- Eternal City is the starting point of an extraordinary journey of peace, culture and sustainable development
- Professor Jeffrey Sachs and Patrick Zhong to retrace Marco Polo’s steps in all-electric DENZA Z9GT, using revolutionary FLASH Charging for nine-minute refills along the Silk Route
- 43-day itinerary includes the Vatican City, Italy, Croatia, Hungary, Serbia, Bulgaria, Turkey, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and China
DENZA, the premium technology-oriented automotive brand of the BYD Group, is playing a key role in a remarkable cultural odyssey that has started following the footsteps of Marco Polo, all the way from Rome to Hong Kong.
The launch ceremony of the Marco Polo Drive of Peace took place on Saturday afternoon in Rome, at the historic Palazzo Orsini Taverna. The initiative is a symbolic 43-day, approximately 9,300-mile (15,000km) journey connecting the Italian capital to Hong Kong, inspired by the legendary travels of Marco Polo more than 750 years ago. DENZA and the BYD Group are serving as Flagship Passenger Vehicle Partner.
The project has been conceived by Patrick Zhong, Founding Managing Partner of M31 Capital, and Professor Jeffrey Sachs, Director of the Centre for Sustainable Development and one of the world’s leading economists, to promote sustainability, electric mobility and global connectivity. Crossing diverse countries and communities, the Marco Polo Drive represents an international platform for thought-provoking discussions and discoveries on culture, technological innovation and sustainable development.
The new DENZA Z9GT will lead the Marco Polo Drive. With its shooting-brake silhouette and cutting-edge technologies, the Z9GT combines comfort, performance and range, redefining premium electric mobility, even over long distances. It can also harness the power of FLASH Charging, making nine-minute refills (10-97%) a key part of the journey.
The Rome launch ceremony was attended by ambassadors, institutional representatives, corporate partners, figures from the cultural world and BYD Group top management, including Stella Li, Executive Vice President of BYD, underlining the central role of the Group’s partnership in promoting advanced electric mobility and global sustainability. The occasion featured inspiring poetry recitals from children in the native languages of some of the countries being visited, including Croatia, Azerbaijan and China.
Professor Jeffrey Sachs said: ” We are living in fraught times but also, I think, in times of tremendous possibility and hope. This is the time when the world can and needs to come together – to come together in peace, to come together the wonders of culture and cultural diversity, and to come together in sustainable development so we protect our precious planet for future generations. BYD is making this dream possible but is exemplifying the dream as well. We’ve ridden in the DENZA Z9GT to know in advance what we’re going to be enjoying and it’s incredible. We’re looking forward to 43 days of wonderful travel.”
Patrick Zhong said: “When we travel today, from Rome to Hong Kong, we take a flight, watch a movie, have a good meal and sleep a little bit, and then land. But when Marco Polo travelled, you had to do this step by step. Being on the road allows to you experience the majestic splendour of the world in slow motion. You appreciate the multi-dimensional nature of this place, experience the world for real. We’re very lucky to be able to do that on this trip – truly a journey of peace, culture and sustainable development.”
Stella Li, Executive Vice President of BYD, said: “Marco Polo carried European culture across to Asia and brought back silk, tea and stories of the east, creating a lot of interest and strengthening connections. Today, Professor Sachs and Patrick can drive an electric car all the way from Europe to Asia, and we hope they can spread the message about our commitment to sustainable technology. We live on the same planet and cooperating on a green future will give hope to our young generation, allow young students to make their dreams happen. I’m sure Professor Sachs and Patrick will be impressed by our DENZA Z9GT – not only its electric drive experience, but also its other technologies, such as FLASH Charging, with refills in just nine minutes. They can use the car’s intelligent voice assistant to stay in touch with business, they can use Vehicle-to-Load to make a quick coffee, maybe cook some dinner, even watch a game in the World Cup! The Z9GT shows that a car today is not just transport; it’s a mobile office, a mobile home. This will make it the ideal car for this journey, and we’re delighted to support the Marco Polo Drive.”
In further support of the initiative, the first FLASH Charging station in Italy was inaugurated yesterday afternoon at the DENZA Barchetti showroom in Bologna, reinforcing the network-expansion strategy and the commitment to electric mobility in Europe.
Ready for the Silk Route: DENZA Z9GT and FLASH Charging
The DENZA Z9GT represents a unique proposition for premium buyers searching for a supremely comfortable car underpinned by innovation. And its availability as both a pure EV and Super Hybrid DM (Dual Mode) model allows customers to choose between significant zero-emissions range and ultimate long-distance flexibility, without compromising on performance. Regardless of powertrain, the Z9GT comes with BYD Group’s revolutionary FLASH Charging, which delivers charging times comparable to a traditional fuel stop: from 10% to 70% in 5 minutes and from 10% to 97% in 9 minutes, with consistent performance down to -30°C. The tagline captures the approach: “Ready in 5, full in 9, in cold add 3”.
