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If you think heaviest is best, this new luxury SUV from China comes out on top.
Family Cars
The Denza B8 – a three-row large SUV with a plug-in hybrid powertrain and a 3.5-tonne towing capacity – is Australia’s heaviest SUV.
As BYD's new luxury brand for the Australian market, the B8 sits alongside the B5 SUV as Denza's initial offerings for the Australian market.
The only two vehicles that are heavier include the heavy-duty Ram 2500 with a 6.7-litre turbo diesel engine and more than six metres of length.
But with a kerb weight of 3290kg, it’s the Denza B8 that is the heaviest passenger vehicle on sale in Australia outside of the big American utes.
Why is the Denza B8 so heavy? Mostly, it’s the plug-in hybrid powertrain. A 2.0-litre turbocharged petrol engine supplies power to the 36.8kWh battery pack, but can also drive the front wheels directly at highway speeds.
While the LFP battery provides most of the motivation and is rated for a 100km electric-only driving range, the petrol engine is also fed by a 91-litre fuel tank.
The Denza B8 uses so-called ‘Cell to Chassis’ technology that integrates the battery into the structural frame of the vehicle. Interestingly, this is claimed by BYD (who makes Denza vehicles) as a weight-saving technology.
But if the B8 is anything like the BYD Shark 6 under the skin, you’ve got a very heavy platform that includes both body-on-frame and electric ‘skateboard’ elements.
Peak total outputs of 425kW and 760Nm come from two electric motors, and the rear electric motor is particularly large with 300kW and 400Nm.
What’s more though, this electric motor feeds the wheels through a locking differential (more weight) and a two-speed gearbox to simulate a traditional low-range transfer case (a lot more weight).
The Denza B8 also comes with a long list of standard equipment and three rows of interior seating, and there is an hydraulic active suspension system as standard equipment.
Order books are currently open for the Denza B8 in Australia, with pricing starting from $91,000 before on-road costs.
Family Cars Guide
Sam Purcell has been writing about cars, four-wheel driving and camping since 2013, and obsessed with anything that goes brum-brum longer than he can remember. Sam joined the team at CarAdvice/Drive as the off-road Editor in 2018, after cutting his teeth at Unsealed 4X4 and Pat Callinan’s 4X4 Adventures. Off-road writer of the Year, Winner - Sam Purcell
