The Milan Design Week it’s the right occasion to unveil a new car brand, ready to make its debut in Europe. Called Denza, it is already sold in China, belongs to the BYD group, and offers cars that mix luxury and technology. The first car is the Z9GT, a shooting brake, electric or hybrid, with sleek lines: ‘In design, as in architecture, there are rules. Every line, every graphic, every surface must relate to each other and make sense. True lines enhance the beauty of the sculpture, and that is exactly what we worked on with the Denza design,” said Wolfgang Egger, head of design at the Byd Group.
The sinuous lines of the model took inspiration from silk, one of the finest materials in existence. “In the case of silk, it is a source of inspiration in many ways. Take a sculpture, or a vehicle like the Denza Z9GT, and cover it with silk. Then take the same object and cover it with cotton, and you will notice a big difference. You know what happens: the silk falls naturally and covers the body but still shows, beneath the surface, the beauty of what is already there,’ Egger continued.
At the heart of the Z9GT is the e³ platform, created specifically for the Denza brand. It introduces a series of novel features based on four fundamental technologies: independent three-motor drive, independent dual rear-engine steering, Vehicle Motion Control and Cell-to-Body (CTB), i.e. the integration of the battery into the chassis even on dual-mode hybrid vehicles, not just electric ones. Despite its size (5.18 metres in length), these technologies give it the dynamism of a hatchback.
This design philosophy generates confident, flowing lines that aim to aim for design precision and optimise interior space for a comfortable travelling experience. The interior of the Denza models exudes a high-tech ambience, with a large, distinctive central touchscreen in the console, a driver display, a passenger display and a wraparound cockpit, as well as rear multimedia screens for passenger infotainment and premium audio systems.
