How many electric motors does the Yangwang U7 have? At today’s Guangzhou Auto Show, Yangwang revealed the answer—
Ten.
Yes, you read that right. Ten motors, and these are just the ones directly powering the wheels, not counting those operating components like windshield wipers or seats.
The motors aren’t all part of its drivetrain system called Yi Si Fang (Easy Four). Some come from Yangwang’s new suspension technology—the Yun Nian-Z. As competition in the new energy vehicle sector intensifies, Yangwang is determined to carve out a new competitive path in the high-end flagship sedan segment through a series of innovative technologies.
▲ Yangwang U7 PHEV (right)
The spotlight wasn’t just on the pure electric version—the PHEV (Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicle) version of the U7 also made its debut at this auto show.
The engine is undoubtedly the PHEV’s highlight. To maintain the U7’s low-profile body lines, Yangwang’s engineering team managed to fit a new high-performance engine into the limited front compartment space.
Looking at these technological applications, Yangwang’s website claim of “pioneering the global automotive algorithm era” is far from empty rhetoric.
▲ Yangwang U7 EV
Ten Motors Working Together to Solve All Pain Points of the Fuel Era
Throughout automotive history, a vehicle’s power has always been proportional to its price. Generally, more expensive cars had more horsepower, with engine displacement and cylinder count becoming absolute standards of excellence.
This was especially true in the luxury flagship sedan segment, where large displacement, high horsepower, and high cylinder count became standard features. Rolls-Royce and Bentley revered the V12, while Mercedes and BMW long considered V8 and V10 engines as core power configurations for their flagship models.
▲ Rolls-Royce V12 engine
In today’s new energy era, this tradition continues, but with electric motors joining the mix, the pursuit of power in luxury flagship sedans has reached a new level.
With four wheel-mounted motors from the Yi Si Fang system, the Yangwang U7 delivers over 1,300 horsepower, accelerating from 0 to 100km/h in 2.9 seconds, with a top speed of 270km/h.
▲ Yangwang U7 EV
This acceleration capability was unimaginable in the combustion engine era.
However, more than acceleration performance, luxury flagship sedans prioritize safety, stability, and comfort—this is where the Yi Si Fang system truly shines.
▲ The U7’s interior reflects safety and comfort through balance and harmony
▲ Yangwang U7 four-seater version
Last month, a Yangwang U8 owner shared a video describing how they experienced a tire blowout on the highway without noticing it until the central display showed “right rear tire pressure zero.” Upon inspection, they found a 6-centimeter gash in the right rear tire tread…
This capability is unique to the Yi Si Fang system.
In the combustion engine era, power distribution couldn’t achieve complete independent decoupling, typically relying on differentials and drive shafts for wheel torque distribution. Despite having adequate power reserves, these systems had limitations in response speed and control precision, making them prone to loss of control in complex situations like blowouts, rear-end collisions, or icy roads.
▲ Traditional combustion vehicles require differentials for power distribution
Like the U8, today’s protagonist U7 can achieve independent torque control for all four wheels through the Yi Si Fang distributed power system, solving vehicle instability issues on both X and Y axes. Even with a tire blowout at 120km/h, the U7 maintains stability.
▲ Yi Si Fang emblem on the U7’s side
What about the vertical Z-axis? This brings us to the U7’s suspension system.
Given its hardcore off-road positioning, the U8 uses a hydraulic suspension system called Yun Nian-P to meet the high-intensity continuous lifting demands of off-road conditions. The U7, as a comfort-oriented flagship sedan, employs a new solution—the Yun Nian-Z electromagnetic suspension.
Unlike previous active suspension systems that used air tanks or oil cylinders for adjustment, Yangwang’s approach is straightforward: they installed four vertical linear motors specifically for controlling vehicle movement on the Z-axis.
With independent control for all four wheels.
Yangwang revealed to ifanr that each of these linear motors has over 30kW maximum power, with advantages in precision, low latency, quick response, and low energy transfer loss. Consequently, when receiving road input, Yun Nian-Z can precisely adjust suspension height, stiffness, and damping within 10 milliseconds, effectively reducing bumps and vibrations.
Recently, an internet user captured footage of a Yangwang U7 crossing speed bumps outside BYD’s Pingshan headquarters, perhaps the best real-world demonstration of Yun Nian-Z’s vibration filtering capabilities.
Beyond filtering bumps and vibrations during daily driving, the active support adjustment from these four motors can reduce vehicle roll in high-speed turns, improving handling stability.
In low-speed scenarios like U-turns, two steering motors on the rear axle enable 20° bi-directional rear-wheel steering, giving the 5.2-meter-long U7 a compact 4.85-meter turning radius—
These are the final two motors on the U7.
