Dongfeng’s Voyah launched the Passion S electric SUV on Friday after promoting it with a stunt in which the car drove a full loop around a tunnel ceiling in Wuhan. Prices start at 229,900 yuan, about $33,800, for a car with 800V charging and Huawei’s latest driver assistance.
Dongfeng’s premium brand Voyah launched an electric SUV on Friday, and the reason anyone noticed is that it drove the car upside down. Footage shows the Passion S completing a full loop around the ceiling of a closed test tunnel in Wuhan, a deliberate restaging of the Mercedes SLS AMG advert from 2010.
The physics were tight. The car hit the ramp at about 130km/h with 16 degrees of steering lock, and Voyah says a few kilometres per hour slower would have dropped it.
The company insists it was real, using a standard production car with no effects, and has released uncut footage. A leaked clip of an earlier attempt, in which the car falls from the ceiling, is oddly the most persuasive evidence that nobody rendered this.
Strip away the theatre and the car is the story. The Passion S launched in three trims from 229,900 to 279,900 yuan, roughly $33,800 to $41,200.
For that money the buyer gets an 800V platform with an 81 or 98kWh battery, CLTC range of 630 to 740km, and 5C charging that takes it from 20 to 80% in ten minutes.
The dual-motor version produces 637hp and 765Nm. Voyah quotes a 0 to 62mph time of 4.5 seconds and claims 93.8% drivetrain efficiency from its silicon carbide system.
The driver assistance comes from Huawei. The Passion S runs Qiankun ADS 5.0 with a dual-path 896-line lidar and five 4D millimetre-wave radars, covering assisted driving on city roads and motorways and automated parking.
None of which would matter here except that Voyah is coming. Stellantis agreed in May to a European joint venture to sell the brand’s cars, and Voyah already retails in the Netherlands and Norway.
The ground is prepared. Chinese brands have taken a record share of Europe’s electrified market, and they are arriving from a home market where a price war has pushed specification up and prices down at the same time.
That is also why the stunt exists. When new models arrive weekly, driving a car around a tunnel ceiling is a rational marketing expense.
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