There are no bones to make about this – the DENZA D9 is aimed squarely at rivalling the Toyota Alphard’s undoubted dominance of the luxury MPV market as a more accessible electric alternative. An admirable objective in planning, yet not straightforward to execute in practice as our longer distance journey to Penang with the brand would prove.
The day began bright & early at DENZA Sisma Auto’s Glenmarie showroom with breakfast refreshments, followed by product and safety briefings. Getting the vital stats out of the way first, there are 2 D9 variants locally available, these being the Premium – All Wheel Drive (AWD) & more affordable Advanced – Front Wheel Drive (FWD); it it would be the former that I got to sample on this drive up to the north and back.
Adding to the Premium’s single 313 hp front axle motor, the Advanced gains a second rear axle motor for combined outputs of 374 hp and 470 Nm of torque, getting it from rest to 100 km/h in 6.9 seconds. Both are powered by the same 103.36kWh blade battery, supplying 580 km of NEDC driving range in Advanced form while being able to charge from 30% to 80% in 30 minutes for both versions.
At first glance, this is an unashamedly large car, more generously proportioned than its Japanese contemporary for a greater volume of interior space. You really could be forgiven for thinking that you’re looking at an Alphard here though – the D9 bears an incredibly close resemblance to the Japanese MPV, even in details including the basic form lines defining its headlights, front grille and lateral air intakes.
It would indeed have been nice to see DENZA’s designers making more of an effort to distinguish it visually from its competition here, as part of an overall effort to establish a more distinctive brand identity – which, as we all know, has long been vital to the long-term success of any carmaker. To give credit where it’s due, the D9 does boast some handsome footwear in the form of those 20-inch multi-spoke wheels; while the headlamps themselves are well detailed with signature V-shaped daytime running lights.
Step inside it, and you are immediately struck by the comfortably roomy proportions. A 170 mm wide central aisle provides easy access to the 4-way adjustable third row seats, while the main row captain’s chairs are certainly the piece de resistance in a car meant to be driven in as much as taking the wheel yourself. Boasting 10-way electric adjustability with full reclining, adaptable head & leg rests, and even massage modes, each is controlled by its own DENZA Link center armrest integrated touchscreen, which also operates the seat ventilation, sunroof, sliding doors, windows, rear infotainment & lighting.
Build quality is solidly well resolved for the most part, while owners should be delighted with finish materials including Nappa leather upholstery, open pore wood trim and a suede headliner in the Premium. There’s even a captain’s Intelligent Refrigerator that can both cool & warm your champagne or coffee respectively, with a 6.8 liter capacity in total.
Things started out well from the drivers’ seat, with the expansive windscreen affording a commanding view of the road ahead. Its rake is incredibly deep with a long expanse of dashboard ahead of you however – the SmartTAG users among you will want to take note of this and not mount your transponders too far inwards, on the off chance that you come across one of our highway toll booths’ often wonky sensors & need to pull your card out in a hurry to tap on the physical reader.
Although there’s a large central 15.6-inch infotainment screen, kudos must go to DENZA for still maintaining tactile physical buttons for the most key primary functions including the engine start, parking brake, drive mode selection & intensity of regenerative braking. There’s even a sculpted crystal gear lever, lending an even more luxuriant air to things. You can also still position the A/C vents by your own hand, although fan speed and temperature controls now live within the touchscreen; and here there was some noticeable lag when bringing them to the desired levels.
Once we hit the highway, the D9 proved to be a decently satisfying drive for what it is with a natural feeling calibration to its major controls. The twin motor setup provided smoothly relaxed power delivery, although the throttle pedal did need firmer inputs to really get all of this nearly 3 ton mass going. What proved disconcerting was the brakes however, with an uncharacteristically grabby jerkiness even when gently applied at low speeds. Things did smoothen out as they warmed up once we picked up the pace, but this was rather disconcerting in what is supposed to be a more premium sort of MPV experience – which is what the D9 is claimed to be after all, not an early model Italian supercar with those notorious first generation carbon ceramic brakes that really do like quite a bit of heat in them in order to not pitch you towards the windscreen as soon as you even thought about using more of their brake pedals.
