On July 9 local time, the 2026 Goodwood Festival of Speed officially opened in the UK. As a top global automotive event and cultural gathering, this year’s festival centers on the theme “The Rivals - Epic Racing Duels,” paying tribute to classic competitive moments in motorsport history and interpreting the ultimate performance core of the automotive industry.
As a brand that has participated in the Goodwood Festival of Speed for three consecutive years, BYD once again entered the international top-tier arena, bringing together its three core brands—BYD, Denza, and Yangwang—for a strong presence. BYD made its mark as soon as it appeared, creating the largest brand stand in the 33-year history of the Goodwood Festival of Speed, with a total exhibition area of 2,016 square meters, setting a record for the largest single stand area in the event’s history with unprecedented participation scale, and continuously demonstrating the hardcore strength and global vision of Chinese automotive brands to the global market.
Founded in 1993, the Goodwood Festival of Speed, relying on a profound heritage of British automotive culture and after more than three decades of accumulation, has become a core stage for global automakers to display cutting-edge technology, ultimate performance, and brand character. It is a benchmark event with great influence in the international automotive field, gathering top global automakers, industry media, and high-end automotive enthusiasts.
BYD Executive Vice President Li Ke said regarding this participation that the Goodwood Festival of Speed is a top-tier event with benchmark value in the global automotive industry and a core window for the brand to maintain long-term connections with the global high-end market and convey its technological philosophy. Creating the largest stand in history this time is an important layout for BYD to continue deepening its presence in overseas high-end markets, and it also deeply aligns with Europe’s century-old racing culture and ultimate competitive heritage. Relying on this international top-level platform, BYD will, through the world premiere of all-new models and live demonstrations of core technologies, comprehensively showcase the group’s globalization layout achievements, full-category product strength, and leading new energy technology advantages.
The founder of the Goodwood Festival of Speed, the Duke of Richmond, highly affirmed BYD’s continued deep cultivation and heavyweight participation. He said that BYD’s breakthrough participation scale this time perfectly matches the event’s core essence of pursuing the ultimate and innovating breakthroughs. Goodwood brings together core global audiences and is an excellent vehicle for global new car premieres and brand globalization narratives. He very much looks forward to the full lineup of heavyweight models and innovative technologies from BYD, Denza, and Yangwang continuing to bring new breakthroughs and surprises to the international automotive market.
This event focused on the global premiere of the Denza Z, with the new car unveiled jointly by Li Ke and former F1 world champion Jenson Button. At present, the Denza Z has been confirmed to launch in three versions: hardtop, convertible, and track edition. (Hardtop version £142,900, approximately RMB 1.3 million; convertible version £159,900, approximately RMB 1.46 million; track version £172,900, approximately RMB 1.58 million). In addition, there is a special edition model planned to launch an assault this autumn on the production car lap record at the Nürburgring Nordschleife. This premiere also marks the official landing of the Denza brand in the UK market, fully opening its high-end market layout in Europe.
Previously, the Denza Z convertible made a stunning appearance at the Beijing Auto Show in April. With minimalist and smooth supercar body lines, it vividly interprets Denza’s brand philosophy of “extraordinary technology drives luxury.” It seamlessly integrates elegant body curves with highly functional aerodynamic design, achieving a perfect intersection of visual aesthetics and racing passion. Its unique 2+2 exclusive seating layout and generous trunk space further break the conventions of supercars, perfectly balancing extreme performance and diverse daily travel scenarios; together with as many as 10 custom exterior and interior color schemes, it opens up broad personalized customization space for collectors worldwide.
In terms of performance, the Denza Z is equipped with the e-Platform 3.0 sports car platform built specifically for the brand, adopts a three-motor configuration, has a peak output of 1,605 horsepower, and a peak torque of up to 1,260 N•m. It is also the first time the e-Platform 3.0 sports car platform carries DiSus-M. The Denza Z hardtop version accelerates from 0 to 100 km/h in just 2.25 seconds and has a top speed of up to 300 km/h. The track version further pushes the acceleration limit, with 0 to 100 km/h in only 1.96 seconds and a top speed of up to 350 km/h, fully demonstrating the core strength of Denza as a high-end pure electric performance brand. At the same time, the entire Denza Z series is equipped with BYD’s second-generation Blade Battery.
This event also completed live technology demonstrations, visually showing global audiences BYD’s second-generation Blade Battery “charged well in 5 minutes, fully charged in 9 minutes,” that is, charging the battery from 10% to 70% in 5 minutes and from 10% to 97% in 9 minutes, allowing the global market to intuitively experience the hardcore breakthrough of China’s new energy technology.
In addition, BYD Group brought eight heavyweight models for their European debut this time, covering all subcategories including family use, performance, high-end luxury, off-road, and pickup, including the BYD Dolphin G, SHARK pickup, Z9GT, D9, as well as multiple flagship models from Yangwang such as U9 Xtreme, U9, U8L, and U7.
Li Ke said that the appearance of multiple brands and a full matrix of models at Goodwood this time is by no means a single product display, but an important declaration of BYD Group’s continued deepening of its globalization strategy. Relying on the differentiated product layouts of three independent brands, BYD has achieved full coverage of family travel, high-end luxury, and ultimate performance, fully proving the group’s deeply integrated strength in technological innovation, ultimate performance, high-end design, and green sustainability, and continuously demonstrating to the global market the industrial height and global competitiveness of China’s new energy vehicles.
Standing in the wave of transformation in the global automotive industry, BYD will continue to take technological innovation as its core, rely on international top-tier stages such as Goodwood, continuously export the strength of China’s intelligent automotive manufacturing, accelerate its global high-end layout, and bring higher-quality and more ultimate new energy mobility solutions to users worldwide.
