BYD releases images of its in-house Rolls-Royce rival, which may use first solid state battery

BYD’s top-tier Yangwang brand has released the first official images of a flagship sedan with the proportions of a Rolls-Royce Phantom and rear-hinged coach doors, and Chinese reports say it is the likeliest candidate to be the company’s first car with a solid-state battery.

Yangwang general manager Hu Xiaoqing shared the camouflaged teasers on Weibo, describing the car as the culmination of three years of development and an ultra-luxury executive sedan carrying the brand’s signature design language. The name has not been settled; internally BYD calls it HU. It was spied earlier this year at BYD’s facilities alongside a large luxury SUV, and this is the first confirmation from the company that the sedan is in development.

The images show a long-bonnet, upright three-box profile, a front end in the squared-off “ding” style of Yangwang’s U8 SUV, and door handles whose placement confirms the coach-door arrangement, a first for any BYD model. A roof-mounted lidar unit is visible. Yangwang has not shown the interior.

The solid-state question

BYD executive vice president Stella Li said earlier this month that the company would put its first vehicle with a solid-state battery on the road in 2027, and that BYD was in a leading position in the technology. BYD’s battery arm, FinDreams, plans limited production of sulfide-based all-solid-state cells in 2027, scaling to volume by 2030.

Chinese sources, reported by CarNewsChina, put the Yangwang sedan first in line. A low-volume flagship suits a battery that will initially be expensive and scarce, and one teaser shows the car at a BYD Flash Charging station, which points to megawatt-class charging support. Neither BYD nor Yangwang has confirmed the battery, and CarNewsChina expects any solid-state version to sit above standard trims using BYD’s Blade Battery 2.0, in line with chief scientist Lian Yubo’s view that liquid and solid-state cells will coexist for 15 to 20 years.

Yangwang has carried BYD’s technology firsts before. The U8 SUV introduced the e4 quad-motor platform, the U9 supercar has carried the second-generation Blade battery and Flash Charging, and BYD says the U9 Xtreme will attempt to pass 500km/h in November. The new sedan is expected to use the quad-motor platform and BYD’s top-level DiPilot driver assistance.

Yangwang is not sold outside China, and BYD has given no pricing or launch date. The brand’s current sedan is the U7. In New Zealand, BYD’s premium presence runs through Denza, whose Z9GT is in pre-launch activity, as the group passes 15,000 vehicles on local roads. The sedan also gives BYD a target in a solid-state race where ProLogium started production this month and most Chinese rivals are aiming for 2027 trials.