When Citroen announced it would give up its hydropneumatic suspension in 2015, I was left wondering what would make the French brand stand out compared to Peugeot or any of its competitors. Andre Citroen gave his name to an innovative car company that was famous for how comfortable its cars were. While the French icon tries to reinvent itself, BYD may have captured that spirit and embedded it also in its suspensions with DiSus.
The association between Citroen and BYD was inevitable after seeing the Yangwang U9 driving with only three wheels. The French company made demonstrations with the DS, but you can easily find images of the GS, CX, XM, and even the Xantia doing the same thing. The nostalgic ones among us who wished a modern car to have the same capability will have to way for BYD to sell its vehicles in their countries.
The DiSus acronym did not receive an official explanation, and BYD only talked about it in Chinese. Interestingly, the system has a poetic name in its native language: cloud chariot. That may remind you of the magic carpet metaphor people used to evoke when driving a Citroen with its hydropneumatic suspension. While a cloud chariot would also be a floating means of transportation, the explanation for the name is more practical.
Photo: BYD
Chariot is the best translation we have for the vehicle that used to carry the China emperor. Cloud has a double meaning: it refers both to the technology involved with making the system work and to how smooth the ride is. We'll have to wait for the first reviews to confirm how competent BYD's work was. What we will not be able to say is that they did not try: they tried hard.
The DiSus – or Cloud Chariot – was tested for more than 30 months and over 10 million kilometers (6,213,712 miles) under temperatures ranging from -45ºC (-49ºF) to 85ºC (185ºF). In the end, it developed not one but four intelligent suspension systems, each of them identified by one letter.
Photo: BYD
The DiSus-C is also called Intelligent Damping Body Control System. It involves controlling a solenoid valve in the shock absorbers and is the affordable active suspension BYD offers. It is also the more democratic version: flagship models from the Dynasty lineup – such as the BYD Han and Tang – Ocean lineup, and Denza models with the necessary hardware that were sold before the official release of the DiSus-C will get the intelligent suspension with an over-the-air (OTA) update.
DiSus-A has to do with air dampers. The first BYD vehicle to adopt it will be the Denza N7. The Intelligent Air Body Control System ground clearance can vary by 150 millimeters (5.91 inches), and it has quite a few settings, such as welcome mode and convenient access mode. It can also be adjusted according to the speed and have custom settings.
Photo: BYD
BYD talked about one more suspension from this family, called DiSus-P. The Intelligent Hydraulic Body Control System is reserved for high-end vehicles such as the Yangwang U8. Focused on off-road use, it can change the ground clearance by 200 mm (7.87 in) by controlling how much oil the dampers get and also the damping adjustment valve. The system can make the suspension soft to tackle trails and stiff to deal with high-speed curves like a sports car. If anyone goes camping with a Yangwang U8, the suspension can also adjust the four wheels independently to level the body.
Weirdly, the Yangwang U9 entered the stage as a low rider and a different suspension system from all the other ones we talked about until now. It is called DiSus-X, and there is no explanation from BYD about what it does or what is different about it compared to DiSus-C, DiSus-A, and DiSus-P. Apparently, it is the only one of these suspension systems that can deal with three-wheel driving, but I'll have to contact BYD to learn more about that.
Photo: BYD
The Chinese automaker sold 1,857,379 vehicles in 2022 alone. Although they are all plug-in vehicles, only 911,141 were BEVs. That prevented it from beating Tesla last year, but BYD may beat the American BEV maker in 2023 with its international expansion and all the new products in the pipeline. These new DiSus suspensions show that the Chinese company wants to represent more than just a Tesla competitor.
If it proves its suspension systems are as brilliant as Citroen's hydropneumatic suspension, we will just have to learn more about maintenance. That used to be the Achilles' heel of the vehicles from the French brand that used to have it. Although BYD is already careful enough to offer them only in its flagship models, that does not mean it will still make sense to repair these suspensions as they age. Hopefully, the 10-million-km tests were enough for BYD to avoid the same dangers Citroen failed to prevent.
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