BYD goes offroad with extra drone-eyes in the sky

Chinese battery and car giant BYD is adding a pair of extra ‘drone-eyes in the sky’ to its luxury off-roader Fang Cheng Bao Bao 8 to make venturing beyond the asphalt even more fun. The drone has a docking station on the car’s roof and can follow the vehicle at a speed of up to 54 km/hour and automatically return to recharge.

BYD teams up for this with DJI, a well-known Chinese technology company that manufactures commercial unmanned drones for aerial photography and videography, which accounted for over 90% of the world’s consumer drone market in 2024.

Fang Cheng Bao is BYD’s off-road luxury brand, launched in 2023. It focuses on rugged, high-performance SUVs. ‘Bao’ means as much as ‘Leopard’ in Chinese. Earlier, BYD hinted that this premium brand might be introduced in Europe under the Denza umbrella and along with other local BYD brands.

The system is called Ling Yuan and has a unique app for controlling the drone from the car. The drone is safely docked in a hangar on the car’s roof, which slides open automatically for launch. It can do that while driving at a maximum speed of 25 km/hour.

Following automatically

It then follows the car at up to 54 km/hour, sending live images of your vehicle with the ability to look ahead. The latter might be useful to see what comes next while driving offroad. When its battery is low, it returns automatically to its ‘hangar ‘ to charge. It can charge from 20 to 80% in 30 minutes.

The Fang Cheng Bao Bao 8 is a considerably big SUV that measures 5.2 meters long and has a ground clearance of 310 mm, thanks to its flexible DiSus-P suspension system. It is a plug-in hybrid (PHEV) with a 2-liter combustion engine and two electric motors with a peak power output of 550 kW (737 hp).

PHEV with 100 km electric range

With a 36.8-kWh LFP battery, it can drive up to 100 km pure electric (WLTP) and offers a mixed range of 1,200 km. In that case, you can count on a consumption of 8.5 l/100 km. It’s quick for its size, sprinting from 0 to 100 km/hour in 4.8 seconds, and offers low gear AWD and three automatic differential locks to go offroad.

It’s offered in six- and seven-seat configurations, with starting prices ranging from 379,800 yuan (€48,520) to 407,800 yuan (€52,098) for the Flagship top version.

The drone with a docking station on the roof is an option, available at 16,000 yuan (€2,044), and will later be offered on more BYD subbrands.

BYD applied for a sales license for the drone system for subbrands, including Yangwang U8, Fang Cheng Bao, Titanium 3 Denza N9, BYD Tang L, and the BYD Sealion 07 DM-i.