BYD to build 1,000km range EV (sort of)
Denza's reborn N8 electric SUV claims 1,003km of CLTC range from a 130.15kWh Blade 2.0 battery with five-minute flash charging, though the generous Chinese test cycle deserves an asterisk.
BYD’s Denza brand has confirmed its reborn N8 SUV will claim 1,003km of electric range, a number that demands both attention and an asterisk.
The asterisk first: that figure comes on China’s CLTC test cycle, the most generous in common use, which routinely flatters real-world range by a wide margin. Translated to the WLTP standard used here, the N8’s rating would land somewhere in the mid-800s, and real-world driving lower again.
The fairest comparison is on the same cycle, and the N8 still comes out in front. The BMW iX3, the Neue Klasse efficiency benchmark rated at 805km WLTP here, achieves 919km on CLTC in its China-market long-wheelbase form. On identical terms, the Denza clears it by more than 80km.
The range comes from brute force as much as efficiency. Chinese regulatory filings reveal a 130.15kWh Blade Battery 2.0 pack, among the largest fitted to any production EV, in a five-seat SUV measuring 5,150mm long on a 3,075mm wheelbase.
It pairs with BYD’s Flash Charging technology, with Denza claiming a 10 to 70% charge in five minutes and 10 to 97% in nine, with the teaser material making a point of cold-weather performance: three extra minutes at minus 30 degrees.
The filings list two powertrains: a single rear motor with 320kW or 370kW, or a tri-motor arrangement pairing a 270kW front motor with two 310kW rears for a combined 890kW, in a family SUV.
The N8 badge has history. The original launched in China in 2023 as a plug-in hybrid claiming, coincidentally, a combined 1,003km from petrol and battery together; it sold poorly and was dropped within a year. The new car achieves the same figure on electricity alone, a tidy measure of how far BYD’s battery programme has moved in three years.
There is a New Zealand angle in the badge if not yet the model. Denza is confirmed for local launch with the Z9GT, bringing flash charging with it, and the brand’s larger N9 SUV has long been expected in this corner of the world, with right-hand drive test cars spotted in Australia in June. A five-seat N8 with numbers like these would slot naturally alongside them if BYD chooses to send it. Nothing is confirmed.
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