▲ Yangwang U7’s all-digital chassis
To ensure perfect coordination among these 10 motors, Yangwang equipped the U7 with BYD’s self-developed underlying control software.
Yangwang states that this system can achieve full digital adjustment of three-axis six-degrees-of-freedom body posture through sensor perception, intelligent computing center decision-making, and motor command execution, effectively shortening the perception-decision-execution path for complete digital control.
With this underlying control software, Yi Si Fang and Yun Nian-Z together form an industry-leading all-digital chassis, giving the U7 the confidence to enter the luxury flagship sedan market.
Behind One Technology Lies Another
Implementing the Yi Si Fang and Yun Nian-Z systems isn’t simple, requiring two main prerequisites:
- High-power, high-performance battery
- Reliable thermal management control
First, let’s look at the battery.
The U7 EV uses a high-performance blade battery with 135.5kWh capacity and peak discharge current near 1700A, powering all 10 motors while providing 720km CLTC pure electric range.
▲ High-performance blade battery
Yangwang also addresses the long charging time issue associated with large batteries. The U7 EV comes standard with dual-gun DC fast charging, reaching maximum charging power of 500kW, charging from 30% to 80% in under 20 minutes.
Next is thermal management.
As we know, power equals voltage times current (P=UI). With fixed vehicle voltage, higher motor power means higher current. Since motor heat equals current squared times resistance times time (Q=I²Rt), motor heat increases exponentially with current, creating a massive cooling challenge.
To address this, the U7’s high-performance blade battery uses dual direct cooling plate design, with complementary coolant flow directions in upper and lower plates for better temperature uniformity.
▲ Yi Si Fang motors use independent oil cooling with dual electronic oil pumps
Furthermore, the Yi Si Fang motor system employs independent oil cooling with dual electronic pumps, providing up to 20L/min flow rate, with oil directly sprayed onto windings and iron cores for direct heat removal. For power electronics, the U7 uses double-sided silver sintering technology with proprietary oval cooling pin design for greatly improved heat dissipation.
One statistic demonstrates Yangwang’s cooling achievements: the U7 can perform 77 consecutive launch control starts with no power degradation, maintaining sub-three-second 0-100km/h times.
Meanwhile, the U7 PHEV version maintains these capabilities, with the addition of an engine and fuel tank extending range to 1000km.
▲ Yangwang U7 PHEV
The U7 PHEV features BYD’s newly developed high-performance engine, characterized by high thermal efficiency and power generation capacity. Yangwang has invested significant effort in engine smoothness and cabin vibration isolation to ensure the PHEV version maintains the same smoothness and quietness as the EV version.
▲ Yangwang U7 PHEV
Thanks to compact engine design, the U7’s front height is only slightly taller than the EV version, largely maintaining the U7 EV’s low-profile lines.
▲ Yangwang U7 EV (left) and Yangwang U7 PHEV (right)
However, Yangwang cleverly differentiated the two versions in their appearance. The PHEV model features more conservative lighting design with integrated air intakes in the center. Beyond these differences, the two models maintain nearly identical exterior designs for consistent styling.
Technology: The Foundation of Premium
The birth of premium automotive brands invariably accompanies the maturation of top-tier core technologies. Superior technology creates premium brands.
According to Chairman Wang Chuanfu, technology has always been BYD’s foundation during its nearly 30-year history. Today, BYD employs 110,000 R&D personnel and holds over 48,000 patents.
In 1997, to enhance China’s independent technological innovation capabilities and promote strategies for invigorating the country through science, education, and sustainable development, the National Science and Technology Leadership Group initiated the “973 Program.” BYD was one of the program’s completing units, and their contribution was distributed drive with multiple motors.
Subsequently, BYD successfully applied four-wheel electric wheel distributed drive bus control systems in 2015, dominating European, American, and Japanese markets with their electric buses.
▲ BYD bus on British streets
Now, leveraging years of experience and technology in electric motors, BYD boldly enters the million-yuan flagship sedan market—territory previously unexplored by Chinese brands.
Some might think luxury flagship sedans are simply the sum of brand power and luxurious features, but this isn’t the case.
In fact, both Mercedes S-Class and BMW 7 Series pioneered cutting-edge technologies in their golden ages. For example, the S-Class introduced ABS in 1978 and pioneered airbags in 1981; the 7 Series implemented the most advanced onboard computer in 1977, leading vehicle electronics integration.
In the Yangwang U7, we see BYD’s deep technological accumulation in three-electric systems, Yi Si Fang, Yun Nian, and control domains. Their full-stack self-developed operating system further deepens Yangwang’s technological moat.
China’s premium flagship sedans aren’t built on refrigerators, TVs, or large sofas. Regardless of how times change, technology remains the eternal foundation of luxury and premium status.