The Electric Yangwang U9 Supercar Can Literally Jump Thanks To New Twists On Legendary Suspension Tech

This is the Yangwang U9 and it looks really ugly but technically amazing. Not only can this BYD-built Chinese supercar reportedly dash from zero-to-sixty in two seconds flat, it can drive on three wheels, dance, and jump off the ground from a parked position. What sort of autobot are we looking at here?

The tank turn is now casual. Can your car jump? @BYDGlobal U9 pic.twitter.com/vpQnmxmJAo

— Conor Dalton (@conor__dalton) April 10, 2023

In terms of suspension, the YangWang U9 gets its hardware from BYD’s DiSus suspension lineup, which sounds like it was named by someone who hasn’t been on the internet lately. DiSus-C is variable damping, DiSus-A is air ride, DiSus-P is a hydraulic system, and the DiSus-X system on this vehicle is everything put in a blender to create a delicious combination of air springs, variable hydraulic pressure, and adaptive damping garnished with a sprig of road scanning. If that sounds familiar, it’s probably because you’ve been into European cars at some point in the last 60 years or so. What we have here is some sort of hydropneumatic suspension system, which explains an awful lot.

In a typical car suspension system, there are springs, dampers, and anti-roll bars. Springs are what the body of the car actually rides on, dampers keep the springs in check by damping excess motions, and anti-roll bars keep things level in the turns. This is a gross oversimplification, but we’re going to get through this quickly. In contrast, hydropneumatic suspension typically uses the compressible nature of safe inert gas as springs, the non-compressible nature of liquid for damping, and a series of lines for leveling. There’s also some form of pressure management, be it mechanical or electromechanical, and a pump. Again, an oversimplification, but this is more of a quick look than a deep dive. The benefits of hydropneumatic suspension include great ride quality, variable ride height, self-leveling when a vehicle is loaded, and the ability to do some wacky stuff.

Regarding wacky stuff, let’s start with the three-wheeling thing. While it’s still very impressive to see a car pick up a corner with no wheel and just keep driving, Citroen did this ages ago. You might remember the films of the DS driving around on three wheels and that’s basically what’s happening here. Raise ride height, play with pressures, and bam.

Alright, so that’s driving on three wheels out of the way, what about dancing? In the video, the BYD Yangwang U9 can be seen dancing around like your nan at a family barbecue, just swaying in the breeze. It’s pretty fun, but it’s also not groundbreaking if you’ve ever worked on heavily-depreciated Benzes with Active Body Control. Yeah, you can make the worst S-Class ever made dance on its ABC system with a scan tool. Just have a look:

As for road-scanning combined with hydraulic body control, it’s really an evolution of Mercedes’ Magic Body Control. While LiDAR was far-off technology when the W222 S-Class debuted, that last-generation flagship could use stereo cameras just like BYD suggests to scan the road ahead and measure imperfections. The suspension control module would then prime the suspension for these bumps by adjusting damping to iron out potholes and speed humps. Granted, this system didn’t vary height in response to bumps or scan roads when traveling north of 81 mph, but this is decade-old tech we’re talking about.

Alright, so what about jumping? In the video, the Yangwang U9 manages to hop just a couple of inches off of the ground – not far, but still not something you’d see most cars doing. This act might recall shades of that outrageous video of a Bose-modified Lexus LS400 hopping a railway tie on flat ground, but that’s not quite right. The Bose system used linear electromagnetic motors instead of dampers and torsion bars instead of coil springs, making it both really bizarre and not a hydropneumatic or oleopneumatic suspension system. As anyone who’s spent time in So-Cal, played Midnight Club, or watched enough ’90s rap videos can tell you, sufficient hydraulic or air pressure can totally make a car hop. While the music video for Still D.R.E. shows the more traditional single-axle hop, some lowriders can pick all four tires up off the ground at the same time. Pretty neat, right?

It’s almost amazing that it took this long for an automaker to build a car that hops, and BYD comes along with one that jumps higher than a house. That’s only because houses can’t jump, but still.

While the majority of tricks shown off by the Yangwang U9 aren’t entirely new, I’m still incredibly stoked that another manufacturer is working on suspension that doesn’t use traditional springs or dampers. Oleopneumatic Citroens are some of my favorite cars, so although the French marque doesn’t do much with the tech these days, it’s nice to see another automaker pick up the torch. Consider this eyebrow-raising tech demo the beginning of the next chapter.

(Photo credits: BYD)

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