By Zhang Ruichen

Edited by Pan Tan

On March 22nd, BYD’s high-end brand, DENZA Automobile, held a release event for its new product N7, announcing it as the first mass-produced vehicle brand to cooperate with Devialet globally. DENZA N7 will be the first model to incorporate the Devialet sound system and is expected to be released in the first half of this year, with the selling price announced at the end of the year.

This is the third time that DENZA N7 has been showcased, with the first appearance at the Chengdu Auto Show, and then another release event when it was officially named N7. This time, the event was held to announce the cooperation with the audio brand, Devialet. DENZA N7 is positioned as a large five-seater mid-size SUV, with an appearance similar to that of a sports SUV, and it incorporates the π-Motion kinetic aesthetics design language.

Some people have criticized BYD for being too pushy, but DENZA is pushing even harder. According to the trend of DENZA’s release events, they will probably have to hold another two or three events before the end of the year, such as one for their cooperation with NVIDIA on the car-grade intelligent chip, one for presales, and another for the official launch. It is likely that they will also hold an event at the Shanghai Auto Show next month. Zhao Changjiang, the Chief Co-Creation Officer of DENZA Automobile, understands marketing.

Although the hype is still there, is repeatedly holding release events causing consumers to become numb to DENZA N7, and lose interest in the model?

Does high-end audio brand Devialet increase the purchase cost unnecessarily?

For those who are not familiar with audio equipment, they may not have heard of the Devialet brand. Devialet is a high-end acoustics brand based in Paris, France, and is popular in the Hi-Fi circle, especially for its high-fidelity sound quality and bass performance, which is highly praised by audiophiles. However, Devialet has always focused on portable Bluetooth speakers and small home speakers, and its products are positioned as high-end, with prices generally ranging from 20,000 to 30,000 RMB.

So placing such a speaker on the car will inevitably increase the manufacturing cost of the product, thus raising the selling price, which is undoubtedly a bonus item for consumers pursuing sound quality, but spending money on meaningless directions for people who don’t require high sound quality.

At the press conference, Diwaray’s car audio system will redefine the standard car audio system 4.0, subverting the traditional standard car audio system. The DENZA N7 will be equipped with 16 customized speakers, providing 5 sound field modes and 1 user-defined mode and support K song mode. It can be said that this K-song mode is a traditional feature of BYD.

And Zhao Changjiang said at the press conference: “High-quality vocal music can bring high-quality life to users. A movable intelligent music cockpit is the standard configuration of the new luxury.” So, it is quite possible that the DENZA N7’s final production model will come with the Diwaray sound system.

Can DENZA N7 become a good helper for sales?

DENZA Auto is a product layout of BYD’s early layout in the high-end market, but its sales have never reached BYD’s expectations for high-end models. Since 2015, DENZA Auto, under the leadership of Mercedes-Benz, has delivered 40,000 new cars to date. Excluding the sales of DENZA D9 in the past two months of 2022 and 2023, DENZA Auto has only sold 22,900 units. Starting from 2021, Daimler reduced its shares from 50% to 10%, while BYD holds 90% of DENZA’s shares. Since then, DENZA Auto has been strategically developed by BYD, while Mercedes-Benz provides support and assistance.

So far, the DENZA D9 has delivered 7325 new cars in the first two months of 2023, which is almost catching up with the annual sales performance of 2022. It can be seen that DENZA is gradually occupying the market share of high-end models in the new energy vehicle market, and the sales performance has also rebounded considerably.

Recently, on March 13th, DENZA Motors released a promotional video for its new car, DENZA N7, revealing its exterior design. The new car was built based on the INCEPTION concept car and has a sporty style. The DENZA N7 has a closed front face, hidden door handles, and a continuous taillight design. The car’s dimensions are 4860/1935/1602mm in length, width and height respectively, with a wheelbase of 2940mm.

The DENZA N7 will be available in two versions with either a single or double electric motor. The single motor version is equipped with a 230kW motor, while the dual motor version offers a front-AC asynchronous and rear-permanent magnet synchronous motor with maximum power of 160kW and 230kW respectively. Zero to one hundred km/h acceleration can reach a level of just over 3 seconds. In addition, the DENZA N7 is equipped with CTB batteries, body integration technology, which can improve frontal collision rigidity and side collision safety levels by 50% and 45%, respectively. The new car is also equipped with air suspension and laser radar, and the iTAC intelligent torque control system technology. The brand new battery temperature control technology can solve the current pain points of slow charging at low temperature and range attenuation of new energy vehicles.

After BYD officially took over the strategic development direction of DENZA Motors, the only DENZA car currently on sale is the D9 MPV model with a relatively small market share in the segmented market. Therefore, the arrival of DENZA N7 will certainly help DENZA Motors to achieve better sales results.

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.