China’s dearest car sizes up UK
YANGWANG probably isn’t a name you’re familiar with. But in its home market, this BYD subsidiary sells the most expensive mass-produced Chinese car ever built: the 5.3m-long U8 SUV.
This is a Land Rover Defender-rivalling off-roader with a price of 1,098,000 CNY (£120,000). It has four electric motors for a combined 1,180bhp and 1,280Nm. But its powertrain isn’t a conventional petrol or electric layout, instead acting as a range-extender; the petrol engine is a generator, not connected to the wheels.
While the REx set-up is fine when the U8 is running on electricity – Yangwang claims the U8 is “as quiet as a library” – the hum from the four-cylinder engine isn’t the most pleasant when it’s not.
The on-paper performance stats make this thing out to be a kind of rocketship, too. Yet the U8 never feels close to being as quick as its numbers suggest. It’ll squat to the rear when you put your foot down, but in truth, the car feels like it’s running at around 25 per cent of its claimed output.
Of course, a lot of that is down to weight. Turn sharply and the U8 clings on for all it’s worth, but no amount of hydraulic body control can contain the full 3.6 tonnes and lofty centre of gravity. The steering has a nice weight to it, but a Mercedes G-Class would show it a clean pair of heels.
In part, this is probably due to the U8’s old-school ladder-frame chassis, which should make it untouchable off road. It has 205mm of ground clearance, and a floating function that allows it to double as a boat.
And then there’s the Yangwang’s party piece: a tank-turn function that allows the huge SUV to rotate on a sixpence.
Inside, Yangwang has pulled out all the stops when it comes to cabin quality. There are screens for the driver, passenger and infotainment, plus one on each of the back seats and another display in between.