Denza B8 Road Trip Review: 850km With a Family of Five Tests the Range Claim

Five people, a loaded boot, two days and 850km later, the Denza B8 landed within striking distance of its claimed combined range, even cruising well above the speeds the test cycle assumes.

This is not my first run in the Denza B8. I drove it in China before it landed here and I have spent time in it at a couple of Australian launch events. This time Denza handed me the keys for a full week, so I decided to put the seven-seat luxury super hybrid SUV through the one test that actually matters for a car this size: a proper family road trip.

I loaded up my wife, our two older kids and our four-year-old and pointed the B8 north toward Wodonga, with a detour through Beechworth on the way home. Two days and roughly 850km later, I had a clear picture of how this thing handles real family use, not just a launch event blast around a closed road.

Garage Space Is the First Warning

The B8 is enormous. At over 5.1 metres long, it dwarfs most driveways and a fair few garages. I pushed it as far forward as I could into my own garage and it still only just cleared the door. Anyone considering this car needs to measure their garage before they measure the finance.

Loading Five People and a Power Station

With five people on board, a child seat in the middle row for our four-year-old, and one of the three third row seats folded up, boot space disappears fast. We were only away for two nights, so the load stayed manageable: my bag, two kids’ bags, my wife’s bag and a Bluetti Elite 300 portable power station kindly sponsored to us by BLUETTI. Everything fit, including my wife’s bag, which I am counting as a personal win.