EVwire brief: BYD's Yangwang has set a new world record for production cars, with the all-electric U9 Xtreme hypercar reaching 503.17 km/h (312.66 mph) during a top-speed challenge on public roads in Abu Dhabi.
The run tops the U9 Xtreme's previously certified record of 496.22 km/h (308.34 mph), which it set at Germany's ATP proving ground. Yangwang is now billing the car as the "world's fastest production car," with the U9 Xtreme limited to just 30 units worldwide at a price of more than 20 million yuan ($2.98 million) each.
Here's the U9 Xtreme's record-breaking top speed run in Abu Dhabi:
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The run has since been certified as a world record, with Guinness World Records recognizing the U9 Xtreme as the world's fastest production car. The record haul didn't stop there, either, as the car also took Guinness titles for the fastest electric vehicle and the fastest EV tire, while tire partner Giti picked up the record for the fastest road car tire.
Here’s a photo of the BYD Yangwang team receiving their Guinness World Records certificate:
Image: Weibo/@向北不断电
The U9 Xtreme's speed comes from BYD's e4 quad-motor setup, with each of its four motors spinning at up to 30,000 rpm and putting out a peak 555 kW (744 hp). That adds up to a combined 2,220 kW (2,977 hp), with the car running on what BYD calls the world's first mass-produced 1,200-volt platform and a track-grade Blade Battery capable of 30C discharge.
Keeping the car planted at those speeds falls to BYD's DiSus-X fully active body control system, while an enhanced titanium-alloy carbon-ceramic braking setup handles stopping. The U9 Xtreme also rides on semi-slick tires custom-built for speeds above 500 km/h, which Yangwang says are a first for China.
Here's the poster Yangwang released to mark the run:
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Context:
The U9 Xtreme has been chasing speed records for a little over a year now. A U9 engineering test car first reached 472.41 km/h (293.54 mph) at the ATP proving ground in August 2025, setting what was then the global top speed record for electric vehicles. Yangwang debuted the U9 Xtreme a month later, and the car went on to lap the Nürburgring Nordschleife in 6 minutes 59.157 seconds that September, making it the first all-electric production car to break the 7-minute barrier there.
The road to 500 km/h wasn't without drama, either. Just days before the Abu Dhabi results came out, a U9 Xtreme crashed during a high-speed test run in China, tearing off its rear axle, though the driver walked away from the wreck. The U9 Xtreme is also a big step up from the standard U9, which went on sale in China in February 2024 with four 240 kW (322 hp) motors and now starts at 1.8 million yuan (about $268,000).
Source: BYD Europe, CnEVPost
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