A mysterious prototype has been spied wearing Yangwang branding on its wheels, pointing towards an electric sedan from BYD’s a new luxury brand.
The image, taken at a BYD service center in China, was shared by a Weibo user Gemini-Mini and published by CarNewsChinarevealed a sleek sedan expected to rival the Porsche Taycan, Mercedes-Benz EQS, and BMW i7.
While the 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 were no plans to bring the Yangwang brand to Australia anytime soon.
This spy 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 is also a LiDAR unit on the roof.
The Weibo users were able to snap a picture of the interior as well which, despite missing a large section, clearly features a large portrait-oriented central touchscreen and digital instrument cluster.
The Yangwang spin-off brand BYD was revealed earlier this year with two models: the U9 quad-motor electric supercar, and the U8 off-roader.
The latter was launched 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 eschew the long-range petrol engine.
The electric sedan could use a similar torque vectoring system that in the U8 allows crab walk and tank turning functions.
It’s also likely to use one of BYD’s new suspension settings, revealed earlier this year.
DiSuS-A is what BYD would call its air suspension, while DiSuS-P is a hydraulic system that can control damper oil intake, damping adjustment valve and stiffness adjustment valve, while offering up to 200mm of travel.
The system can also lift all four wheels simultaneously, or independently for one wheel. BYD claims it can provide an immediate 200 percent increase in stiffness during high-speed cornering or other “intense” driving conditions, while also reducing impact loads in a collision.
In addition to the 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 now sells vehicles in Australia under its namesake brand, which is growing rapidly. BYD-badged vehicles are being launched not only here, but also in markets such as Europe and Japan.
BYD surpassed three million EV and PHEV sales worldwide in November last year.
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