From Zeekr’s absurdly capable LFP battery packs to Yangwang’s jumping supercar, incredibly interesting things are happening in the Chinese EV market, and here’s a new attention-getter to add to the list. This is the Denza Z9 GT, a 952-horsepower electric wagon with a hybrid option for people who don’t want a full BEV, and it has a ridiculously cool way of helping drivers parallel park.
We’ve seen automated parallel parking systems before, but not only do they all work in the same way, they’re all fairly slow. Detecting an open parking spot then working the gears and pedals while the car figures out the steering can take longer than simply doing it all yourself, but this BYD-built electric car promises to solve that by throwing out the rulebook.
Here’s how it works: pull the nose of the car into a parallel parking spot, then pick a front wheel to pivot off of, rotate an outline of the car on a screen, and presto — the system does the work to slide the back end of the Denza Z9 GT into the parking space.
BYD’s new Denza Z9 GT EV can parallel park in place by turning and spinning its right rear wheel forward and left rear wheel backward. It can also crab walk through tight spaces.
Deliveries have already begun in China and start at $47,000 USD. Photos of interior in thread below. pic.twitter.com/kWAyfOdWAN
— Sawyer Merritt (@SawyerMerritt) February 4, 2025
Tri-motor all-wheel-drive plays a key role here, because by having one motor for each rear wheel, the rear tires can truly rotate independently. By applying forward drive to the inside rear wheel and reverse drive to the outside rear wheel, the Denza Z9 GT starts to yaw, with rear wheel steering helping to guide its way into a parking spot.
If you’ve ever been young and dumb and power-braked the back end of a rear-wheel-drive automatic car into a parallel parking spot, this is essentially a more sophisticated version of that, one that should reduce tire wear. The slip here is more intentional, more optimized, more along the lines of the electric G-Class’ tank turn function than juvenile burnouts.
While it’s cool to watch this system at work, there is one big lingering question: with four-wheel-steering and a litany of camera systems, is this feature really necessary? It seems more like a technological flex than something that will truly replace traditional parallel parking techniques. However, something age-old counters that doubt — necessity doesn’t really matter because this parking mode is cool. After all, who ever said that car features need to be massively useful to be desirable?
You’re almost never going to use launch control, but it’s fun to have. There are few opportunities out there to legally use drift modes on all-wheel-drive vehicles, but it’s cool to know the engineers were thinking of fun. Most drivers with multiple drive modes will rarely, if ever, put their vehicles in their sportiest or most off-road-focused settings, but it’s nice that the options are there. This torque vectoring-based parallel parking system is born from the same philosophy, and that’s enough to get stoked on.
(Photo credits: Denza)
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The Chinese really are eating our lunch, both design-wise and technologically.
don’t care about the gimmicky parking. that thing is beautiful.
That thing is gorgeous.
You had me at 952 horsepower AWD wagon.
That’s a very sharp looking longroof IMO.
That looks like an absolutely stupid, technically lazy and wasteful way to implement self-parking… just for tire wear reasons alone.
Just make sure you’re wearing low-friction tires on your 1000 hp car and you’ll be fine. Also the road surface has to be water soaked.
I’m sure that’s waaaaay less sketchy than it looks, right?
I sense a back channel deal has been made between BYD and their tire manufacturers. Taking manufactured obsolescence to a new level. Not only designed to wear out, but also designed to speed up that process!
Someone’s been investing in tire manufacturers.
I used to do this to fit a camaro with a posi rear and a line-lock into a tight garage spot. Back up, get close, lock the front brakes, apply throttle, watch the rear walk to the left, back all the way in.
When I had Trailhawk vehicles I was constantly fiddling with the drive modes. Living with snow meant snow mode was on most of the winder, and it was fun! I regularly ran in sand mode as it made the thing actually move and hold one of the 9 speeds in the transmission for more than 37 seconds.
Yes I would buy this crabwalking drift parking $40K EV if I could.
Just a note you don’t have to be young or dumb to e-brake a rear or front drive car into a parking spot, could just be nobody around and wet/snowy conditions and you’re a kid in his big wheel all over again.
I was gonna comment on the rear-wheel drive qualifier. My ’87 Nova was sideways A LOT when it was snowy out back in the day. lol
It’s all fun until the sudden stop at the curb with the attendant bent or broken rim, control arm and strut. Ask me how I know?
Ok, so maybe dumb, but I maintain youth is not a requirement!
I would undoubtedly use this to get myself into locations that I cannot then get back out of again.
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Does it include stock in sundry tire companies? Or at least a coupon for a free pair or two?
Personally, I just know how to parallel park a car. Or a motor coach for that matter.
You know, I always thought EVs were too gentle on their tires. This is a good fix for that problem.
Let us not overlook how stunning this thing looks.
I might be wrong, but in the pics it looks like the doors slide inside the body, which is bananas.
I think that’s an illustrative cross section.
Doesn’t it look like the front door is up in a pocket of some sorts, though?
Perhaps. It would be very cool if so.
Not sure what you are getting at here…..door lines are clearly visible. Are you thinking that front lower section is immobile? If so, look again.
We’re looking at the side/interior shot where the doors are not visible. I have no idea what you mean, though. ha.
Yes, but that’s just a visual trick to break up what are some otherwise very tall sides.
I can see that as well. I’m probably wrong, but it’d be tits if true.
I came here to post this.
Was so fixated on the tire degradation, I literally did not notice. This is a beautiful take on a modern wagon.
I would gladly accept a screen full of Temu ads every 15 minutes in exchange for compromising our national security in this manner.
Whoa, free fentanyl in the glovebox!
I notice the pavement in the video is wet…This would be a nightmare for tire wear. May be bad for the machinery too, exceeding tire friction regularly.
Also, how would that sound on dry pavement?
They tried dry pavement, but the smoke from the rear tires obscured the video. I wonder what this would sound like in a parking garage.
Yet another bell or whistle I will never use. But a fun demonstration of what EV drive systems and some coding can do.
The BYD Seagull is of far more interest. If only they’d make something similarly cheap, with half the aero drag, a bit less mass, 5x the horsepower, and a lot more analogue than digital(no spyware).
If BYD issued an NDA to auto journalists prior to the unveiling, the notice would should have been called:
“No Peeking at Peking Parking”
For one particular magazine, it would be a “C&D against C&D for seeing these.”
We’ve been calling them “nastygrams” for so long, I completely forgot what the first C&D meant.
Yaw gonna make me lose my head! Parking here? Parking here!
It may reduce tire wear, but i’m still imagining the rear tires balding much faster than they should.
With crappy enough tires, anyone can do this
Pretty clever, but that would get you a reckless driving ticket in the U.S.
I learned to drive in a short bed F150 with an LSD and too little weight on the rear, and used to do things like that. Every u-turn was a drift.
I do miss my RWD extended cab Dakota for the same reason….
“Tire wear? What’s that?” – The engineers behind this, probably
Tire wear is the end user’s problem – not covered by warranty.