A mysterious prototype has been spied wearing Yangwang branding on its wheels, pointing to a electric sedan from BYD’s fledgling luxury brand.
Images taken at a BYD service centre in China, shared by Weibo user Gemini-Mini and published by CarNewsChina, reveal the sleek sedan expected to rival the likes of the Porsche Taycan, Mercedes-Benz EQS, and BMW i7.
Although this new Yangwang electric sedan hasn’t been revealed yet, it likely won’t be coming to Australia. Local BYD distributor EVDirect managing director Luke Todd said in December last year there are no plans to bring the Yangwang brand to Australia in the immediate future.
This spied sedan is covered in black-and-white camouflage but you can still see it has a sleek silhouette with retractable door handles and frameless door windows. There’s also a LiDAR unit on the roof.
The Weibo user was able to snap a picture of the interior as well which, despite large sections missing, clearly features a large portrait-oriented central touchscreen and a digital instrument cluster.
BYD’s Yangwang spin-off brand was revealed at the start of the year with two models: the quad-motor electric U9 supercar, and the U8 off-roader.
The latter is launching first with a powertrain featuring four electric motors, each with 220kW of power and 320Nm of torque, with a 2.0-litre turbocharged petrol engine serving as a range extender. The U8 also uses a 49.5kWh battery.
Powertrain details have yet to be revealed for the U9, which is understood to be eschewing a range-extender petrol engine.
The electric sedan could use a similar torque-vectoring system which in the U8 allows for crab walk and tank turn functions.
It’s also likely to use one of BYD’s new suspension set-ups, revealed earlier this year.
DiSuS-A is what BYD will call its air suspension, while DiSuS-P is a hydraulic system which can control the oil intake of the damper, damping adjustment valve, and stiffness adjustment valve, while offering travel of up to 200mm.
This system can also lift all four wheels simultaneously, or independently for a single wheel. BYD claims it can provide an instantaneous 200 per cent increase in stiffness during high-speed cornering or other “intense” driving conditions, while also reducing impact load in a collision.
In addition to Yangwang and premium spin-off Denza, BYD recently launched the Fang Cheng Bao brand which will sell a plug-in hybrid rival to the Land Rover Defender.
The Chinese giant currently sells vehicles in Australia under its namesake brand, which is expanding at a rapid pace. BYD-badged vehicles are being rolled out not only here, but also in markets like Europe and Japan.
BYD eclipsed three million EV and PHEV sales globally in November last year.
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