BYD’s Dolphin Surf EV just launched in South Africa, but the dinky (and affordable) electric car looks positively adorable compared to what the Chinese brand is doing overseas. The company’s YangWang U9 Extreme electric hypercar has set a new speed record at the Automotive Testing Papenburg facility in Germany.
The previous record, set by Bugatti’s Chiron Super Sport 300+, wasn’t entirely blasted past, but it was put in the rear mirror. The Chiron Super Sport 300+ managed 490.5km/h on the track in 2019. BYD’s new contender has squeaked by with a similarly sphincter-puckering 496.22km/h. It was only set in one direction on the Papenburg oval, so it’s not properly official, but Bugatti’s speed record was set the same way. So there’s that.
BYD is coming up fast
You can watch BYD’s own highly dramatised version of the recent track run above (or here), but it’s the closing seconds of the video that are of the most interest. Once all the lovely pans and sweeps are done, there’s just silence and a top speed usually reserved for vehicles with wings. German driver Marc Basseng was behind the wheel, and his feat is one you’ll probably never replicate, assuming you could afford one of the planned 30 production units.
It takes a special sort of madness to play around with the YangWang U9 Extreme’s 3,000 horsepower, which uses one of the world’s first 1,200V EV platforms — likely the EliteSiC M3e — for improved efficiency and performance.
What we can’t find on the vehicle’s website is any mention of the range for the battery setup, though the company gushes on about the suspension, tyres (which are intended to withstand speeds of 500km/h), braking, and weight reduction innovations. Presumably, nobody will ever drive one of the YangWang U9 Extreme EVs at full capacity on a real road. It’s a track beast, but if anyone ever does floor it on the highway, it’ll probably be mentioned in their obituary.
The Chinese company hasn’t mentioned pricing for the U9 Extreme’s extremely limited production run. It’s probably just as well.
