BYD YangWang U9 Xtreme Crowns as the World’s Fastest Production Car

At 496.22 km/h speed, the all-new BYD YangWang U9 Xtreme is now the world’s fastest production car ever.

Top speed record lists are often flooded by legacy European automakers, but things have now changed once and for all as China’s BYD has claimed the world’s fastest production car record with its new BYD YangWang U9 Xtreme. Charting an astounding top speed of 496.22 km/h at the ATP Automotive Testing Papenburg test track in Germany, this all-electric hypercar has shattered the previous record set by the Bugatti Chiron Super Sport 300+.

Not to be confused with the YangWang U9 01 ‘Track Edition,’ which already set the top speed record for production EVs at 472.41 km/h, the U9 Xtreme is essentially the limited-edition production version of the former, with 30 units already planned for global production.

Still built on the ‘standard’ YangWang U9’s 1,200-volt silicon-carbide platform, the U9 Xtreme gets a quad-motor setup that BYD claims to deliver up to 2,220 kW, or more than 3,000 PS, thus potentially making it the most powerful production car to date. Combined with its 2,480 kg kerb weight, the U9 Xtreme boasts a power-to-weight ratio of 1,217 PS per tonne.

To compensate for this extreme power output, BYD has equipped the hypercar with a track-grade LFP ‘Blade’ battery pack with dual-layer cooling that provides better thermal management and can be discharged at up to a 30C rate.

And just like the Track Edition, the U9 Xtreme gets several aerodynamic bits over its vanilla twin, with key highlights including a larger carbon fibre front splitter, dual-channel hood design, and a swan neck-style rear spoiler. Not to forget, the hypercar also rides on 20-inch wheels shod in bespoke GitiSport e.Gtr2 Pro semi-slick tyres that are said to be able to handle up to 500 km/h of speeds.

Stopping power for the U9 Xtreme is provided by a set of carbon-ceramic brakes with titanium callipers, while the hypercar still rides on a revised version of BYD’s proprietary Disus-X active body control system.

Besides the production car top speed record, the U9 Xteme has also set a new record for production EVs around the Nurburgring Nordschleife.

Piloting the U9 Xtreme through this record-breaking feat was German racer Marc Basseng, who also drove the U9 01 ‘Track Edition’ during its initial record-breaking run. Besides the top speed record, the U9 Xtreme was also brought to the infamous Nurburgring Nordschleife track, where it charted an impressive lap time record of 6 mins 59.157 secs, making it faster than the Xiaomi SU7 Ultra, which charted a 7 mins 4.957 secs lap time earlier this year.