A viral video racking up hundreds of thousands of views shows a BYD electric sedan performing a tank turn in an impossibly narrow space between barriers.
It’s a striking demonstration of what independent electric motors and smart torque vectoring can do in the real world — and a feature that US automakers have only promised.
The video, shared by Chinese journalist Li Zexin on X, shows the sedan spinning on its axis in a space that would leave most vehicles completely stuck. It simply rotates in place, threading the gap with ease.
BYD now has several models capable of this kind of maneuver. The Denza Z9 GT can perform both crab walks and pivot turns thanks to its tri-motor setup with independently controlled rear wheels. BYD’s YangWang lineup — which includes the U7 luxury sedan, U8 SUV, and U9 supercar — takes it further with the e4 quad-motor platform, which puts an independent motor on each wheel for a full 359-degree tank turn.
It’s the same family of technology that allows the YangWang U8 to float in water and the U9 supercar to literally jump off the ground.
Electrek’s Take
Is a tank turn a feature most people will use daily? No. But that’s not the point. It’s a demonstration of the engineering advantage that comes from building EV platforms with independent motors and sophisticated torque vectoring software. Tire manufacturers are probably the only ones cheering louder than BYD’s marketing department every time one of these videos goes viral.
BYD is actually shipping what others only promised. That’s the kind of gap in execution that should concern Western automakers, not because of the party trick itself, but because of the underlying engineering capability it represents.
We are also now in a world where BYD is rapidly expanding that engineering prowess across its entire lineup, from $13,000 Seagulls to flagship SUVs with 100,000+ orders. The tank turn is fun. The trajectory behind it is what matters.
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