Denza, the premium electric-vehicle brand co-owned by BYD and Mercedes-Benz, launched the Z9S sedan in China on September 23. The model is offered in three trims: the Flash Charging Premium, Flash Charging Flagship, and Yi Sanfang Flash Charging Performance, priced at 255,800 yuan (about $36,000), 275,800 yuan (about $38,800), and 325,800 yuan (about $45,900) respectively. These are Chinese guide prices before taxes and incentives. According to the Chinese outlet Diandongbang, the official prices are more than 60,000 yuan lower than the pre-sale range of 319,800 to 389,800 yuan, with the top trim seeing a reduction of 74,000 yuan.
Range and charging
The Z9S is a BEV (battery-electric) sedan that achieves its longest range through a combination of battery, drive, thermal management, and aerodynamic optimizations. The Flash Charging Premium uses a 102.3 kWh battery and offers a CLTC range of 920 km (about 575 miles). The Flash Charging Flagship, with a 122.5 kWh battery, reaches 1,100 km on the CLTC cycle (approximately 690 miles on the more realistic WLTP test, est.). The top-performance trim, also with a 102.3 kWh battery, has a CLTC range of 780 km (about 490 miles). Note that CLTC figures tend to be 15-20% more optimistic than WLTP results.
The Z9S is built on a 1000V high-voltage platform, enabling a 10% to 70% charge in as little as 5 minutes, and 10% to 97% in 9 minutes. In extreme cold at -30°C, charging time increases by only 3 minutes. Denza has already built over 10,000 fast-charging stations, with highway fast-charging stations soon exceeding 2,000.
Performance and luxury
The base and mid trims use a single rear motor producing 370 kW (about 496 hp), accelerating from 0 to 100 km/h in 5.2 and 5.3 seconds respectively. The top trim employs Denza's Yi Sanfang technology with three independently driven motors, delivering a combined 1,210 PS (about 1,194 hp) and a 0-100 km/h time of 2.68 seconds. It also supports features like round-turn and crab walk maneuvers. All trims come with rear-wheel steering, with the top trim featuring a split rear-wheel steering system that reduces the turning radius to 4.75 meters.
The Z9S is a large sedan measuring 5,090 mm long, 1,980 mm wide, and 1,490 mm tall, with a wheelbase of 3,025 mm. Inside, it offers dual zero-gravity front seats upholstered in Nappa leather, a 17.3-inch center screen, a 10.25-inch instrument cluster, a 26-inch AR-HUD, and an 18-speaker Devialet audio system. A 7-liter smart refrigerator, tri-zone climate control, and a 795 mm panoramic sunroof are also included.
Safety features include a high-strength steel-aluminum hybrid body with 91.1% high-strength steel and aluminum, 2,000 MPa hot-formed steel, nine airbags, and a tire blowout stability control system that maintains control at speeds up to 200 km/h on the top trim.
The Z9S is equipped with Denza's God's Eye 5.0 ADAS (advanced driver assistance system), which uses an end-to-end large model with reinforcement learning, trained on over 230 million kilometers of real driving data daily. It supports urban and highway navigation assistance and intelligent parking. The car also features an AI assistant called Didi Xia, which integrates with partners like Alipay and NetEase Cloud Music.
