BYD's Denza Brand Plans to Enter European Market Despite Tariffs
TapTechNews, July 8 - Despite new import tariffs imposed by the EU on Chinese electric vehicles, BYD's premium electric vehicle brand, Denza, still plans to enter the European market.
According to Autocar, Yi Sun, the European product head of Denza, revealed that BYD is in talks with potential dealers to introduce this 14-year-old electric vehicle brand to Europe.
Yi Sun said that entering the European market requires a huge investment, and Denza will be positioned as a competitor to first-class luxury brands such as Audi and BMW. BYD's goal is to become a global brand, so we must show up in all major markets, he added.
In order to achieve the goal of globalization, Denza has recently started to expand to markets outside mainland China, such as the right-hand drive Hong Kong market.
According to TapTechNews, Denza was established in 2010 and jointly established by BYD and Mercedes-Benz. It initially focused on the mass market. But in 2022, BYD acquired 90% of Denza's shares and repositioned it as a premium brand.
At present, the three models Denza sells in China all offer plug-in hybrid and pure electric versions, namely Denza N7 SUV, Denza N8 SUV and Denza D9 MPV.
The first Denza model that BYD plans to sell in Europe is the brand new Z9GT station wagon, and its official launch time has not been announced yet.
The Z9GT debuted at the Beijing Auto Show in April and is positioned as the technical flagship of Denza's global model range. The pure electric version is equipped with a three-motor drive with a maximum power of 710 kW. The plug-in hybrid version is equipped with a 2.0T plug-in hybrid system with a maximum power of 152 kW for the engine and a combined maximum power of 640 kW for the motors.
In addition to the Z9GT, other models that Denza plans to introduce to Europe have not been announced yet, but according to Yi Sun, Denza is considering changing the logo of the Leopard 5 off-road vehicle created by BYD's sub-brand Fangchengbao and selling it to markets outside China under the Denza brand.
We think the Leopard 5 will be very suitable for the Denza brand in Europe, Yi Sun said. We hope to put all products under the Denza luxury brand.
Yi Sun said that BYD attaches increasing importance to the European market and is therefore strengthening its European R&D team to better meet the needs of European consumers. The whole vehicle engineering is still led by our team in China, but subsidiaries like Europe also need to provide corresponding opinions, he explained. BYD's R&D system is changing. So far, our models are mainly developed according to Chinese standards, but now all future models will be developed according to global standards. This can improve the engineering efficiency in all markets, including Europe.