- BYD’s YangWang has released a video of its U9 sports car performing a skateboard ollie over a series of obstacles.
- The Chinese EV used its Disus X suspension to hop over a large pothole, a load of spikes and a patch of multicolor dust.
- Captions on the video say the U9 can leap 20 ft (6 m), but the maximum height reached is only 1.4 inches (35 mm).
Is your street or route to work blighted by potholes? Or are you a professional getaway driver currently doing a five-stretch after a strip of police spikes thwarted your escape from that last bank job? Then China’s YangWang U9, which can leap into the air like a skateboard pro, has your name all over it.
You’ve probably seen the 1.68 million yuan ($230,00 USD) YangWang U9 before, and maybe even watched a video of it driving on three wheels or jigging about in a kind of dance with the help of its Disus X suspension. But now a new video released by the Chinese carmaker showing what the suspension can do has been released and its expanded skillset is equally weird – simultaneously amazing and completely pointless.
Related: YangWang U9 Hits 244 MPH Top Speed, But Can’t Beat The Taycan At The Nurburgring
The 100-second promo places a 1,287-hp (1,305 PS / 960 kW) quad-motor U9, complete with its McLaren Senna-style rear spoiler, on a test track, where it accelerates hard from a standing start up to 120 km/h (75 mph) before leaping over a water-filled crater in the ground. The front wheels pop-up first to help get the U9 airborne, then the rears follow. Though the gap is only 8 ft (2.5 m), text on the screen tells us the U9 actually jumped 20 ft (6 m) in total.
Next up there’s a 13-ft (4 m) stretch of tire-shredding metal spikes, each measuring 1.4 inches (35 mm) tall, the kind of thing James Bond used to throw out of his car to send the bad guys spinning into the weeds. And then there’s a same-sized patch of four brightly colored dust strips. The U9 clears them both, and it does it all without a driver onboard, relying purely on its autonomous tech.
But why? Who needs a bunny-hopping 1,300-hp EV that doesn’t even need you? Unless I’m missing something, it’s just another desperate gimmick, like the dancing. You’re never seriously going to be leaping over potholes in the road, and it doesn’t seem to jump high enough to clear any obstacles you might encounter, like roadkill. Or even police road spikes. No use to getaway drivers, then…
Perhaps YangWang should come up with a third video showing how the Disus X suspension does something that’s useful and desirable, like, oh, go round corners really, really well. But since the U9 has already failed to beat the Porsche Taycan Turbo GT and Xiaomi SU7 Ultra at the Nürburgring, maybe gimmicks (and a 244 mph top speed) is all it’s got.
