BYD Just Opened an All-Terrain Course in Zhengzhou

For some automakers, it isn’t enough to design and manufacture high-performance vehicles — it’s also necessary to create opportunities for those vehicles’ owners to see what they’re capable of. Lamborghini recently invited some of their customers to experience an ice track in Quebec; Mercedes-AMG also hosts a number of events on different types of terrain.

Now, the Chinese EV giant BYD has opened its own facility with memorable experiences in mind. Located in the city of Zhengzhou, this all-terrain course opened on August 14, and includes eight distinct “experience zones,” ranging from the Low-Friction Ring to more traditional racetrack experiences. There’s also a desert course (made with 6,200 tons of sand) designed to evoke the landscape of Inner Mongolia, for drivers with a penchant for off-roading.

This won’t be BYD’s last foray into this kind of space. In the automaker’s announcement, they revealed that plans are underway to open two more courses like this, to be located in the cities of Hefei and Shaoxing. The latter is set to span 2,000 acres of land — an expanse slightly larger than London’s Gatwick Airport.

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Perhaps the most intriguing feature of BYD’s Zhengzhou facility is an aquatic feature designed to showcase the capabilities of BYD’s Yangwang U8. As Motor Trend‘s Joe Berry noted in a 2024 review of the U8, Yangwang is essentially BYD’s “upmarket Maybach division.” And among the interesting features of the U8 is its ability to float. So, yes: if you’ve ever wanted to watch a floating SUV go through its paces, you can do precisely that in Zhengzhou as of now.

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Tobias Carroll

Tobias Carroll lives and writes in New York City, and has been covering a wide variety of subjects — including (but not limited to) books, soccer and drinks — for many years. His writing has been published by the likes of the Los Angeles Times, Pitchfork, Literary Hub, Vulture, Punch, the New York Times and Men’s Journal. At InsideHook, he has…