Watch This Electric Chinese Supercar Jump in Place and... Drive With Only Three Wheels

Watch a new EV supercar hop and continue on even missing one wheel.

BYD is one of the largest EV manufacturers in the world, rapidly expanding in the Chinese market against a field of aggressive competition, including Tesla. To stay ahead of the game, BYD has announced and demonstrated a new family of active chassis and suspension technologies with incredible capability that far exceeds the standard requirements of motion.

This wouldn’t be the first fancy suspension we’ve seen debut on a luxury car. There is, of course, the Citroën DS’s marvelous hydraulic setup that made the car seemingly float down the road. There was also the work Bose did on a Lexus with electromagnetic suspension years ago, where the car literally could leapfrog over something like a plank of wood while also clearing speedbumps with nary a body bobble. However, those weren’t supercars, and the BYD setup seemingly is capable of taking the stunts to a new level in a series of stage demos and clips released this week.

The first clip comes from the stage, where BYD demonstrated the Yangwang U9 supercar performing a “hop” in place using the kinetic power of its own Disus-X suspension setup alone—no rocket boosters or air canons. The Disus family of systems provide unprecedented control of lateral, longitudinal, and vertical motions in the chassis and suspension, though BYD’s current press information lacks more detail. The family is comprised of three branches, including the Intelligent Damping Body Control System (Disus-C), the Intelligent Air Body Control System (Disus-A), and the Intelligent Hydraulic Body Control System (Disus-P).

The second demonstration came in the form of a video posted to the BYD Global Twitter account showing footage of the U9 rolling along before the camera pans around to reveal it’s missing its front right wheel, showing the leveling capability of the Disus-X suspension. It looks like it’s good enough to get you to the tire shop after a very bad day, which is impressive. Realistically, this shows how much control the system has over each corner of the car, for bumps or potholes or racing kerbs. It also offers future Advanced Driver Assistance Systems enhanced fidelity in calculating the control of the vehicle without human input.

When not performing radical, impractical stunts to demonstrate the incredible extremes BYD can take its new Disus technology, the company says the system is meant to regularly minimize “the risk of vehicle rollover and reduce the displacement of occupants during high-speed cornering, full-throttle acceleration, or emergency braking.” But, you know, a hopping car is way more interesting.