There are quick EVs and fast ones, and then there’s whatever you wanna call this Yangwang U9 Xtreme. BYD’s mad, four-motor hypercar has just recorded a claimed 503.17kph, becoming the first production car to break through the 500kph barrier.
The run took place on a closed section of the Sheikh Khalifa Bin Zayed International Road (E11) in Abu Dhabi on November 1. A 10km stretch of road was shut down for the attempt, including a 7km straight used for the top-speed run.
Two runs on the previous day peaked at 490kph, but a bit of tinkering, tweaking, and tire-kicking from Yangwang’s engineers overnight led to the magic 500kph+ figure the following day.
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The record-breaking U9 Xtreme was a heavily modified version of the standard 1,252hp U9, with four upgraded electric motors producing 2,978hp and a staggering 1,200hp-per-ton power-to-weight ratio.
Behind the wheel of said monster was endurance racer Marc Basseng—a man of solid constitution, clearly—who also piloted the U9 Xtreme during its previous record run in Germany where it reached 496.22kph.
Yangwang says the run secured two Guinness World Records: the highest speed achieved by a production car in a single-direction run, and the highest speed achieved by an electric production car in a single-direction run.
The important wording there is single-direction run. That adds a degree of controversy to the record, because a bidirectional run is often used in speed-record attempts to eliminate any environmental and physical variables that may artificially inflate a one-way speed, such as wind, road gradient, and surface conditions.
Bugatti faced similar criticism after the Chiron’s 489kph run, and it also means the SSC Tuatara retains the recognized two-way production-car speed record, hitting an average speed of 455kph.
Still, whether you consider it the definitive production-car benchmark or not, there’s no arguing with one thing: 503.17kph is absurdly fast.
NOTE: This article first appeared on TopGear.com. Minor edits have been made.
