Owners of the Denza N8L no longer have to remember to turn on the car's security mode by hand. After OTA V1.4.0, Sentry Mode can run on its own schedule — the crossover simply guards itself when it needs to. At the same time, the SUV learned to recognize when it has entered a parking lot, show the fee it owes, and let the driver pay straight from the infotainment system, no phone required.
The update began rolling out on August 7 for the N8L without the Flash Charging version. There are 12 changes on the list. Alongside the Sentry Mode schedule, the car gained four sound effects for mic-free karaoke, voice control for the digital character Xiaoshi, and a separate toggle for navigation prompts during phone calls. The 360-degree camera view now has a quick button for folding the mirrors, and the along-the-route search now shows how much extra distance and time a detour will cost.
Navigation picked up one more practical upgrade. When searching for a charging station, the system can now surface nearby ultra-fast chargers and filter for them specifically. BYD also reworked the DiLink interface, changed the algorithm that adjusts fan speed automatically during calls, and claims smoother steering feel at high speed. There's one detail missing from the official list of new features.
According to Denza's official instructions, the OTA cannot be installed while driving: the car must be in Park, with the battery charged above 20%. During the update itself, the vehicle can't drive or charge, and the process burns roughly 2% of the battery. There's no rolling back to the previous version once it's installed.
The N8L launched in China in October 2025, priced from 299,800 to 329,800 yuan. It's a six-seat plug-in hybrid measuring 5,200 mm long, with three electric motors, a 0-100 km/h sprint of 3.9 seconds, and a claimed electric-only range of 230 km on the CLTC cycle. Total range reaches 1,300 km.
There's no extra power or range in this update. Instead, most of the changes touch the things an owner deals with every single day: leaving the car under guard, paying for parking, finding a charger, or not missing a turn during a phone call.
The Denza N9 previously received OTA update V1.8.0 with a scheduled security mode, a new interface, and detour-distance calculations along the route. The version for fast-charging models hasn't been enabled yet.
