Tall and not clumsy? This is how DENZA D9 creates a luxurious MPV.

In recent years, regardless of being new forces or old forces, domestic automobile companies in China appeared to be very promising, aiming at the German and American markets at the same time.

I swear that my words are sincere compliments, referring to their all-round great leap forward in product positioning, marketing, equity and user operations.

The result of this leap can be seen in the continuously rising price and record-breaking sales performance of these products.

When it comes to breaking through barriers, whether it is a new force or an old force, they all tend to choose MPVs for their new products.

For example, the DENZA D9 that I test drove earlier is one of them. Currently, this car has received orders for more than 40,000 units. Its target delivery volume for this year is 20,000 to 30,000 units. And by the end of the year, the monthly delivery volume may exceed 10,000 units. If it can be achieved, isn’t this a massive hit?

Who is More Dominant: DENZA D9 or Toyota Alphard?

“This is a world where looks matter“. Although I have known this truth for a long time, I have been stubborn and unwilling to admit defeat. After being educated repeatedly by society, I finally surrendered to the most widely accepted aesthetic views. This is a kind of heroism similar to that of Romain Rolland, the core of which is to keep pushing forward one’s will step by step after recognizing reality.

The concept of “enveloping the cities from the countryside” is similar to this idea, so if you want to make an MPV in China, you will never get away from the existence of the Toyota Alphard, which has become the ceiling in this field.

Therefore, we can see the shadow of the Alphard in almost all domestic MPV models.

Just as we parked the DENZA D9 next to the Toyota Alphard, we found that the DENZA D9, in terms of design details, is like an updated version of the Alphard.

In terms of the “big mouth” design, the DENZA D9 is much larger than the Alphard in terms of the actual area and the coverage of the silver chrome plating.

The NIO Daya D9 takes “technology to an extreme level” with the LED strips on either side of the big mouth and the lower edge of the headlamp becoming more delicate and evenly colored. Even in the sun at noon, you can clearly see the LED strip of this car.

From the side, the lines of the NIO Daya D9 are more straight, with silver decorative panels outlining the window and another silver decorative panel under the door to add color richness to the side.

As for the Elfa, some designs have been made on the shape of the windows, and the overall lines are also straight.

An interesting point in the design of the NIO Daya D9 is that they have made the side sliding doors of the second row into a hidden design. The biggest advantage is that it will be more unified and clean in appearance, without any abrupt lines showing. In addition, it can optimize the wind resistance while ensuring practicality and aesthetics.

When it comes to the rear of the two cars, it can be seen that the lines of the Elfa become more complex. Especially in the exaggerated headlamp design, it has extremely strong product recognition.

The rear of the NIO Daya D9 is the same as the side, with straight, square design ideas. However, from a 45-degree angle from the side, you can see that the D9 extends the protruding waistline of the side all the way to the tailgate, and even designs the tailgate with an inward concave shape to ensure the direction of the waistline.

Of course, there is another king in the MPV market, which is the sales champion GL8. However, GL8 is mostly used in the B-side commercial market in China, so when these three cars are placed together, I always look at GL8 with a “non-family” perspective.

So, compared with DENZA D9, who has a more domineering appearance?

From my personal experience, the size and larger “big mouth” of the DENZA D9 in reality make the entire car appear more domineering in terms of aura than the Alphard. However, in details, the DENZA D9 is more delicate and restrained, such as the concave inside the tailgate, the outline of the LED light strip, and the design of the side seam sliding door, all of which can be seen in the DENZA D9’s attention to detail.

Is the space enough?

The core indicator for measuring the quality of an MPV is its actual space performance, and in terms of hard size settings, the DENZA D9 has an advantage over most of its competitors.

We have compiled a size table of the main competing models of DENZA D9. You will find that DENZA D9 has a significant advantage in the length and wheelbase of the car interior leg space, which is directly reflected in the actual space experience.

My height is 179 cm and my weight is around 74 kg. This is my standard sitting position when driving.

By the way, the front row of the D9 is equipped with aviation headrests, which can provide better support for the head and neck, and the surface is made of suede.

Moreover, the entire roof of the D9 is covered with suede.

The front row has an openable sunroof, while the entire second row is equipped with a panoramic sunroof with a total area of ​​1.1 square meters. After opening the second row sunroof, the headspace and sense of openness in the second and third rows will be better.

Moving on to the most luxurious second row of the MPV, when the second-row seats of the NIO ES8D are adjusted to the backmost position, I can raise the leg support and get a more comfortable sitting posture than the front row.

Of course, there is also a zero-gravity mode available in the second row, with one button to achieve the best comfort.

