BYD’s U9X electric hypercar breaks global speed record at 496.22 km/h

Yangwang, the luxury sub-brand of BYD, has set a new global production-car top-speed record of 496.22km/h at the ATP Automotive Testing Papenburg test track in Germany.

The record was set with the U9 Xtreme hypercar, eclipsing its previous EV benchmark and the 490.484km/h maximum of the quickest petrol-powered model to become the world’s fastest car overall.

Upgraded architecture 

It dethrones the Bugatti Chiron Super Sport 300+, which held the record for the world's fastest production petrol-powered car, achieving a top speed of 490.484 km/h in 2019.

Originally known as the U9 Track/Special Edition, and now officially confirmed as the Yangwang U9 Xtreme in production guise, or U9X for short, it takes the existing technical architecture of the U9 currently on sale in China and harnesses the potential of a number of key evolutions.

These include an upgraded powertrain with 1200V ultra-high-voltage electrics (compared with 800V of the U9 Track/Special Edition ), a lithium iron phosphate Blade Battery with a discharge rate of 30C, four ultra-high-speed motors that operate at up to 30,000rpm and produce a total of more than 2237kW, smaller 20-inch track-level semi-slick tyres from Giti, and revised DiSus-X suspension with specific tuning to cope with the increased stresses of circuit driving.

The car weighs in at 2.480kg.

Fastest driver

The driver for the U9X’s record-breaking run was Marc Basseng, a German track specialist with a long history in sports-car racing and endurance motorsport and multiple-time lap record breaker at the Nürburgring.

“This record was only possible because the U9 Xtreme simply has incredible performance. Technically, something like this is not possible with a combustion engine. Thanks to the electric motor, the car is quiet, there are no load changes, and that allows me to focus even more on the track,” he said.

“This is an incredibly proud moment for everyone in the research and development division. It's terrific that the fastest production car in the world is now electric,” said BYD Executive Vice President Stella Li.

The U9 Xtreme is being made available to customers, with a limited series production run of 30 units.