At BYD Tech Day 2025, we had the opportunity to test out a variety of new BYD models, even getting the chance to take a dip in one of them.
We were recently invited by BYD to Shenzhen, China, to attend their annual Tech Day. The Pingshan Bay Area Intelligent Test Drive Centre staged an immersive showcase of its latest technologies and provided us a glimpse of what new models will potentially be arriving in Singapore down the road.
This wasn’t your run-of-the-mill media day with brochures and polite nods. This was an all-out automotive boot camp BYD style, where rubber met tarmac and technology met imagination.
The Chinese titan laid out a meticulously choreographed experience, split into two distinctive yet complementary segments: the Intelligent Driving Experience Zone and the Functional Test Drive Zone.
Each segment was designed not only to flex BYD’s technological muscle, but to give guests like engineers, journalists, or car enthusiasts the kind of hands-on experience that leaves you equal parts enlightened and exhilarated.
Intelligent Driving
Let’s start with the Intelligent Driving Experience Zone, which felt like entering a simulation, except the cars were real and the scenarios eerily familiar.
Here, BYD constructed user-focused driving environments to demonstrate some of their most cutting-edge features.
The stars of this zone included the Denza Z9GT, BYD Seal, Denza D9, and the Yangwang U8, vehicles loaded with Level 2+ and Level 3 autonomous driving capabilities.
Instructors demonstrated how effortless it was to manoeuvre these vehicles into or through tricky scenarios. One of the standouts was the Z9’s ability to pivot into a parallel space all on its own. It does so by clevely rotating each rear wheel independently, allowing the car to yaw and squeeze into a space typically impossible for a regular car.
If you are stuck on a dead-end street, the Yangwang U8 demonstrated it can perform a tank turn, allowing it to rotate on its own axis and spin freely in any direction.
Worn tyres aside, the technology is immesingly fascinating, and offers an introductory glance into how this technology can be useful in everyday life.
Essentially, these are real-world-ready cars, programmed to deal with the unpredictabilities of urban life in a measured, near-human way.
Circuit Shakedown
The second half of the BYD Tech Day experience had a more visceral flavour. It was here, on the proving grounds of the Functional Test Drive Zone, that BYD’s breadth of engineering prowess came to the fore.
From straight-line acceleration runs to SUV off-road escapades, the lineup was diverse. Participants were asked to put these machines through their paces in a series of tasks – slalom courses, emergency braking, speed bump tests, and gymkhana corners. These obstacles test everything from agility and suspension damping to brake modulation and throttle response.
There was even an off-road section, where models like the B5, B8 and Shark showed they could tackle more than just urban terrain, with clever technology like auto hill descent that ensures you won’t get tossed off the side of a cliff should your brakes fail.
When Cars Walk on Water
Just when you thought the day had offered up enough driving marvels to last a decade, BYD saved a showstopper for last, and it came in the form of the Yangwang U8.
Now, the U8 is pretty much famous for doing one thing – being able to float on water. It sounds ludicrous on paper, considering it’s a four-motor electric behemoth. But, on this particular afternoon, I got to witness something I never thought I’d write about without irony: being inside a car that is floating… on purpose.
The U8 sat poised at the edge of a water tank large enough to swallow a small boat. It looked no different from any other rugged 4×4, until it dashed into the water with the calm confidence of a labrador leaping into a lake.
Moments after submersion, the emergency floating mode was activated. The entire cabin felt sealed and stable, as though the U8 had transformed into a mini amphibious vehicle. The wheels disengaged, and the car drifted, not chaotically, but in a controlled, calculated way.
Inside, it was all calm, air-conditioned quiet. No gurgling sounds. No frantic splashes. Just the surreal sensation of gliding on water in a 3,460kg luxury SUV.
The U8 uses its four electric motors (one for each wheel) to generate torque vectoring and balance, even while afloat. And just when we thought things couldn’t get more dramatic, it performed a controlled spin in the water. Yes, you read that right. We could steer on water, using nothing more than the already-included steering wheel.
Throughout this experience, we were safely in our plush leather seats, dry and in awe. And frankly, slightly disoriented by the absurd coolness of it all.
BYD has effectively pulled off a bold engineering flex, a literal life-saving feature designed for flash floods, emergencies, and worst-case scenarios.
It’s hard not to be impressed by a machine that looks like it belongs in a Bond film but is very much rooted in present-day, production-ready reality. As we stepped out of the U8, back onto dry ground, there was a collective pause among the participants.
Half laughter, half disbelief. I mean, who expects to go swimming in an SUV and emerge with a dry shirt?
This additional section rounds out the day with a truly unforgettable experience, aligning with BYD’s greater narrative: pushing the boundaries of what cars can do, not just on land, but wherever life might take them.
If you’re still not impressed, you better be
While many carmakers are still struggling to marry the promise of intelligent driving with real-world functionality, BYD appears to be well past the honeymoon phase. BYD Tech Day 2025 was about redefining expectations, and offered a glimpse into a broader strategy.
By integrating proprietary battery tech, electric drive systems, and intelligent software across a diverse vehicle range, BYD is not simply competing with traditional OEMs. It’s rewriting the rules.
As one BYD engineer remarked casually during the event, “We’re not just making cars. We’re designing intelligent mobility ecosystems.” Hyperbole? Maybe. But after a day like this, it’s hard to disagree.
Whether you’re someone who geeks out over torque vectoring or simply wants your car to park itself in tight HDB lots, BYD’s Tech Day left little doubt that the brand’s tech game is dominant.
And if the rest of the industry isn’t paying attention yet, they should be.
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