If you could buy a car with twice the output of a Porsche 911 Turbo S for around 100 million won, what country would it be from?
It is the Z, made by Denza, BYD's premium brand. It has 1,582 horsepower. It goes from 0 to 100 kilometers per hour in 1.96 seconds. Its top speed is 350 kilometers per hour. It takes nine minutes to charge. The truly surprising thing is the price. Its expected price in China is 400,000–500,000 yuan, or about 80 million to 100 million won.
A few years ago, putting a Chinese car and a Porsche in the same sentence would have sounded like a joke. Before long, though, they became cars you could compare on the same chart. Denza aimed at the 911 first. It does not seem interested in starting at the bottom and slowly moving up.
I was reminded of a scene I saw in Shenzhen. Electric car showrooms stood in a row on the first floor of a department store. NIO, XPeng, and Li Auto cars were parked where luxury bags and cosmetics would normally be. I would eat, walk around, open a car door, and touch the screen in the driver's seat.
They did away with the old habit of having to go to a dealership to buy a car. They brought cars to the entrance of places where families eat and watch movies every weekend. Even people who had no intention of buying one sat inside, swiped through the screens, and compared it with the car in the next showroom.
Early smartphones were like that too. People did not study telecommunications technology before buying an iPhone. After touching one in a store, their standard for the next phone changed. Chinese electric vehicles seem to be taking a similar path. They reach your hands before they reach your wallet, and target your wallet only after they become familiar.
Some of the features put inside Chinese cars felt unfamiliar. The AITO M9, made by Huawei and Seres, has a projector for the rear seats and a 32-inch powered projection screen. It is not just a screen mounted in place. A screen comes down from the ceiling, and the seats, lighting, and sunshades change to resemble a movie theater. It even has a refrigerator that can both cool and warm.
The XPeng X9 electrically stows its third row under the floor. Some models turn the second-row seats around so that passengers face each other. The Yangwang U8 turns in place by rotating all four wheels in opposite directions. If it is flooded, it can float for a while and slowly make its way out. BYD has even put a device on the market that lets a drone take off from the roof, film the car, return, and recharge.
Large screens and refrigerators themselves are also found in high-end German and Japanese cars. What is surprising about Chinese cars is their attitude toward using those features. They do not stop at replacing leather and wood with better materials. They turn the inside of the car into a movie theater, living room, or bedroom, and even attach a drone to the outside. They saw a luxury car as a space that could do anything, rather than simply a well-made automobile.
Hyundai and Kia also make good electric cars. They are strong in charging and efficiency, and have factories and service networks around the world. But the 800V charging that Hyundai once promoted as a key advantage is quickly becoming common in new Chinese cars too. It is a market where today's point of pride becomes a standard feature next year.
Chinese AI is now being added to this. Open-weight models such as DeepSeek and Qwen can be brought in directly by car companies, reduced, and modified. They can be trained on the vehicle manual, then retrained around Chinese voice commands and maintenance records. There is less reason to wait for someone else's API to open up.
Companies such as BYD and Geely have already said they will connect DeepSeek to their vehicle systems. The first things to change are the driver's display and voice assistant. Some mass-market cars in China can already recline the seats, close the windows, and change the lighting, climate control, and video together with a single voice command. AI is not stopping at speaking well. It is moving things inside the car.
Chinese cars have an unusual number of things that AI can move. Projectors, refrigerators, rotating seats, and powered doors are already connected to software. Open-weight models translate what users say into the actions of these devices. The more cars that are sold, the more chances there are to learn which commands they failed to understand and fix them in the next update.
I often get a similar feeling in Abu Dhabi. I go to the UAE almost every month, and at some point, when I called a regular Uber, a Lexus or BMW would come. When I called an Uber Black, a Chinese electric car started showing up. At first I thought it was a coincidence, but after it happened several times, it felt strange. When did Chinese cars become the cars that come for Uber Black?
Transport companies do not evaluate cars like an automotive magazine does. They look at how much is left after running one all day. They calculate the price of the car, electricity costs, the warranty period, and how long it sits idle while being repaired. They also look at whether the cabin is spacious enough when a passenger opens the door. Chinese electric cars were being chosen in that calculation.
A car like the Denza D9 is exactly that kind of vehicle. It enters the space long held by the Toyota Alphard as a chauffeured minivan, with a much lower price and flashy second-row seats. Even someone who has never decided to buy a Chinese car will spend about an hour in one on the way from the airport to a hotel. It is a test drive without a salesperson. There is no reason to refuse it, and no reason to feel nervous.
This ecosystem-level branding of China's expanding auto industry is quietly leaving no gaps. The supercar Denza Z makes people turn their heads with its 1,582 horsepower. The D9 waits silently at the airport. One becomes known by being compared with a Porsche, while the other makes passengers remember the name through their own bodies.
For a long time, car brands were built through advertising, auto shows, and racing. Now ride-hailing apps and software updates also make us remember cars. Even if I do not choose a car, an algorithm gives me a ride in one first. When the screen in the back seat understands what I say and finds what I need, an unfamiliar emblem quickly becomes less unfamiliar.
The next scene is not hard to imagine. Denza and Zeekr line up in front of a hotel. At a shopping mall, I try out a new AI feature in a Xiaomi car. At home, a phone and appliances from the same company connect to the car. A child remembers a car with a big screen that can understand what they say, while a parent remembers a quiet ride from the airport. A few years later, when it is time to buy a car, they may remember how comfortable the last one was before they remember which country it came from.
I often worry about whether Korean automakers can compete with China's electric vehicle ecosystem as it evolves at this speed.
The next time I call an Uber Black in Abu Dhabi, what Chinese car will arrive? Before opening the door, I will check the emblem first. I am already learning new brands in their way.
