One breathtaking drive to remember
Close your eyes. Picture one of the four revered sacred Tibetan holy mountains, the Yala Snow Mountain, a towering figure at 5,820-meter in scale right in front you. Pay close attention to how you’re feeling–the awe and wonder, the utter bewilderment–or just simply how your jaw would simply drop by just the mere sight of it.
No. This is not the movies. It’s real life. And all its glory, it truly is majestic. This inspiring panoramic view was what capped our experience during a recent five-day drive through the roads of Western Sichuan in China.
This epic road trip was with a brand fitting of its Chinese name: “Tengshi” which means “rising power and momentum”.
Denza, which when further dissected means D — “Diverse” (wide range of capabilities), E — “Elegance” (comfort, design, and dynamics), N — “Novel” (innovative features), Z — “Zenith” (sophistication and new energy tech) and A — “Aspirational” (targeting the luxury segment).
In short, Denza is a premium luxury electric vehicle (EV) brand founded in May 2010 as a joint venture between China’s BYD and Germany’s Daimler AG (Mercedes-Benz). The latter then later took full ownership of the brand.
For this lifetime adventure, the Philippine media delegation was traveling together with journalists, bloggers and celebrities from Singapore, Malaysia and Brunei.
The 50-man contingent drove from the lovely city of Chengdu to the quaint rural Tagong Grasslands, which covers about 1,000 kilometers back-and-forth. We tested models like the Denza B5, B8, Z9 GT, BYD Shark 6 and BYD Ti 7 on high-altitude roads and off-road courses.
Riding China’s own B5
Back here in the Philippines, we have the lone mid-variant of the Denza B5. The vehicle is a rugged, five-seater plug-in hybrid (PHEV) 4×4 SUV, which was launched earlier this year.
It’s powered by a 1.5-liter turbocharged gasoline engine paired with dual permanent magnet synchronous electric motors (part-time 4WD). This can deliver up to 650hp and 760 N-m of torque. And its 31.8 kWh BYD Blade Battery offers roughly 100 km of pure electric range.
In China–however–they have the exclusive variants of the B5 which integrate Huawei’s Qiankun ADS smart driving and 192-channel LiDAR systems. Sadly, our Philippine-market Denza B5 does not feature these Huawei-powered LiDAR/advanced-pilot variants.
They also have the long range editions powered by a larger 47.8-kWh LFP blade battery (providing up to 210 km of pure-electric CLTC range and 1,310 km combined).
Moreover, domestic Chinese trims include specialized Cloud Chariot (DiSus-P) hydraulic suspension upgrades and 2026 Flash Charge ultra-fast charging variants.
We were lucky to experience these variants, particularly enroute to Hailuogou, a 300-km drive with a pit stop along Highway 318, China’s longest national highway.
The vehicle was also a great spillover from the cozy and relaxing stay we had in Six Senses Qingcheng Mountain Hotel. The climate control, audio system and seat cushions were all just premium.
Well, it’s just wishful thinking that we get to have these China-exclusive variants back at home.
Key trip takeaways
During our trip, gracing us with their presence were key executives from BYD’s regional headquarters, particularly Liu Xueliang, vice president of BYD Co. Ltd. and general manager of the BYD Asia-Pacific Auto Sales Division. They were with us since Day 1 all the way to the end. The Philippine contingent, meanwhile, was accompanied by BYD Philippines country head Adam Hu and managing director Bob Palanca, whom this writer was privileged to be able to sit beside during some parts of the trip. Sharing our sentiments about how enchanted the scenic views were from our windows while driving along the mountain passes were just simply bliss.
According to these executives, few of the vehicles that they will be bringing in from the lot next year are the Ti7 and the Z9GT.
Particularly, the BYD Ti7 is a five-seater PHEV sport-ute that sits between the B5 and the B8 back here at home. This vehicle is quite popular and sells roughly 20,000 units per month in China alone.
We had the chance to drive this mammoth on one of the offroad trails in Tagong Grasslands. And more than its robust profile blending perfectly at the hilly landscape along with herds of grisly black yaks, its boxy appeal and Spartan charms can get Filipinos hooked. Plus, the Di-Sus C suspension system with intelligent damping controls is gold for those yearning to take offroad thrills and mountain cornering to the next level.
It has about 480 hp and 650 N-m of torque and an estimated more than 700 km of range.
On the other hand, the Denza Z9 GT is an all-electric and plug-in hybrid luxury performance vehicle.
It sports a tri-motor all-wheel drive setup, one motor in front, two independent motors on the rear axle. This premium grand tourer delivers up to 1,156 hp and 1,210 N-m of torque, thus can sprint from 0 to 100 km/h in just 2.7 seconds.
Likewise, this vehicle is equipped with BYD’s second-generation Blade Battery (around 122.49 kWh depending on the market), offering up to 701 km under NEDC or 600 km under WLTP standards.
In China, the vehicle can be charged through the ultra-fast megawatt-style “FLASH Charging,” which surprisingly can charge from 10 percent to 70 percent in about five minutes or 10 percent to 97 percent in roughly nine minutes.
Taking our breath away
Overall, for the record, other than seeing Pandas and awe-inspiring landscapes of its kind from Mother Nature for the very first time, for some apparent reason, it is likewise the very first time that this writer was able to join or even attend a BYD event.
At about 4,000 meters above sea level in most of our drives there, experiencing mountain sickness and breathing from an oxygen can, the name “BYD” now has a completely different meaning from here on.
For me, “breathtaking your drive” is a more fitting name to describe such a media drive of a lifetime– as it truly took our breaths away both literally and figuratively.
