2025 Yangwang U8 review

News.com.au

17-06-2025

You thought the G-Wagen and Defender were the kings of the luxury off-roader market?
Meet the Yangwang U8.
One could argue that nobody needs a quad-motor SUV that weighs 3500kg and does 0-100km/h faster than some $500K supercars – 3.6 seconds, if you don't mind.
I mean, that's a sound argument. This is a preposterous thing.
You can even get it with a drone on top!
The idea is that you can document your adventures using the quadcopter's camera, and there's even a built-in online via-satellite connection, so you'll never have to worry about losing contact with civilisation. The drone can even swap batteries by itself.
It might seem sublime and ridiculous, but it's also a show of force from the luxury arm of Chinese mega battery-car brand BYD.
Yangwang is a high-end model line, and this is the SUV flagship. The other Yangwang is a supercar that's faster than a Ferrari and can jump up and down on the spot or to avoid potholes at speed.
This monster machine is enormous.
It's as long as a Ford Ranger and as wide as an F-150, and with height adjustable air suspension it gets tall enough to make an NBA player look short-statured. And those lines on the back pillar panel? Those are charge indicator lights.
It has a petrol engine under the bonnet, but it doesn't work as anything but a generator to fill up the battery pack, which in turn sends power to four separate motors, one at each wheel. That combo means this thing can do a 360-degree spinning turn on the spot – or you can use the touchscreen to dictate how much you want it to pivot, making it easier to manoeuvre either in the car park or off-road.
It isn't as ludicrous inside as a Dartz Prombron – the infamous whale-penis-skin SUV from Latvia – but that's to its advantage, because the level of luxury inside is enough to make some German brands blush.
Screens might not be 'luxury' to some buyers, but this thing is basically a cineplex on wheels. There's a 23.6-inch driver info display and a windscreen-projected 70-inch augmented reality head-up display, a 12.8-inch central infotainment touchscreen, another 23.6-inch screen for the passenger, as well as a climate control screen and a drop-down armrest with another touchpanel for media management and seat settings.
But the material finishes are exceptional, the cabin design is clever, and there's even a fridge between the seats and pillows for the headrests. It is high-end. It feels special. And the back seat has a heap of space – though there's only two rows of seats, which might seem strange for a vehicle of this size.
And the drive? Well, it feels like it's made to outlast the apocalypse. I didn't quite get a chance to do that on this test … which was confined to a very narrow ATV trail at a resort in China. And in those confines, this thing felt enormous.
There were a few offset moguls to see how it handled its weight, and a steep descent of 23 degrees, nosediving over a step-off, where the surround-camera system made it far easier to understand the vehicle's placement in space.
Its on-road (carpark with cones) demeanour left a little more to be desired.
In short, I didn't like the way it drove.
It was difficult to judge what might happen next, felt unwieldy in corners and absurdly heavy, too. Because it is.
But it was the sprint behaviour that alarmed me most.
Planting the throttle from a standstill, it felt like it was actively shimmying as it tried to apportion power to each of the four motors. Thankfully I managed to pull it up easily enough.
As a statement in size and style, not to mention technology and toughness, this is legendary. But whether it'll come to Australia and try to stake its claim as king of the caravan park remains to be seen.
3.5 stars
Yangwang U8
OUTPUTS: 880kW/1280Nm
BATTERY: 49.05kWh LFP 'blade' battery