New spy photos show the front of BYD Yangwang’s upcoming flagship sedan, codenamed HU. On October 21, Yangwang sales division general manager Hu Xiaoqing said on Weibo that the car will be unveiled in the United Arab Emirates. She didn’t say when, where, or why the UAE.
Spy photos: an upright, U8-style front
The prototype has a tall rectangular grille and vertically stacked split headlamps. That looks nothing like the low, sweeping nose of the Yangwang U7. It is closer to the U8 and U8L SUVs, whose styling nods to the Ding, an ancient bronze vessel.
There’s a LiDAR unit on the roof above the windshield. It shows BYD is testing the hardware, but the final driver-assistance package could differ.
In profile the car is long, with a short front overhang, a stretched rear section and rear-hinged coach doors, which BYD has never offered before. Earlier reports estimated the length at about 5,500 mm. The U7 is 5,360 mm.
Officially, very little
Yangwang executives posted teasers in September showing the silhouette and coach doors. HU is only an internal codename, and the retail name hasn’t been announced. BYD also hasn’t said what motors, suspension or battery the car uses. The U7, U8 and U9 all run e⁴ quad-motor drivetrains and versions of the DiSus suspension, so that is the obvious guess, but it is a guess.
The UAE isn’t new territory for Yangwang
The U8 debuted there in September 2024 at BYD’s Sheikh Zayed Road showroom in Dubai, opened with partner Al-Futtaim. Yangwang hasn’t said whether that history played any part in picking the UAE for HU.
Price: reportedly over 2 million yuan
Chinese media expect more than 2,000,000 yuan, roughly US$300,000. Nothing has been announced. The U7 starts at 658,000 yuan, so HU would cost over three times as much.
The Huawei-JAC Maextro S800 is the natural yardstick. At 5,480 mm it is nearly as long, and the 2026 lineup costs 728,000 to 1,018,000 yuan (about US$109,000 to US$152,000). HU would cost roughly double the top standard trim. A fairer match is the S800 Grand Design, which opened pre-orders on May 29 at an expected 1.6 to 2 million yuan.
Yangwang’s sales are small, with 442 cars delivered in China in August and 2,899 in the first eight months of 2026. HU won’t change that quickly.
Solid-state battery: reported, not confirmed
Chinese outlets have linked HU to BYD’s first solid-state battery, but Yangwang hasn’t disclosed any battery details. Rumors about DiPilot 600 driver assistance, megawatt charging and a Blade Battery 2.0 version are in the same category.
What BYD has said is narrower. In a September interview with Carwow.es, executive vice president Stella Li said one BYD model would carry solid-state technology next year, without naming it. FinDreams Battery CTO Sun Huajun has described small-batch trials of about 1,000 vehicles around 2027 and large-scale production around 2030. Neither statement mentions HU.
Rivals
HU would sit above the U7 as Yangwang’s second sedan. Likely competitors include the Maextro S800, the Nio ET9 (5,325 mm) and the Mercedes-Maybach S-Class (5,469 mm). Without confirmed pricing and specs, there’s not much to compare yet.
