BYD will launch its premium brand in the first half of next year, and the first model will be a hardcore crossover priced at around RMB 500,000 to RMB 1 million, local media said.

BYD will launch its premium brand in the first half of next year, with the first model to be a hardcore crossover priced at around RMB 500,000 ($78,600) to 1 million yuan, the company was quoted as saying today by nbd.com.cn.

The Denza brand, a collaboration between BYD and Daimler, will also have a new model release next year, and both sides will invest more in the brand, the report said.

The report did not provide more details, though other local media previously quoted BYD passenger car brand and public relations division deputy general manager Du Guozhong as saying that the company's first premium model could be priced at RMB 500,000 to 900,000 yuan.

It is positioned as a high-end hardcore crossover, with the first model and the new premium brand expected to be announced in the first half of next year, as mentioned in previous reports.

The naming of the new model is not yet fully confirmed, but it will use many of the company's latest technologies and will be a big surprise to many potential users at that time, Du said.

It's worth noting that spy photos suspected to be the high-end model have previously been circulated on Chinese social networks.

These photos show that the new car adopts a non-load-bearing body structure and has a very large body size, with the actual length of the car perhaps reaching more than 5 meters.

BYD recently said in an investor conference call that its 2022 new energy vehicle sales target is probably between 1.1-1.2 million units, with 600,000 BEVs (battery electric vehicles) and 500,000-600,000 PHEVs (plug-in hybrids), according to a report in the Shenzhen Economic Daily on Sunday.

The industry's current forecast for new energy vehicle sales in China next year is roughly 4.5-5 million units, and if BYD achieves its goal of 1.2 million sales, it would mean an increase in its market share to about 25 percent, the report said.

In addition, if BYD meets next year's target, it would also become the second company in the world to sell more than 1 million new energy vehicles after Tesla, even though all of Tesla's models are BEVs.