BYD Yangwang Altior electric luxury limousine, Digi Mart USA News: BYD’s luxury brand, Yangwang, revealed the Altior in Abu Dhabi this week. The first version open for reservation in China carries a pre-sale price of 2.08 million yuan, or about $310,000.
That price covers the Shanhe Dingyun limited edition, which requires a 300,000-yuan (roughly $44,000) deposit and should reach customers in the second quarter of 2027. Yangwang is aiming the Altior at the Rolls-Royce Ghost and the Mercedes-Maybach S-Class.
The design draws clear inspiration from Rolls-Royce. Rear-hinged coach doors, umbrellas in the door shuts, two-tone paint and a hand-painted coachline all echo Goodwood signatures.
Altior is Latin for “higher,” and the car sits above the U7 sedan, which starts at 628,000 yuan.
The rear coach doors open to 90 degrees, and the front emblem is reportedly 24K gold, set in a grille made of 137 gem-cut elements. The launch car rides on 21-inch wheels and carries a lidar sensor on the roof, an exterior detail not found on a Rolls-Royce.
The cabin seats four. The rear pair are massaging zero-gravity recliners that a one-touch mode tilts back while closing the sunblinds and dimming the lights.
Yangwang quotes 1,209 mm (47.6 inches) of rear legroom, along with a 21.4-inch ceiling screen, fridges front and rear, and air vents trimmed in Hetian jade.
The 532-liter (18.8-cubic-foot) trunk is larger than the Ghost Series II’s 464 liters (16.4 cubic feet). BYD has not said how much power the Altior makes.
It rides on the four-motor e4 platform used by the U8 and U9, and recent filings rate the four-motor U7 sedan at 1,000 kW (1,341 hp).
The battery is a second-generation Blade pack with a claimed range of more than 1,000 km (621 miles) on China’s CLTC cycle, which is considered optimistic. BYD claims a 10 to 70 percent charge in about five minutes on its megawatt Flash Charging network.
The Altior measures 5,600 mm long, compared with 5,546 mm for the current Ghost Series II, or 54 mm (2.1 inches) longer. Its wheelbase of 3,500 mm (137.8 inches) is 205 mm (8.1 inches) longer than a standard Ghost’s and 35 mm (1.4 inches) longer than the Ghost Extended’s, though the Extended is still longer overall at 5,716 mm.
The larger difference lies in the powertrain. The Ghost still runs a 563-hp V12, while Rolls-Royce’s only EV is the Spectre coupe.
There is no word on whether an electric Rolls-Royce Ghost will follow, leaving Yangwang to offer Ghost buyers an electric limousine, something Rolls-Royce does not build.
Yangwang already sells cars in the UAE through Al-Futtaim, and BYD says the brand reaches Europe next, starting with the UK in 2027. There is no word yet on UAE pricing or whether a U.S.
launch can happen. The Ghost Series II starts at $370,750 before destination in the U.S.
and about AED 1.35 million (roughly $368,000) in the UAE.
Rolls-Royce delivered 993 Ghosts worldwide in 2025, and Yangwang delivered 3,251 cars in China in the first nine months of this year. Whether Rolls-Royce clients will cross-shop a BYD-owned limousine will likely depend on where they live.
The Gulf, where the Altior debuted, sits between markets. North America, which accounts for about a third of Rolls-Royce deliveries, and Europe should keep the Ghost secure for now.
In China, buyers already pay Maybach money for homegrown flagships, and Huawei’s Maextro S800 has passed 10,000 units built. The Altior exposes a gap in Goodwood’s lineup, since its only electric car is the two-door Spectre, and an electric sedan would be the most convincing reply.
