Volkswagen ID. UNYX 08 Lieying Edition 2026: specs, price and release date

© A. Krivonosov / SPEEDME

Volkswagen unveiled a striking new special edition of the ID. UNYX 08 at the Chengdu Auto Show, which opened on August 21. SPEEDME’s correspondent photographed the all-black electric crossover, called the ID. UNYX 08 Lieying Edition, on the Volkswagen Anhui stand. It’s exactly the variant the company had promised to reveal on the show’s opening day.

The main difference with the Lieying is its look. The body is finished in deep black paint, and nearly all the exterior trim is blacked out too. Orange accents stand out against that backdrop, including the brake calipers and a handful of details on the body and interior. Volkswagen had even run a public vote on the special edition’s name, with Lieying, Black Warrior, Black Knight and Wolf King among the options.

The ID. UNYX 08 itself is more interesting than a typical cosmetic special edition. It’s Volkswagen’s first production model co-developed with XPeng. The project reached production in just 24 months, with assembly starting in March 2026 at the Volkswagen Anhui plant in Hefei. Volkswagen calls the car one of the key results of its “In China, for China” strategy.

Size-wise, this is already a full-size SUV: 5,000x1,954x1,688 mm, with a 3,030 mm wheelbase. Despite its considerable footprint, the cabin seats five. Trunk volume is 766 liters, expanding to 1,845 liters with the second row folded.

The model is built on a modern 800-volt electrical architecture and is offered with rear- or all-wheel drive. The base electric motor produces 230 kW — 313 hp and 465 Nm. The all-wheel-drive version adds a front motor rated at 140 kW, bringing combined output to 370 kW, or 503 hp, and 695 Nm. That version sprints to 100 km/h in 4.9 seconds.

The ID. UNYX 08 comes with 82 kWh and 95 kWh battery options. Range runs from 630 to 730 km on the CLTC cycle: the longest figure belongs to the rear-wheel-drive version with the larger battery, while the powerful all-wheel-drive variant can cover up to 700 km. The 800-volt system allows the use of high-power charging stations.

The electronics are just as unusual. The cabin features a 10.25-inch digital instrument cluster and two 14.96-inch 2.4K displays. A Snapdragon SA8295P chip handles infotainment, and the passenger screen gets a privacy mode that limits what the driver can see.

The driver-assistance suite uses two computing chips with a combined 1,500 TOPS of processing power. Volkswagen cites a VLA driving model and an enhanced Level 2 system with city NOA. The company stresses that the ID. UNYX 08 combines German safety and quality standards with connectivity and driver-assistance systems developed in China.

That said, it’s important not to attribute the flagship variant’s specs directly to the Lieying Edition: Volkswagen hasn’t said which of the three existing trims the show car is based on, or whether its hardware has been changed. Officially confirmed so far are mainly the special black paint and the orange trim details.

The regular ID. UNYX 08 currently starts at 229,900 yuan in China, topping out at 289,900 yuan — roughly $32,000 to $40,300 at current exchange rates. Pricing for the new Lieying Edition itself hasn’t been announced yet.

The model is also notable for its technical pedigree. This is a Volkswagen largely built around a new Chinese development playbook: XPeng-sourced technology, a powerful computing platform, an 800-volt system and software tailored to the local market. Volkswagen states plainly that the ID. UNYX 08 is intended for China and, for instance, isn’t officially offered even in Germany.

That’s exactly why the ID. UNYX 08 Lieying, photographed by SPEEDME in Chengdu, shows just how far Volkswagen’s Chinese lineup has drifted from the ID.4 and ID.5 familiar to Europeans: a five-meter body, up to 503 hp, up to 730 km of range and electronics developed with XPeng.