There’s a moment at every Goodwood Festival of Speed where you stop and think “I didn’t expect that.” This year it happened before Hannah and I had even finished walking up the hill to the BYD stand.

We knew BYD were bringing something big. What we didn’t expect was quite HOW big. Three brands under one roof, a stand so large it had its own weather system, and a queue of people that Steve Beattie, who runs the show for BYD, told us he’d never seen before at this event.

“For the first time, we’ve brought three of our brands here,” Steve explained as we caught up with him on the stand. “So we’ve got BYD, which is covering all corners of the market. We’ve launched just two days ago our premium luxury brand, Denza, with four models that’s coming to the UK. And we’ve also got on show, although not coming to Europe or the UK just yet, our Yangwang brand, which is our super luxury brand.”

Yangwang is the one that stopped both of us in our tracks. Steve mentioned almost in passing that the U9 is the fastest car in the world, and having watched it perform earlier in the day, I can confirm it doesn’t just go fast in a straight line. It spins on the spot. It jumps. It does things a car really shouldn’t be able to do, and the crowd around it clearly agreed, because nobody was walking past without stopping to film it.

Charging Faster Than You Can Get a Coffee

If there’s one line from the day that’s stuck with me since, it’s this one. Standing next to the Denza Z9 GT, Steve talked us through BYD’s flash charging technology, and the numbers are hard to get your head around. Ready in 5 minutes. Full charge in 9. Even in freezing conditions, you’re looking at just 12 minutes.

“The biggest challenge now that customers are going to have when they stop to charge,” Steve said, “is they won’t even have time for a cup of coffee because it’ll be charged so quick.”

For anyone who’s ever hesitated on going electric because of range anxiety or charging queues, it’s now a different conversation. This is a completely different category of problem to have.

The Cars That Grabbed the Headlines

Beyond the luxury end of things, two cars kept coming up in conversation on the stand. The Dolphin Surf, which Steve described as the smallest plug-in hybrid on the market despite feeling like it’s outgrown its own segment, has launched at £23,995 with finance offers on the way. Then there’s the Shark, which Steve told us has “gone crazy in Australia” and is shaping up to be one of BYD’s most anticipated launches yet. It’s a proper pickup truck with plug-in hybrid power, due on our UK roads this October.

We watched the Shark in action on the obstacle course set up beside the stand, climbing an angle that looked far too steep for something that size. Right behind it, queuing to take its turn, was the Bao 5, Denza’s new all-wheel-drive SUV, which Steve summed up nicely as capable of “as many mountains as you like … or just the school run.”

Then there’s the U8, Yangwang’s enormous SUV, which as well as tackling the obstacle course can apparently swim. Sadly, we didn’t get to see that particular trick in person, but knowing what else Yangwang had on show that day, I’m not about to doubt it.

Walking Away From the Biggest Stand at Goodwood

By the time Hannah and I left the BYD stand, we’d lost track of how many times we’d said “Did you see that!?” to each other. Between the size of the crowd, the range of vehicles on show, and the sheer confidence of launching three brands at once, it was clear BYD had turned up to Goodwood this year to make a clear statement.

As Steve put it himself, watching the engineering on display, “I just don’t know how they absolutely do these things, because the things that we’re doing with cars is just, I think, unbelievable.”

Standing on that stand in the sun, watching a pickup truck climb what looked like a cliff face, it was hard to disagree with him!