- China’s Dongfeng claims its new Voyah S electric SUV drove upside down in a tunnel in Wuhan.
- The stunt recreates one of the most controversial ads of the 2010s.
- Sixteen years ago, Mercedes-Benz claimed its SLS AMG supercar looped inside a tunnel—with Michael Schumacher at the wheel.
Selling cars in China’s extremely competitive market is very hard. New models debut on a weekly basis, so companies need to get creative when promoting their new offerings. And that’s exactly what state-owned Dongfeng did recently to boost sales of its new Voyah Passion S electric SUV, which looks suspiciously like the Ferrari Purosangue.
The company recreated one of the most controversial ads of the 2000s, where Michael Schumacher supposedly drove a Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG upside down inside a tunnel. In theory, the stunt can happen, but Mercedes landed in hot water after releasing the first version of the video with one driver, and then re-releasing it with Schumacher.
Now, Dongfeng is happy to acknowledge that it was inspired by the original Mercedes-Benz ad, but it’s adamant that its stunt was completely real. The automaker chose a closed test tunnel in Wuhan as the shooting location and a completely stock Voyah Passion S EV. According to the company’s Weibo page, it’s the first production vehicle in the world to successfully complete a 360-degree tunnel loop.
Engineers calculated that the car had to hit the first ramp in the tunnel with a steering angle of exactly 16 degrees while traveling at roughly 81 miles per hour (130 kilometers per hour). Just like the wet clothes in a washing machine, the centrifugal force kept the car’s wheels on the tunnel’s surface, and the red SUV successfully reached the second ramp and stopped safely. That said, additional tire marks can be seen on the tunnel ceiling, which suggest that Dongfeng might have tried its luck more than once at the stunt.
As for the car, Chinese customers are getting quite a lot of kit for as little as $45,600. The Voyah Passion S is powered by an 800-volt, 98-kilowatt-hour battery pack that enables a CLTC-rated range of 460 miles for the two-wheel-drive version, and up to 434 miles on the dual-motor all-wheel drive version. The latter delivers 637 horsepower and enables a zero-to-62 miles per hour sprint in 4.5 seconds. There’s a double-wishbone suspension setup at the front and a five-link all-aluminum independent suspension at the rear, with electronically controlled dampers and air springs.
Under the skin, the Ferrari-like Chinese EV integrates a lot of Huawei components, including a quad-lidar advanced driver assistance system that makes use of 33 sensors. Inside, there’s a pair of 15.6-inch displays and a 29-inch augmented reality heads-up display.
