We think the Yangwang Altior, BYD's new rival to the Rolls-Royce Ghost, will cost around £260,000 if it comes to Britain, which would make it about £27,000 cheaper than a Ghost but dearer than a Bentley Flying Spur Speed. BYD hasn't announced a price, and won't reveal the car until 5 November in Dubai, but Chinese reports put it at about 2 million yuan, and once you add British import duty and VAT, a bargain-basement price is hard to make work. Yangwang, BYD's luxury brand, is due here in 2027, though the Altior itself hasn't been confirmed for the UK yet.
So this is our prediction, but it’s built on more than a hunch, so here’s how we got there. We’ll be covering the reveal in Dubai on 5 November and updating this page with the official price, specs and UK plans as soon as BYD announces them, so check back to see how close we got.
How we worked out the Yangwang Altior price
Start with the figure doing the rounds in China, which is about 2 million yuan, or roughly £217,000 at around 9.2 yuan to the pound. Chinese car prices include 13% VAT, so take that out and you're left with about £192,000 before tax.
Bring that car into Britain and it picks up the standard 10% import duty on Chinese-built cars, and then 20% VAT on top, which takes it to about £254,000 before BYD has paid a penny to ship it, get it approved for British roads or give a dealer a cut. That's the floor, and it's already within about £33,000 of a Ghost.
Everything BYD adds on top of that is harder to pin down, but there's a clue in the Middle East. When Yangwang took its U8 SUV to the UAE, it priced it at AED 650,900 before VAT, which works out at roughly a quarter more than the U8 costs in China once Chinese VAT is stripped out. Add a markup like that here and the Altior would cost about £290,000, which is more than a Ghost, and we can't see BYD asking that for a badge most British buyers have never heard of.
Why we think BYD will price it just under the Ghost
Look at where the Altior would sit among the cars a buyer would actually compare it with. A Mercedes-Maybach S580 costs £178,180, a Bentley Flying Spur Speed £239,645, a Rolls-Royce Ghost £287,400 and the longer Ghost Extended £317,400. Price the Altior much below £240,000 and it starts to look like a Bentley rival, and BYD would be losing money on each car once the duty is paid. Price it near £290,000 and there's no reason to pick it over the real thing.
BYD's track record in Britain points the same way, because it doesn't do cheap with its premium brands. The Denza Z9 GT costs 269,800 yuan in China, or around £29,000, but it went on sale here in July from £105,000, more than three and a half times as much. That tells us BYD sets its British prices by looking at the opposition, whatever the car costs at home, and for the Altior the opposition is a Ghost. So our best guess is around £260,000, a price that covers BYD's costs and gives it a clear £27,000 saving to put in the brochure.
Is the Yangwang Altior coming to the UK?
Not officially, yet. BYD's Europe boss, Stella Li, said last year that Yangwang would arrive in the UK in 2027, after Denza, and the U8 SUV and U9 supercar are the models named for Europe so far. The Altior is being launched in Dubai, which suggests the Middle East comes first, but it would be odd to bring the U9 supercar to Britain and leave out the car built to take on Rolls-Royce.
What we know about the Yangwang Altior so far
It's 5.5 metres long with a 3.35-metre wheelbase, which makes it about 10cm longer than a standard Ghost, and the teasers show rear-hinged back doors, big chrome wheels, a lidar sensor on the roof and a grille inspired by the ding, an ancient Chinese bronze vessel. BYD hasn't said what powers it, so it could be fully electric or a plug-in hybrid like the U8, and reports that it'll be BYD's first car with a solid-state battery are unconfirmed.
What would it cost to run?
If it arrives as a fully electric car, the company car tax gap would be enormous. On our £260,000 guess, a 45% taxpayer would pay about £5,850 a year at the 5% electric rate due in 2027/28, against about £47,850 for a Ghost in the 37% band. Either car would also pay the £440 Expensive Car Supplement on top of its vehicle tax for five years.
What we like
- Ghost-sized, with the same rear-hinged back doors
- Likely to undercut a Rolls-Royce by tens of thousands
- Tiny company car tax bill if it's fully electric
What worries us
- No price, powertrain or UK launch confirmed
- Nobody knows how a Yangwang will hold its value here
- At 5.5 metres, it's a big car for British streets
Most of us won't be trading in for an Altior, but if you're curious what your current car would bring to the deal, a free car valuation from Regit takes a couple of minutes.
Our verdict
The maths says the Altior can't be a cut-price Rolls-Royce in Britain, because duty and VAT alone take a 2 million yuan car to around £254,000, so we expect BYD to land at about £260,000 and sell it on technology, space and a clear saving over a Ghost. Whether that's enough to tempt anyone away from 120 years of Rolls-Royce history is another matter, and at that price we think the Altior will win over far more company directors than old-money buyers.