05/07/2026

theSunday Special XIV ON SUNDAY JULY 5, 2026

Acres of legroom at the back, with all the amenities you could ask for.

Cabin feels upmarket and well put together.

Flash charging allows a 10-70% charge in just 5 minutes.

E cube denotes triple motor setup.

Not the grippiest tyres, which allowed us to easily explore the limit of its handling behaviour.

positive. In fact, even if it were priced against something like a Mercedes-Benz EQS, the Z9 GT would still be the one we would be more interested in. That is not a small statement, especially considering we have yet to drive it on the road. But based on this first drive, the Denza Z9 GT may be one of the most interesting luxury EVs to arrive in Malaysia. SPECIFICATIONS Powertrain: Tri-motor fully electric Battery: 122.49kWh BYD Gen 2 Blade Battery Power: 1,156PS Torque: 1,210Nm Transmission: Single-speed automatic Drivetrain: All-wheel drive AC/DC Charging: TBC/BYD Flash Charging, 10-70% in 5 minutes claimed

polished, especially the driver’s display. There were also no awkward translations encountered during our time with the car. The seats were more of a mixed impres sion. The cushions are soft, but they did not hold the body as evenly as expected, and the back support did not feel perfectly natural during the short session. That could simply be down to adjust ment, as there was not much time to fine tune the seating position before heading out. Overall, the Z9 GT feels like Denza’s best effort yet. From the way it behaves on the move and the experience within the cabin, it feels like the full luxury BYD experience. It also carries another important point for Malaysia. According to Denza, Malaysia will be the first market in the Asia Pacific region outside China to receive the Z9 GT. In other words, we are not getting this car late, and we are not getting a watered down product. This is Denza giving us the best it currently has to offer. The biggest unanswered question remains how it behaves on the road. A track and gymkhana session can show how a car responds when pushed, but a grand tourer also has to prove itself in normal driving, over imperfect surfaces, in traffic, over dis tance and at realistic speeds. For now, the first impression is very

time. They felt easy enough to modulate and delivered the braking force required. Under hard braking, there was no obvi ous awkwardness in the transition between regenerative and friction braking, although the session was too short to judge fade resistance. Where the Z9 GT feels most convincing is in its refinement. Even riding on track kerbs, the car remains very isolated from the road. The suspension keeps the body impres sively level, and there is no excessive wal lowing despite the car’s size and weight. It feels controlled and composed, although the test surface was very flat, so final judgement on ride comfort will have to wait until we can drive it on normal roads. Moving inside, there’s soft leather across many of the areas you touch, generous equipment and a generally high-end pres entation. There are still a few buttons and switch gear pieces that look familiar from BYD products, but that is not unusual. Even in a Lexus, you can still spot certain Toyota con trols. It does not ruin the experience, and the overall impression remains properly upmarket. The updated interface is another posi tive. Compared to some earlier BYD efforts, the user interface feels cleaner and more

The difference is that the Z9 GT becomes much more neutral if you introduce weight transfer properly. Get the car loaded cor rectly, and the rear starts to rotate progres sively. There is a bit of BYD Seal-like behaviour here, which is not a bad thing. It is not wildly rear-biased on corner exit, but it is also not the sort of all-wheel drive EV that simply pushes wide and waits for the elec tronics to sort everything out. There is some playfulness here. Drivers who understand rear-wheel drive behav iour will appreciate the way the car allows a degree of slip before the systems step in. The surprise is not just that it rotates, but how much it allows before intervening. When the electronics do come in, the intervention feels finessed in controlling the car properly, not simply chopping individ ual brakes and killing the moment. The tyres also play a part. The car driven was on Continental EcoContact 7 tyres, which likely explains why the grip limits felt relatively low compared to the enormous performance on offer. In this setting, that was not necessarily a bad thing. Lower limits made it easier to feel what the car was doing, especially dur ing the track session. As for the brakes, there was nothing troubling to report within the limited drive

Range: 600km WLTP 0-100kph: 2.7 seconds Top Speed: 269kph Price as tested: TBC

We like: Huge performance, rear-wheel steering disguises its size, neutral bal ance when driven properly, properly upmarket cabin. We don’t like: Too easy to drive fast, size and weight are still present, seats could support better, road test still needed.