In terms of the softness and wrapping of the seats, there is not much difference between the front and rear rows. Both are set to be supportive but overall softer. All seats in the vehicle are made of Nappa leather, with a delicate touch.

The second row has a very rich storage space. First, there are two cup holders that can be popped open at the top of the central armrest.

Below that is a storage compartment that can be opened electrically by either the front and rear row armrest screen, or directly with a button.

At the bottom is a refrigerator/warmer that can be adjusted between 5-50 ℃, but it can only be opened manually.

On the outside of the second-row seats, there is a maximum 50W wireless charging slot, which is faster than Apple’s wired charging and caused Apple to leave the group chat.

In addition, to prevent phones from moving around in the slot, DENZA has added a spring tongue to the slot, and also equipped a USB-A interface with a soft cover next to it.

On the left side of the boss seat, DENZA D9 has also made a flip-out small table board that can withstand 15kg of weight and comes with two cup holders.

When the second row is adjusted to a leg space of about two fists, let’s take a look at the third row.

Coming to the third row from the central aisle, the first feeling sitting down is unexpectedly spacious. Due to the larger side window area, the height of the third-row seat cushion is slightly higher than that of the second row, making it almost free of oppressive feeling.

In practical space performance, the third row of D9 is indeed comparable to some compact SUVs in terms of the second-row space performance.

At the same time, the seat comfort of D9 is also good. Firstly, the thickness of the seat cushion is sufficient, achieving very good softness. At the same time, the backrest and seat cushion also support continuous adjustment, of course, this is mainly designed for the flexibility of the trunk space.

Upon closer inspection, I noticed that the third row of the BYD Tang D9 features an independent rail design, which ensures a more reasonable seat layout and sufficient space for both rows.

The comfort level of the third row has not been compromised. It features an independent air conditioning vent, adjustable directional reading lights, and handlebars on the roof.

The third row also has an independent air conditioning vent, two cup holders on one side, and a small storage compartment with a USB-A port.

BYD Tang D9’s official claim is that it offers 7+7+7 space, which means that in a full capacity situation with 7 passengers, the third row can accommodate 7 20-inch suitcases and 7 backpacks. I saw this with my own eyes and was surprised, mainly because the D9’s rear space is relatively flat, allowing for stackable luggage of a certain size.

On the day of the test drive, we even managed to store all of our colleagues’ backpacks in the back of the third row when it was fully reclined. As shown in the picture, the BYD Tang D9’s trunk still had plenty of space left. However, most of our backpacks were soft and bendable, which means that the vertical space of the car was not fully utilized.

Therefore, BYD Tang D9’s spaciousness and comfort level can fully meet the needs of 7 passengers with luggage.

In other words, if you often travel with a full carload, the BYD Tang D9 can fully meet your needs in terms of spaciousness and comfort. However, if you need it for business purposes, the second row still has excellent configuration and absolute space.

Will BYD Tang D9’s intelligence level catch up with the top contenders?In the static experience in Shanghai in early September, I was amazed by the performance of the car infotainment system of the DENZA D9, and I never thought that the DENZA team really achieved the level of first-class in-car infotainment system, especially in terms of software.

The main interface of the DENZA D9 central control screen can switch between navigation and resident wallpaper. When entering other applications, the navigation will become a small floating window to continue displaying.

In terms of the layout of the desktop widgets, the DENZA D9 is similar to Huawei’s HarmonyOS car infotainment system, which supports the arbitrary placement of customized widgets.

The modeling and rendering of this interface are very smooth without any lag when scrolling. It not only supports the real-time display of vehicle status, such as lights, windows, and doors, but also allows touch operations to be performed directly here, and the vehicle can respond in real-time.

Another surprising point is its voice ability. In terms of function coverage, it is basically comparable to the first-class WeChat voice assistant, namely WeChat Xiaoliren: DENZA Link supports full-scene continuous conversation (four-tone recognition), can interrupt effective conversation within 20 seconds without being woken up, and can respond instantly when the user speaks.

The DENZA D9 always gives me a feeling of “knowing the ropes” in terms of intelligence. In addition to this central control infotainment system setting, the factory-installed camera in the car interior comes with a cover.

And the core of DENZA’s intelligent cockpit is not the interaction logic and function coverage of the central control screen, but the two 12.8-inch rear headrest screens behind it. It supports the projection of the full-screen display of the car, like Ideanomics L9, but the difference is that the DENZA D9 has high permissions in the rear row.

For example, you can open the navigation in the rear row and directly send the destination to the central control, so that the driver can follow your destination. At the same time, the audio source in the rear row can support the switching of the whole car and single-screen.Here is the English Markdown text corresponding to the given Chinese text, with HTML tags preserved.

