The Bugatti Chiron Super Sport has a confirmed top speed of over 304 mph, making it, until now, the world’s fastest production car. The Yangwang U9 Xtreme, an all-electric Chinese hypercar, just broke that mark in Germany, going 308.4 mph. That made it the holder of two titles: the fastest EV in the world, and the fastest production car, period.
The Yangwang U9 was already the world’s fastest EV, having gone 293.5 mph in a speed run earlier this year, besting cars like the Koenigsegg Agera RS, Rimac Nevera, and Aspark Owl. This new run went even faster. It was completed at ATP Automotive Testing Papenburg in Germany. Just a few months ago, this car was also known as the U9 Track Edition, but with the new speed record, Yangwang unveiled a new name, too: the Yangwang U9 Xtreme, or the U9X.
“Yangwang is a brand that does not recognize the impossible, and only through this commitment to what’s coming next can you end up with a vehicle like the U9X,” Stella Li, a vice president at the brand, said in a statement. “It’s terrific that the fastest production car in the world is now electric.”
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Yangwang U9 Xtreme Graeme Fordham
The driver of the U9X was Marc Basseng, who also drove it to the EV record this year. The U9X makes 3,000 horsepower from four electric motors. The tires were semi-slicks, and the suspension was also tuned specifically for this speed run.
Conveniently for Yangwang, customer versions of the U9X are now on sale, though the EV maker says that only 30 will be made. The company also clarified that the name “Xtreme” is derived from the English word “extreme,” though spelled “Xtreme” to emphasize the letter X and the “unknown.” Yangwang is a unit of BYD, the Chinese EV maker that is the highest-selling brand there. Increasingly, BYD is across the world, too, with BYD picking up steam in Europe.
Yangwang’s pursuit of the speed record also follows a playbook that has been around for emerging or ambitious automakers since the beginning of motorized transportation: Set speed records, make yourself famous, and sales will likely follow. It’s also, still, a very cool trick to pull off.
“Technically, something like this is not possible with a combustion engine,” Basseng said in a statement, sounding less like a driver than an engineer. “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.”
Click here for more photos of the Yangwang U9 Xtreme.
[SRC] https://robbreport.com/motors/cars/yangwang-u9-xtreme-worlds-fastest-production-car-1237086187/