This could indeed be improved with further fine tuning, something which could be said about most of the D9’s aspects as it turned out. Steering was light with very little sense of what the front wheels are doing, which made it tricky to apply the ideal amount of lock especially through faster curves – not something that inspired confidence in something so big and heavy. Once I got used to its nuances we still managed to find a smooth sort of rhythm, yet the learning curve was steeper than expected for something that most would expectantly hop into for daily driving without a second thought.
Heading out to our first driver change point, we were also encouraged to try out the D9’s Intelligent Cruise Control (ICC). The writing on the box claims that it would match speed with the D9 ahead of us while faithfully maintaining our current course, while we just had to keep our hands on the steering wheel in case we needed to re-assume full control at any point. In practice though, there was again a noticeable lag to the system’s responses, with even some jerkiness exhibited in its steering inputs. I let it do its thing for all of about 10 minutes, then turned it off and fully retook the wheel whereupon our journey resumed its calming smoothness. More stuff for the software engineers to work on indeed.
Our first driver swap afforded the opportunity to experience the D9 from its vaunted captain’s chairs, and there was much to like about them indeed. Finding an ideal seating position took no time at all, while the ample cabin room enabled one to really stretch out & feel at ease with the world.
The only thing that detracted from the whole experience’s cocooning comfort, was the ride quality which can be much improved to say the least. Especially when traversing less than perfect road surfaces, I felt some distinctly harsh vibrations through the otherwise well insulated seat, while there was even noticeable creaking emanating from the D9’s rear quarters. This occurred most frequently over larger bumps or undulations, meaning that it probably just takes better suspension tuning to help the car manage its considerable mass when reacting to road compressions.
As a whole, the D9’s front seats benefit from a much calmer & more composed riding experience. Excellent noise insulation played its part here too: road/tyre and wind noises were impressively muted out, enabling the 14-speaker Dynaudio system to do its thing playing our favourite tunes.
Lunch was a generously sumptuous buffet spread within the embrace of 260 million year old limestone hills at Jeff’s Cellar within the Banjaran Hotsprings Retreat. Appetites duly sated, we then set out to complete our journey to Penang, with our first stop after crossing the first bridge being the DENZA pop-up experience showroom in Gurney Paragon. Here we were treated to refreshments before a sharing session on living with EVs. Interestingly the government reportedly has plans to complete 10,000 charging stations throughout Malaysia by 2026, certainly something that would make living with them a whole lot easier especially when planning longer trips outside the Klang Valley.
Amid a rainy evening in the Pearl of the Orient, next we were transported to complete our check-ins for a relaxing overnight stay at the Marriott Penang hotel. The room was exquisitely faultless in terms of its comfortably luxuriant ambiance, with even a bathtub provided for invigorating soaks. My one gripe with it was probably common to all frequent travelers: why can’t hotels group their myriad light switches in a centrally usable cluster, or at least some sort of logically visible order? This one truly continues to boggle the mind.
The rain continued to beat down, yet provide a uniquely soothing melancholy as we made our way to the Michelin recognized Auntie Gaik Lean’s Old School Eatery for a heartwarmingly old-school Peranakan dinner. Amid the heritage-rich restaurant’s charming blue fittings and classically tiled floors, we tucked into a lavish 12-course Michelin Gourmet Set that brought us through some of Auntie’s signature dishes, all crafted from closely guarded decades-old secret recipes. Truly, this was a most gratifying feast for the culinary senses.
Friday morning dawned bright & early for our return trip to KL. For some context, the D9s had been fully charged once again to 100% overnight; yet even with another brief top-up over our 1-hour lunch break in Ipoh and while maintaining a steady 110-120 km/h highway cruising speed, by the time we arrived back in Glenmarie our car was showing just 23% of range remaining, equating to about 110 km. This would be sure to cause at least some anxiety if say, in an extreme but not unheard of situation, you then had to rush into town for an urgent dinner while dealing with the usual peak hour traffic.
To sum up the DENZA D9, it’s honestly a good first effort, but would need several improvements before it can be considered a serious contender in the luxury MPV market; particularly in the way that it drives. At an entry price of RM 309,000 for the Premium that attractively undercuts its main Japanese rival though, this may be all the car that some ever need.