Another expression of high level of configuration is the second-row armrest screen, where you can control the vehicle’s lights, moonroof, and frequently used seat settings.

At first, I didn’t see the necessity of the second-row armrest screen, which may have been designed by Weltmeister to show off its technical ability. However, only after actually experiencing it did I realize the two certain factors that justify its existence:

One is that the second-row functionalities are too rich, and physical buttons would make the backseat too cluttered;

And also, when I adjusted my seat very far back, without the armrest screen, I had to reach down underneath the seat or up to the headrest in order to operate it, but the addition of the armrest screen makes my operation more convenient and elegant.

Hardware counts for 30%, while tuning counts for 70%. As for the overall intelligence of the cabin, Weltmeister chose to use the Qualcomm 7325 chipset, which is equivalent to the phone’s 778G chipset aiming at the middle-end product line. Nonetheless, the actual experience shows that Weltmeister’s performance on the 7325 is not inferior to that of many 8155 manufacturers.

Speaking of this, I am increasingly looking forward to the surprises that the OTA updates of the Weltmeister D9 may bring us.

Of course, the reason for using the 7325 chipset is well-rounded as well. Firstly, it takes into account the issue of chip supply, as the 7325 is more stable for delivery, ensuring the overall delivery of the vehicle. Additionally, Weltmeister claims that the 8155 chipset is not necessarily more advanced. Rather, the two products belong to different systems and are supposed to provide users with 5G coverage and more comprehensive service support. The 7325’s image recognition capability and comprehensive compatibility with the Android ecosystem are better.

To drive the rear screens of the high-end models, Weltmeister added two chips to support the two screens.

Unfortunately, the version of the car we test drove did not have the advanced driving assistant features enabled.

However, we can get a preliminary understanding of the Weltmeister D9’s perception ability from its visual interface: it can clearly recognize lane lines and vehicles in front and on the sides.

Is it worth 400,000 RMB to buy and drive?

The version I test drove this time was the DM-i 970 four-wheel drive flagship model with a price of 439,800 yuan. The overall feeling when driving is agile and stable.

First of all, the driving posture. Due to the styling of the MPV model, it is actually difficult to judge the exact position of the front of the car. Also, the A-pillar can be very large, but the DENZA D9 has a small triangular window at the A-pillar position, which reduces the overall blind spot.

The shape of the steering wheel is relatively simple, but the grip feels excellent. Overall, I prefer the strong grip feeling. At the 9 and 3 o’clock positions, there is a concave design, which can hold the tiger’s mouth very well.

The steering damping setting is substantial, but not very heavy. At the same time, a few degrees are set aside for left and right turns. Overall, the driver can sense that this car does not belong to a small car.

However, the backlight of the buttons on the steering wheel is not very visible in strong light. DENZA officials have stated that this will be improved and upgraded in the future.

The damping and responsiveness of the accelerator pedal are both more comfortable. After all, the vehicle we test drove has a curb weight of 2665 kg, which is the heaviest competitor in the DM-i system.

For an MPV, 7.9 seconds of acceleration is sufficient because smoothness is what an MPV pursues, and this is exactly the advantage of the DM-i.

In fact, throughout a whole day of driving, even in a state of power loss, the overall feeling of power for the DENZA D9 is very linear, without any surge.The Chinese Markdown text below is translated into English Markdown format while preserving HTML tags.

During my one-day test drive, I discovered an interesting point — the maximum kinetic energy recovery power displayed by the Chery Tiggo D9 is 100 kW.

The Chery Tiggo D9 suspension system adopts the structure of front MacPherson strut and rear multi-link, and is equipped with DiSus-C suspension system. The suspension can automatically adjust the damping according to different road conditions, providing better control over body pitch, roll, braking and acceleration.

In terms of actual driving experience, the D9 suspension provides a good sense of isolation for the entire vehicle. It filters out fine vibrations, such as those on gravel roads. However, when facing undulating surfaces such as speed bumps, the rebound of the front suspension may be slightly delayed.

The level of vehicle vibration and noise reduction decreases from the first row to the back. However, the overall NVH performance of the car is still good, probably due to outstanding NVH levels. During my test drive, all passengers in the back were lying down and sleeping soundly, just like Ge You’s famous pose.

From the perspective of power and NVH, I think the Chery Tiggo D9 is worthy of its 400,000-yuan price tag. However, the extremely low fuel consumption performance presents a sharp contrast.

What About Energy Consumption?

