If you’ve seen one, you know them all. You hear this again and again when you stand near a Chinese car. With the Denza N7, this is only half the case, if at all. The front follows the design language familiar from other cars from the Middle Kingdom: narrow, tapered headlights and a front with a narrow edge and large air inlets. The rear with the light bar is reminiscent of a Porsche Macan or Cayenne. The Denza N7 is also said to be poaching in their territory as a luxury SUV. It is not yet clear whether it will come to Europe, but the car will be at the Geneva Motor Show, which will probably turn into the European spring trade fair for Chinese car manufacturers.
For this reason alone, the Denza N7 is worth a closer look. Especially since it is on the further developed e-Platform 3.0. When you look at what the Denza offers in terms of infotainment, you wonder whether it was a wise decision for Mercedes to withdraw from the equal joint venture to a ten percent stake. The command center is a large 17.3-inch touchscreen flanked by two 10.25-inch screens, one for the passenger and one for the instruments. The entertainment industry is complemented by a head-up display with augmented reality as well as small displays for the air conditioning of the 4.86 meter long vehicle.
The fact that the Denza is intended to appeal to a more sedate clientele is evident from the fact that the designers rely on classic materials such as wood and leather for the interior. The technicians also hold back a bit when it comes to touch-screen fetishism and offer other analog elements such as knobs and levers. But that doesn’t change the fact that the connectivity is definitely up to date: a 5G internet connection is a given and you can use social networks and other services via touchscreen just like on your own smartphone. There are two 50-watt charging cradle available for the cell phones, which fill the energy storage devices wirelessly.
Part of the new architecture is also a battery whose blade cells provide a capacity of 91.3 kilowatt hours. Thanks to efficiency improvements, the rear-wheel drive version (single motor) with 230 kW / 313 hp can travel up to 702 kilometers according to the Chinese CLTC cycle. If you choose all-wheel drive (dual motor), the output increases to 390 kW / 530 hp and the range drops to 630 km. For comparison, the electric Porsche Macan 4 Electric, which is eight centimeters shorter, has 300 kW / 408 hp and can travel 613 kilometers without recharging thanks to the 100 kWh batteries. The turbo version has 470 kW, 639 hp and 591 kilometers. The Chinese SUV is also at a disadvantage when it comes to DC charging due to its 400-volt technology with a maximum of 150 kW. The Denza N7 draws seven kW of electricity from the AC wallbox. BYD needs to improve this again. However, BYD has provided the Denza N7 with two charging sockets, increasing the power tank speed to 230 kW. If you want to try out this “dual gun mode” at a Teutonic charging station, the potential for conflict is guaranteed. Perhaps the angry charging public could be appeased by the fact that the Denza N7 is capable of vehicle-to-load, i.e. serves as a power source for household appliances, lamps or electric grills that you simply connect to the vehicle’s socket.
You sit comfortably in the Denza N7, even if the chair offers little lateral support and the length of the steering wheel column is not adjustable enough. The performance of the all-wheel drive version is more than decent: after 3.9 seconds, the all-wheel drive N7 reaches country road speed from a standstill and continues to storm up to 180 km. The battery is part of the bodyshell and the so-called “Di-Sus” air suspension is combined with a double wishbone axle at the front and 5-link independent suspension at the rear. Sounds good, but it doesn’t drive quite as well. The set-up is too soft, which leads to the body swaying and rolling, which collapses at the front when braking sharply. The brake has a long path, no precisely defined pressure point and is therefore difficult to dose. When we first slowed down the 2.4-tonne vehicle, we had a slightly uneasy feeling for a moment. The comfort is very good even on bad roads.
When it comes to assistance systems, the Chinese once again got it right and integrated the lidar radar into the front apron. A more powerful Nvidia chip and the usual armada of sensors and cameras complement this. This means that the Chinese electric car is equipped for Level 3 autonomous driving. In any case, the Stromer masters such compulsory exercises as the lane keeping assistant and the adaptive cruise control. When it comes to space, nobody can easily fool the Chinese. It gets really comfortable in the back right and there is still enough space for luggage with a trunk volume of 480 liters. If you fold down the backrests of the back seat, it becomes 1,200 liters. There is also a frunk at the front, which has a volume of 73 liters. Finally, there is the price. In China, the basic version of the Denza N7 costs around 42,000 US dollars, the top version we moved is around 11,000 US dollars more expensive. However, this information cannot necessarily be transferred one-to-one to Germany, as there are also homologation costs and any customs duties or taxes.
