the lead. At the 2024 DENZA Auto User Communication Day held a few days ago, Zhao Changjiang, Chief Co-creation Officer of DENZA Auto, said.
In 2023, BYD's five major product sequences will be officially finalized: BYD Dynasty Network, BYD Ocean Network, Denza, Equation Leopard and Yangwang. As one of them, DENZA is different from the other four series, and in the past decade, DENZA has been mainly led by BYD and Mercedes-Benz, but it has not improved. On the contrary, after belonging to BYD, Denza quickly gained momentum and swept away the previous haze.
According to the data, the cumulative sales of DENZA in 2023 will be 127,840 units, of which the first model, DENZA D9, will deliver 119182 units throughout the year, accounting for 93% of the total sales23%, but the other two models, the Denza N7 and N8, together delivered less than 7% of total sales. DENZA failed to continue the huge success of the MPV market and lost a series of losses in the SUV field.
The reason for the failure of the N7 and N8 is generally recognized by the outside world is that the former is overpriced, intelligent and cannot be compared with models of the same price, and lacks competitiveness in the extremely involuted new energy vehicle market; The latter is a semi-new car, just a finely decorated version of the BYD Tang, and even the interior of DENZA does not have high hopes for it.
But even so, the SUV market is still a strategic place that DENZA cannot give up, and it is also a place where all brands must compete. Xpeng has G6 and G9, NIO has ES6 and ES8, Ideal has reached the top of the list of new forces with the L series, and Wenjie has also successfully bet on the new M7 and M5, as well as the upcoming M9, setting a sales myth. In the face of SUVs being seized by friends one by one, Denza's next SUV cannot be delayed.
As early as the beginning of 2023, Zhao Changjiang, chief co-creation officer of DENZA Auto, revealed to the outside world on social ** that the DENZA SUV series will have three models: N7, N8 and N9, which can provide value for home, off-road, city, track, tourism and other scenarios. At present, both the N7 and N8 are available, but the N9 has not had much information at all.
M9 and L9 have not been able to catch up for five years.
At the just-held 2024 DENZA Auto User Communication Day, DENZA announced that it will launch three models, namely the large hunting coupe against the Porsche Paramela, the flagship sedan against the S-class, and the flagship SUV model to be released at the end of 2024. And this SUV model seems to be the Denza N9 revealed by Zhao Changjiang before, positioned above the N8 and N7.
At the same time, Zhao Changjiang posted spy photos of the new flagship SUV on social **, with the text, Several riders who participated in the annual user communication day of DENZA Auto came to see the DENZA flagship SUV and said that this car has become, what do you think? What configuration is required.
In the comment area below, Zhao Changjiang confirmed that Yunlin-A, lidar, electric suction doors, sofas, refrigerators, large color TVs, and aviation chairs will all appear on the new flagship SUV. At the same time, the length of the new car is more than 52m, with a three-row seating layout and plenty of space in the third row.
In addition, combined with the new technology mentioned by DENZA in the user communication meeting, 5Models with a turning diameter of less than 10 m for models over 2 m and an Elk test score of 90 km h, it is basically certain that DENZA flagship SUVs will be equipped with these technologies.
Looking back at the spy photos, judging from the photos of the car friends and the new car, the body height of this SUV may be as high as 1800mm, similar to the M9 and the ideal L9, and the rear overhang of the body is particularly prominent, presumably for the abundant third-row space mentioned earlier. The entire rear windshield is tilted sharply, and the roof is slightly sunken, giving it a noticeable sporty atmosphere.
The D-pillar of the new car seems to be decorated, and it may adopt a more atmospheric design to highlight the mature texture. Although there is a heavy camouflage, there are still no obvious protruding traces of the handlebar position, and the design of the hidden door handle is basically adopted. The side of the body is equipped with footrests, the ground clearance in the middle position is not high, and the ground clearance can be adjusted to improve the passability of complex roads when there is a suspension, and the vehicle is very space-oriented on the whole.
In an interview, Zhao Changjiang said bluntly, as far as the flagship SUV is concerned, the current M9, L9 or some other 9s cannot be compared with us, and others may not be able to catch up in five years. In addition to BYD's deep technical accumulation, this self-confidence is also related to BYD's unprecedented emphasis on intelligence in 2024.
BYD has made great efforts to assist intelligent driving.
In the past, the lack of intelligence of BYD's new energy models was often criticized, and with the comprehensive transition of the entire new energy market from the first half of the volume electrification to the second half of the volume of intelligence, in this wave of intelligence, even if BYD has achieved the first market share of China's new energy market, it will also not be able to stand alone, especially in 2023, when intelligent driving will break out in an all-round way.
As a result, BYD attaches unprecedented importance to intelligent driving, and DENZA has borne the brunt and has become the vanguard of BYD's comprehensive intelligence. At the beginning of the launch of the DENZA N7, the entry-level version uses the Horizon Journey 3 chip, with a computing power of only 5TOPS, and only supports L2 primary intelligent assisted driving, including ACC adaptive cruise control and LCC lane centering functions.
After realizing that the problem was wrong, DENZA held an intelligent communication meeting and announced that DENZA N7 would become the first model of the new chip of the new generation of NVIDIA DRIVE ORIN platform, equipped with NVIDIA ORIN-N chip, with a computing power of 84TOPS, supporting high-speed NOA, **P valet parking and other functions, and can communicate with the Yunnan-A air suspension to realize its road condition preview function, which makes the intelligent driving ability of DENZA N7 slightly improved.
However, despite this, DENZA's intelligent driving ability is still not comparable to that of new power brands in the same period. Looking at the new energy vehicle market, from the 200,000-yuan Xpeng G6, to the 250,000-yuan Wenjie M5 and Wenjie new M7, to the 300,000-yuan Zhiji LS7, AVATR 11, NIO ET5, and the higher-priced Ideal L9 and NIO ES8, etc., have all formed a complete and leading market layout in the field of intelligent driving, which has brought huge resistance to DENZA N7 and even BYD to break through in intelligent driving technology.
Compared with ideal, Weilai, Xiaopeng and even Huawei's intelligent driving leaders, BYD's current intelligent driving progress is still relatively backward. Whether it is Huawei's bold announcement to open NCA in urban areas nationwide at the end of the year, or the feat of the new force Yusanjia to continuously expand the territory of intelligent driving in urban areas, the progress of DENZA N7 to push high-speed NOA in October last year is obviously too far behind.
However, at the press conference in January, Wang Chuanfu said that in the future, BYD's high-end intelligent driving system will be selected in models of more than 200,000 yuan, and standard in models of more than 300,000 yuan. And DENZA happens to be one of the brands with a positioning of more than 300,000 yuan.
In fact, as early as the first half of 2023, BYD has fully launched the research and development of urban pilot technology, but it did not expect that the involution of new forces in the field of intelligent driving will greatly advance the time point of the full rollout of NOA in urban areas. With the arrival of 2024, BYD's urban pilot will gradually get on the car, catch up with the leading car companies in the field of intelligent driving, and extend its advantages in three electric and chassis to intelligent driving.
If DENZA wants to win more share of the high-end market, it is bound to match the intelligent driving level with its competitors, coupled with BYD's own technological advantages, and defeat its opponents head-on with product strength. In this intelligent transformation, Denza's new flagship SUV has undoubtedly enjoyed dividends, but whether it can lead the world and ideal for 5 years cannot be concluded before the product is really seen.