As mentioned above, the bike we tested had a curb weight of 2,665 kg, making it the heaviest vehicle in the DM-i system. I was very curious about how this system would perform in terms of energy consumption on the Chery Tiggo D9.

Due to the tight schedule of the test drive, I only did two statistical tests:

• With HEV mode and intelligent power protection enabled, Chery Tiggo D9 consumes 6.4 L/100 km of fuel during a 20 km journey (with air conditioning set to 22 ℃ and two people in the car);

And in a completely discharged state, this 2.6-ton behemoth displayed fuel consumption of 7.4 L/100 km (air conditioning set to 22℃ and on the second level, with four passengers and luggage) after a 20 km drive.

Of course, the power tuning of the test drive model is not the final production version, and we will conduct a comprehensive review according to 42Test when we receive the production version later.

Why is the first car of the refreshed TANG brand an MPV?

Why is the first car of the refreshed TANG brand an MPV? I actually answered this question earlier, but I started to reconsider it before test driving the D9, and now I have a more in-depth answer.

The growing domestic MPV market

TANG predicts that the MPV market above 300,000 RMB will reach a scale of 450,000 this year.

Looking solely at last year’s MPV market, according to the retail data from the China Passenger Car Association, the sales volume of MPVs priced at over 200,000 RMB reached 391,029 units, a year-on-year growth of 23.8%, significantly ahead of the overall increase of 6.5% in the passenger car market. This indicates that the growth of demand for mid-to-high-end MPVs is very optimistic.

Then, looking at the more mature US market, MPV sales account for 1.45% of total car sales. Although MPVs in China account for 5% of total car sales, this includes many entry-level MPV models, such as the Wuling Hongguang. If the sales of mid-to-high-end MPVs in China are also converted to 1.45%, then the scale of this market will be around 120 billion RMB!

It can be said that this market has the greatest incremental space among all car types.

The oligopoly of Japanese brands in the mid-to-high-end MPV market

The mid-to-high-end MPV market is almost entirely monopolized by Japanese brands. As mentioned earlier, the Toyota Alphard currently has an additional price of two to three hundred thousand RMB, while the Lexus LM, which is based on the same platform, has an additional markup of up to 800,000 RMB. From a market perspective, this indicates that consumers have a very strong demand for high-end MPVs.

However, it also indicates a brutal fact, which is that it will be very difficult for these consumers to establish a sense of recognition for the high-end social attributes of the brand and product itself.

However, in recent years, with the sweeping trend of electrification, all conventional rules and practices are being shattered and reshaped. Moreover, in mainstream fields such as SUVs and cars, many domestically-produced products have actually achieved a reversal in sales volume.

The missing segmentation products in BYD’s product lineupActually, BYD’s current product portfolio already covers all SUV and sedan categories ranging from compact to midsize, and is distributed evenly across price ranges.

However, among its current range of vehicles, BYD only has one MPV model—the Song MAX—that is priced between 140,000 and 170,000 yuan, and is targeted towards the family segment.

In other words, in the entire BYD product lineup, they lack a product that can truly compete in the high-end MPV market.

Is there a big difference between large SUVs and large MPVs?

We have always observed that people have tended to be unclear about the specific form of a product, that is, when choosing a car, they do not simply adhere to SUVs, sedans, or MPVs, but choose products that correspond to their own car-buying needs.

This results in a convergence between large MPVs and large SUVs, which both cater to consumers with space as their primary demand, making them competitors!

Even in training at frontline stores, the Ideal L9 appears in the competitive product library of the Xpeng D9. I have also mentioned the Ideal L9 in the previous dimension comparisons and intelligent features.

Going forward, I will investigate the situation at Ideal and Xpeng stores with regard to this issue, and you can look forward to it.

Conclusion

Before the test drive, Xpeng released a set of information indicating that 62% of the orders for the Xpeng D9 were from households, while 38% were from businesses.

This “heavy household, light business” ratio surprised the Xpeng officials, as they did not expect their product to receive such a high level of attention from consumers.

I think the phrase “high-end and unassuming” used by Zhao Changjiang, General Manager of Xpeng’s Sales Division, can be used to explain this phenomenon. This phrase is filled with sincerity that maximizes cost-effectiveness and humble service.

In addition to the well-rounded configuration of the product itself, I was surprised by the intelligent cabin performance of the D9.

The continuous upward momentum of Chinese brands is not only based on a strong and robust automobile industry, but also on a clear understanding of the definition of the product and strategic planning for the long-term development of the brand by its leaders – “high-end and unassuming”.

This article is a translation by ChatGPT of a Chinese report from 42HOW. If you have any questions about it, please email bd@42how.com.