The BYD Group has scored a major coup by breaking two speed records in quick succession with its Yangwang U9 Xtreme, the most important of which is that of the world’s fastest production car.
Back in April, the Xiaomi SU7 Ultra dethroned Porsche on its home turf, beating the sportiest version of the Taycan in the electric category at the legendary Nürburgring. This autumn, it’s another electric hypercar that is shaking up the historic giants of sports cars with an even more impressive record. The Yangwang U9 Xtreme has become the fastest production car in the world on the ATP (Automotive Testing Papenburg) circuit in Germany. And that’s just for starters.
3000 bhp and 496 km/h for the Yangwang U9
The ‘production’ version of the Yangwang U9 is a supercar to be presented in 2023 by this sports division of the BYD Group. The basic model already boasts 1,300bhp and a 0-100kph time of two seconds, making it one of the best in its class. But its Xtreme variant, as the name suggests, pushes the envelope even further, with over 3,000bhp!
It was with these strong arguments that the Yangwang U9 Xtreme arrived on the ATP scene and smashed the speed record previously held by the Bugatti Chiron Super Sport 300+. In fact, the Chinese racer managed the feat of clocking up 496.22 km/h on the speedometer. That’s insane. What’s more, assuming that the ATP is a shorter test track than Ehra Lessien, where Bugatti set its record, BYD reckons that its hypercar could have reached or even exceeded 500 km/h…
Impressive on the Nürburgring too
But as the world speed record didn’t seem to be enough, BYD sent its Yangwang U9 Xtreme to take on… Xiaomi! As we mentioned in the introduction, the lap record for an electric car was beaten last April by the SU7 Ultra in 7 minutes and 04 seconds. Well, the U9 Xtreme has achieved the feat of doing so in 6 minutes and 59 seconds. Admittedly, that’s not much of a gap, but it says a lot about the BYD group’s ambitions to not only extinguish the European competition, but also its compatriots!
It remains to be seen whether this Xtreme version will be available to the general public. Well, ‘general public’ is a bit of an exaggeration, but the brand had to produce it, at least in small series, in order to homologate its record as the fastest production car in the world. This will certainly be the case, with a limited edition of around thirty units, which should not have too much trouble selling despite the prohibitive price… Beating Bugatti, Porsche and Xiaomi within a few days of each other is a hell of a publicity stunt!
