Denza Z9 GT self-parking tech tested

BYD’s upmarket Denza sub-brand is due to make its full UK arrival later this year, and customers should receive the shooting brake-style Z9 GT from October. So, what exactly is Denza? The company calls itself a “premium technology-oriented automotive brand”, although the Z9 GT - offered as a 1,140bhp EV or a 765bhp plug-in hybrid - might equally be sold as a “Porsche Taycan Sport Turismo for people that can’t park”, given the sheer amount of self-parking technology it carries.

Yet does this technology genuinely deliver? Could bay and parallel parking be removed from the UK driving test, leaving us all to glide about in Denzas, or are these merely gimmicks to impress your friends with once before never using them again?

We have not driven the Z9 GT on British roads yet, but we have sat inside it and tried its various autonomous manoeuvres. Here is our assessment of every party trick…

Self-parking

Like plenty of other cars currently available, the Z9 GT can detect a parking space and park itself, whether it is a parallel space or a bay in a car park. The process is impressively smooth, and is easy to activate through a physical dashboard button, then two taps on the large 17.3in central touchscreen.

The Denza does a respectable job of finding spaces even where the markings have faded or the bay sits at an awkward angle. Should it fail to recognise one, however, you can use the bird’s-eye camera display to drag and drop a chosen destination, as well as select the direction in which you want the car to face. Smart. Remote parking is also available for cramped spaces, allowing you to step out and park the car through the app.

Toe-out Rotation

Denza really ought to find a punchier title for this feature, as it is an excellent trick. When a parallel space is only barely long enough for the almost 5.2m-long Z9 GT, the car drives in nose first before using its independently steered rear wheels to angle both of them outwards. The rear wheels then move in opposing directions, moonwalking the back of the car towards the kerb. Heehee!

Watching it slide into place is rather unsettling, but it truly works and makes tight city-centre parking more accessible. Just avoid asking about tyre wear - or bringing up the Brooks Walker fifth wheel of the 1930s.

Crab Walk

With this setting selected, both rear wheels of the Z9 GT turn in the same direction as the front wheels by as much as 8.5 degrees. This enables the car to creep forwards or backwards diagonally, rather like an automotive bishop - the chess piece, not a cleric. It feels strange from within the Nappa leather-lined cabin, although much of our crab-walking time was spent trying to imagine when we would ever need this particular capability. This is not a winner.

Compass Turn

The Z9 GT’s boldest party trick is Compass Turn. As with toe-out rotation during parallel parking, the system turns the rear wheels in opposite directions while reversing one front wheel, rotating the car entirely around its own axis. Tired of performing nine-point turns in cul-de-sacs? Simply stop, choose the feature on the screen and specify how far you want the car to rotate.

If you are trying to escape a confined space, 180 degrees is the sensible choice. Bizarrely, though, it can turn through as much as 360 degrees - leaving you exactly where you began, albeit with considerably less tyre tread. We were taught never to turn the steering while stationary, in order to prevent needless tyre wear, so being inside the Denza while it performed this manoeuvre on the coarse tarmac in the Goodwood Motor Circuit paddock was a fairly painful experience.