With the speedometer reading just over 152 mph, the 1,150-horsepower, $130,000, ultra-luxury electric vehicle known as the Denza Z9 GT decided to turn the steering wheel directly toward the steel barrier next to us.
The Denza Z9 is a Chinese electric vehicle (EV), manufactured by the country’s biggest EV maker, BYD, and I was taking it for a test spin on the autobahn in Alsfeld, Germany. There was no obvious reason for the car’s sudden suicidal ideation; I hadn’t moved the steering wheel a millimeter, there wasn’t any crosswind to speak of, and I knew the road well from driving other test cars that same day. Thankfully, however, I was prepared, having been warned by a German auto writer that the expensive Chinese car “had some crazy steering ideas.” I also have a couple decades’ worth of experience as a racing driver, so I was able to get the Denza under control and down to a sedate 120 mph in the space of a few reasonably exciting seconds.
I am used to strange high-speed behavior when testing prototypes and other experimental vehicles. But it has probably been a solid 45 years since any mainline European, Japanese, or American car was an active hazard at autobahn speeds. Stability in these conditions is as well solved a problem as the power tailgate. The Denza’s inability to handle safely a speed its prodigious power can reach in a matter of seconds was my first indication, in a week of testing cars in Europe, that Chinese EVs aren’t yet ready for prime time. But it was hardly the last.
Chances are you’ve read and heard quite a bit about the inevitable triumph of Chinese EVs. The Wall Street Journal’s Joanna Stern “fell in love” with a Xiaomi after driving it for a few weeks. Ford’s CEO, Jim Farley, said that China’s top EV brands are “the best in the business.” “Americans Crave Low-Cost Chinese EVs,” Bloomberg authoritatively intoned. USA Today not only agreed, but said that the U.S. needed to bow to the wishes of the public and allow China to begin selling its cars in America.