Earlier this year BYD unveiled the flagship Yangwang U7 sedan which is part of its Yangwang brand. The car has already opened presales and should officially launch during the second half of the year. What we now know is that the Yangwang U7 comes with four-wheel steering and that the turning circle for the new car is less than that of BYD’s smallest car, the Seagull.
The Yangwang has two-way 20° intelligent rear wheel steering along with an easy four-wheel agile steering function. BYD recently demonstrated what all that jargon means in practice when they pitted a Yangwang U7, one of the most expensive cars produced by the company, against the BYD Seagull, the smallest and cheapest. While the Yangwang (see specs) measures in at 5265, 1998 and 1528 mm (l/w/h) the BYD Seagull (see specs) is just 3780, 1715 and 1540 mm. Obviously, the difference in length is considerable.
For the test a 10-meter wide test ground was used. Firstly a course requiring the cars to complete a U turn was laid out and the Yangwang U7 following on from the Seagull had no problem completing the turn. Then the turning circle was tested with the Yangwang achieving a radius of 4.85 meters which was better than the Seagull’s 4.95 meters. And for the cynics, 4.95 meters is the official turning radius for the Seagull.
The U7 forms the flagship sedan for BYD’s upmarket Yangwang brand, there is also believed to be a wagon version on its way. Prices for the sedan are expected to be around a million yuan (137,550 USD). Each wheel gets a 326 horsepower electric motor for a total of 1306 hp. Thanks to a 135.5 kWh blade battery range is 800 km.
BYD claims that Yangwang is the world’s lowest drag coefficient production car in the world with a result of Cd 0.195 at 120 km/h. However, this is actually higher than the Cd 0.194 result of the Xpeng Mona M03 – although it is not clear if this result was done under the same conditions.
Through a combination of sheer power and slipperiness acceleration is 2.9 seconds and top speed is 270 km/h. Meanwhile thanks to carbon ceramic brake discs the stopping distance from 100 km/h is 33 meters.
The Yangwang U7 rides on the same e4 platform as the Yangwang U9 sports car. It will also debut the new DiSus-Z suspension system. Interestingly the suspension movements are used for energy recovery to charge the battery.
Also featured on the car will be the new TianShen “eye of the gods” intelligent driving system. With 508 TOPS computing power it takes input from a suite of sensors consisting of 3 Lidar units, 5 millimeter wavelength radars, and 13 cameras. It will offer high-end driving assistance at both high speed and in urban areas.
Sources: Autohome, Fast Technology
