Yangwang U9 Xtreme sold for more than 20 million yuan, the most expensive BYD yet and a clear sign of the brand’s luxury pivot
BYD luxury brand Yangwang sold at least one U9 Xtreme at the Beijing auto show for more than 20 million yuan, or about 2.7 million euros. That makes it the most expensive BYD production car to date and one of the most expensive Chinese-made supercars publicly known to have sold at that price.
The deal itself will not change BYD’s sales volumes, but its symbolic value is considerable. According to CnEVPost, U9 Xtreme production is limited to just 30 cars worldwide. The production version of the model was presented to the public at the Beijing auto show on April 24. According to Yangwang’s communications, entrepreneur Nick Politis became the only owner in the Australian market, with BYD chief Wang Chuanfu handing over the car to him at the show.
The U9 Xtreme is not simply a more expensive trim, but a much more extreme development than the standard U9. According to Yangwang’s official model page, the car uses four electric motors with peak output of 555 kW each and develops a combined equivalent of more than 3,000 horsepower. CnEVPost puts total output at 2,220 kW, or 2,977 hp, while several other sources cite 3,019 hp. On one point, however, the sources agree: this is a limited-series electric hypercar built on a 1,200-volt architecture, and it achieved an officially certified top speed of 496.22 km/h at the Papenburg test track.
The U9 Xtreme’s positioning is also backed by records. According to BYD, in September 2025 the model set a production-car top speed record of 496.22 km/h, and in October it recorded a 6:59.157 lap of the Nürburgring Nordschleife, the first sub-seven-minute lap by a pure electric production car. That gives BYD an argument for asking a price level that would have seemed unrealistic for a Chinese brand only a few years ago.
According to a Reuters analysis, BYD is currently seeking growth primarily through more expensive models. In the first quarter of 2026, the group’s profit fell 55 percent year on year to 4.1 billion yuan, and vehicle sales declined 12 percent. At the same time, higher-end models already accounted for about 12 percent of sales, double the share a year earlier, and Citi estimates that gross profit per vehicle rose 18 percent. In that light, the U9 Xtreme sale looks less like a one-off spectacle and more like a deliberate attempt to send a pricing signal.
A comparison with Yangwang’s current lineup shows just how steep the price jump is. According to CnEVPost, the standard U9 starts at 1.8 million yuan, the U8 SUV at 1.098 million yuan and the U7 sedan at 628,000 yuan. That means a U9 Xtreme priced at more than 20 million yuan is at least 11 times more expensive than the standard U9 and more than 18 times more expensive than the U8, which had previously sat at the top of BYD’s price ladder. That is what makes the deal notable: BYD is no longer only pushing the limits of technology, it is also testing the price ceiling for Chinese luxury cars.
