What OneShift Learnt at the 2025 BYD Intelligent Driving Camp

Just a few years ago, Tesla dominated most headlines for its electric vehicles. Little did the world know that Chinese brands, in particular BYD, have been working behind the scenes quietly to bide their time.

In fact, headlines were largely negative for China and its economy - its stock market tanked after peaking in early 2021. Talk of a property bubble bursting was rampant, and several defaults by major real estate developers actually took place. Was China losing the race to be a credible world leader?

Not at all. The world largely ignored technological advancements in China at their own peril. Before long, there was an intentional push by the Central Government to export Chinese engineered and made vehicles to the world. Suddenly, there was a slew of Chinese car brands entering into all corners of the globe with a flush of new models, including Singapore.

Most of them are electric vehicles. The Chinese, as a manufacturing powerhouse of the world, could do it not only for cheaper, but also better. The vast majority of these new cars looked great, had very decent range and power, lots of features as standard and of course, were competitively priced. Like the moment when quartz watches disrupted the Swiss watch industry, this very period caused traditional car manufacturers and even EV stalwarts to quake at their feet.

The clever thing that China did as well was to then build plug-in hybrid vehicles (PHEVs) that were primarily electrically driven, with the internal combustion engine (ICE) playing a secondary role. It was a ‘why didn’t I think of this before?’ moment. Suddenly, China was not only building class-leading EVs - but also PHEVs. The latter boasted ranges easily above 1,000 km, and some later variants even can hit more than 2,000 km. These are figures virtually unheard of in the car world, until now.

I can only imagine that this was one of the major reasons that led to the election of Donald Trump as well as the current heavy-handed tariffs meted out to the world, especially China.

BYD is at the forefront of much of this innovation, given its unique structure of controlling its entire supply chain. That means that it builds its own batteries, its electric motors, its chassis and all the rest of it. Its patents list is truly enormous and continues to grow every year.

This has allowed it to create some truly exceptional technology, many of which we got to try during the Camp. It’s no exaggeration to say that many of these are things we’ve never seen achieved by any other car manufacturer before. We were brought to the impressive Pingshan Bay Area Intelligent Test Drive Centre in Shenzhen to sample them; here are the highlights:

The Tank Turn and Pivot Turn

Stuck at a dead end that’s going to leave you with a ‘many point’ turn? With the Tank Turn and the Pivot Turn, you may be in luck.

The Tank Turn is achieved by cars that have power to all four wheels via independent electric motors, like the YangWang U8. Essentially, the car turns on its axis by spinning its wheels on the spot. BYD’s e⁴ platform coordinates the torque to each wheel precisely. The sensation inside the car while it is ‘tank turning’ was otherworldly; the car was rotating and in motion, but it was at 0 km/h.

With the Pivot Turn, the idle axle acts as the axis around which the car will rotate on. It feels similar to the Tank Turn, except that the rotating angle seems to be wider. You can adjust the angle of the turn from the infotainment screen. The Denza Z9 GT executed it flawlessly.

Although incredible to watch, it’s unlikely that both functions will be used often as it will result in a lot of tyre wear (we smelled a lot of burnt rubber during the demonstration).

The Crab Walk and Narrow Lane Autonomous Driving

Narrow lanes make me feel claustrophobic. I know as I once had to drive through an European old town whose lanes were mostly filled with pedestrians sharing the access. It was one of the most memorable drives ever! Both the Crab Walk and Narrow Lane Autonomous Driving would come in handy here.

We sampled the Crab Walk in the Denza Z9 GT that’s equipped with a tri-motor electric setup - one at the front and two at the rear. This allows each rear wheel to be powered independently, an important feature in allowing the Crab Walk. Another feature is rear axle steering, which can turn the rear wheels independently up to 20 degrees. The ease in how it navigated the serpentine course is spellbinding.

The YangWang U8 is not exactly a car you’d relish driving through a narrow road, so to prove a point, BYD chose it to demonstrate driving automatically through a narrow lane. Looking almost too close to pass with the human eye, the U8 managed to slither its way through the lane flawlessly, utilising its full set of 38 sensors to ensure it navigates the course smoothly. I can only say, ‘wow’.

Off-Road Course

We were given the opportunity to drive vehicles from Fangchengbao, the Bao 5 or the Bao 8. Fangchengbao is one of the brands under the BYD umbrella, focused more on lifestyle oriented and off-road cars. Although as yet undecided, it is likely that it would come to Singapore either as a Denza. Given the Bao 5 starts at a lower price point and will more likely find its way to Singapore, it is the one we chose to drive.

The Bao 5 is a plug-in hybrid SUV that’s unique for having three locking differentials - rare for a PHEV. This allows it to have off-road abilities that’s uncommon for a PHEV, as we attested to on the off-road course. There are various off-road modes to choose from.

Of course, there’s no doubt that the course has been designed to flatter the cars. But at least from what I could tell behind the wheel, the Bao 5 is more than equipped to handle the urban jungle in Singapore, as well as some light terrain in Malaysia.

Parallel Parking, Side Parking and Remote Parking using God’s Eye

In this demonstration, we got to experience the much talked about God’s Eye. 

The automatic parallel parking (in and out) was straightforward enough and getting into a parallel lot is a pretty common feature for many cars today. The lesser known feature is the ability to get out of the lot. In the BYD Xia (something like a cheaper Denza D9), it was done smoothly, albeit with more caution than would be needed.

Side Parking was truly special, and was shown with the Denza Z9 GT. These are for the folks who still can’t master parallel parking. Just drive the car head into the lot, and the rear wheels will shuffle their way in, just like you would with a toy car. Amazing, although it’s burning a fair bit of rubber just to snag a lot.

The last type of parking is Remote Parking, which basically controls a car from something like a joystick on a mobile phone. There’s nobody sitting in the driver’s seat, it’s just down to the joystick operator and the car. It must be nerve-wracking for the operator for sure!

YangWang U8 Floating Experience

For the final pièce de résistance, we were shipped into a secret testing facility deep within BYD’s headquarters, which was about half an hour away. Here, we saw crash test mules, camouflaged cars and even competitor cars like the Tesla Cybertruck. Our phones were sealed for this demonstration.

And then there was a huge pool of water, which we took a dip in with the YangWang U8.

Built to be able to float on water and even wade, the car is completely watertight. It is not an activity recommended to be used actively, but rather only when there’s an emergency. Still, it’s a sensational once-in-a-lifetime ride that left everybody gaping in awe.

Once we sat inside the car, the test driver literally full sent the car into the water, unlikely a gentle immersion I imagined. With a big splash, the car’s wipers turned on and its windows automatically closed for obvious reasons. However, we could still open the windows and sunroof afterwards. The water level was just below the window line and I even let my hand feel the water currents. It was surreal - it felt just like on a boat, albeit a super luxurious one. This is something I won’t forget anytime soon.

Photos by James Wong

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