The technology is supported by both BYD Group’s self-developed FLASH Charging Station, complete with an accompanying energy station to reduce dependency on local energy-grid architecture, and the second-generation Blade Battery, the result of six years of intensive research and development. With traditional batteries, the key qualities of fast charging and high energy density are often seen as conflicting technical goals. But the company has resolved this trade-off, increasing energy density by five per cent while significantly increasing the charging speed.
Beneath the Z9GT’s stunning bodywork lies the e3Â Platform (pronounced ‘e-cube’), created specifically for the DENZA brand. As well as FLASH Charging, it brings several world-first and class-leading functions, based on these core technologies:
1) three-motor independent drive
2) rear-wheel dual-motor independent steering
3) Vehicle Motion Control
4) Cell-to-Body (CTB) battery-body integration
5) DiSus-A dual-chamber air suspension
The e3 Platform offers a choice of powertrain – pure electric or Super Hybrid DM – that DENZA can pass on to its customers without any of the traditional compromises that come with these solutions. The EV version of the Z9GT offers exhilarating acceleration of 0-62mph in just 2.7 seconds, and can reach a top speed of 167mph. Its front motor produces 313PS (230kW), and each of its rear motors has a peak power figure of 422PS (310kW). The total system power output is 1156PS (850kW).
The capacity of the Z9GT EV’s 2nd Generation Blade Battery is an impressive 122.49kWh, delivering 372 miles of range on the WLTP Combined cycle. When combined with its FLASH Charging capability, this ensures that customers of the all-electric Z9GT can enjoy thrilling all-electric performance while still retaining genuine long-journey capability.
The Z9GT’s intelligent architecture also means that it can ensure even greater levels of safety for the car’s occupants. Vehicle Motion Control (VMC) acts as a vehicle control hub, taking command of all the controllable actuators of the car – braking, suspension and steering. It then uses an industry-leading signal-transmission time of as little as 10 milliseconds to provide faster, more accurate and more comprehensive control of the car’s motion.
This revolutionary level of systems integration means that the Z9GT can react to situations such as high-speed tyre blowouts, recognising the incident and responding in milliseconds to adjust the torque of the unaffected tyres and the dynamic distribution of power. This enhances vehicle stability, while assistance systems also intervene to identify the lane and reduce vehicle yawing. This broadened safety boundary means that the Z9GT is better equipped to cope with tyre blowouts at speeds of up to 112mph.
The dual motors referred to in this feature are steering motors – one allocated to each of the rear wheels – and they are controlled by the Vehicle Motion Controller to enable the right and left rear wheels to steer independently of the front axle, and each other. This self-developed system, unique to DENZA, brings a multitude of benefits, including incredible manoeuvrability for a vehicle measuring 5180mm (EV) and 5195mm (DM) in length, improved stability when cornering, changing lanes and braking, and revolutionary parking techniques.
The rear wheels’ operation can be summarised in three situations:
Same Direction Turning – both rear wheels turn in the same direction at the same time. When steering lock is applied by the driver, the rear wheels can move together but in the opposite direction to the front wheels, creating a reverse angle to greatly reduce the turning radius. They can, in fact, reach positive and negative angles of 5°.
When required, the rear wheels can turn to match the angle of the front wheels, allowing a crab-walking function that operates up to an angle of 8.5°.
‘Toe-in’ Rotation – Both wheels rotate towards the centre of the vehicle. This improves stability, particularly during braking, when the system can adopt the ‘toe-in’ rotation to resist lateral disturbance.
‘Toe-out’ Rotation – Both wheels rotate away from the centre of the vehicle. When the Z9GT encounters tight parking situations or narrow parallel parking, differential control of the rear wheels in this configuration allows them to pivot around the front axle. It’s this layout that delivers the Z9GT’s incredibly tight minimum turning radius of just 5.35 metres, matching many compact hatchbacks.
The integration of technologies within e3Â is such that the Z9GT can identify a space and reverse itself into it, and this process can be activated from not only the driver’s seat but also by using the smartphone app as a remote control.
The Z9GT features the latest in infotainment, focused on a 17.3-inch central display that ‘floats’ in front of the fascia. This is complemented by a pair of 13.2-inch screens – one for the driver’s information and the other to allow the front passenger to interact with entertainment. There’s also a 50-inch augmented-reality head-up display, along with the option of screens in the doors that show high-definition images from digital side mirrors, eliminating traditional blind spots.Powered by DiLink, DENZA’s latest infotainment software, the system in the Z9GT’s main screen has Google built-in for connected navigation and voice assistant, plus an AI-powered digital assistant that can access and interpret vehicle-specific knowledge to act as a friendly, natural-speech user manual.
The Z9GT is being launched in a single trim level with a lavish specification, so the only choice customers are required to make is between EV and DM power.
DENZA customers will enjoy a premium ownership experience, with dealer interactions like servicing organised through the brand’s bespoke smartphone app, minor updates and maintenance conducted on location at homes or places of business, and even a complimentary valet service.
In addition to this, the Z9GT will come with a year’s free FLASH Charging as standard – the perfect opportunity for customers to lead the revolution with recharging that is as fast as refuelling. And anyone who orders a Z9GT before the end of September will receive an additional six months on top of the standard period, giving them 18 months of FLASH Charging refills.
