BYD is going after the Land Rover Defender in the UK with the new B5 – a premium plug-in hybrid 4×4 with competitive off-road stats and supercar levels of power.
Launched in China last year as the Bao 5, the Defender 110 rival has made its UK debut at the Goodwood Festival of Speed ahead of a showroom launch early next year.
It is one of three models from BYD’s new SUV sub-brand Fangchengbao, but will be badged Denza in the UK and positioned as a sibling to that premium brand’s Z9 GT shooting brake – also headed to the UK.
Denza was founded in 2010 as a joint venture between BYD and Mercedes-Benz but is wholly owned by the Chinese firm.
The move to import the B5 confirms Autocar’s previous report that BYD would launch its Fangchengbao cars here in a bid to diversify its powertrain offering and tap into new market segments.
The company’s president, Stella Li, told Autocar at last year’s Festival of Speed that she predicted the SUVs “will be very popular in the UK”.
“In the UK, the roads are narrow but we love these big SUV off-road cars, so Fangchengbao will be here,” she said, referencing the popularity of large premium SUVs in this market, a sector in which BYD has until now been absent.
The company has not confirmed any specification details for the B5, but it is expected to be largely unchanged from the car in China, which uses a ‘DMO Super-Hybrid Off-Road’ ladder-frame platform and takes its power from a plug-in hybrid system centre around a 1.5-litre turbo engine with an electric motor on each axle.
The system pumps out up to 677bhp and 561lb ft – more than any Defender, including the new V8 Octa.
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