On November 1, driving a Yangwang U9 Xtreme in Abu Dhabi, German racing driver Marc Basseng reached 503.17 km/h, setting a verified one-way speed record for production vehicles and production electric vehicles.
Powered by four independent electric motors generating a combined 2,200 kW—roughly 3,000 horsepower—the car shattered previous benchmarks, improving upon a 496.22 km/h run recorded in September at Germany's ATP Papenburg circuit, Pravda reported.
FIA Verifies 503.17 Km/H Speed and Hardware Details
- The Speed: 503.17 km/h verified by the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA) on a closed section of the E11 highway in Abu Dhabi.
- The Hardware: Four motors reaching 30,000 RPM running on a 1,200-volt architecture, paired with DiSus-X active suspension and Giti Tire components.
- The Production Limit: BYD plans to manufacture only 30 units of the homologated hypercar, keeping accessibility strictly exclusive.
The path to the record was hardly straightforward. Pravda reported that during high-speed testing in China, a Yangwang U9 Xtreme lost control and struck safety barriers at approximately 360 km/h. Despite severe vehicle damage, the test driver escaped without serious injury.
Rather than abandoning the program, BYD shifted testing to the United Arab Emirates. Technicians cleared a ten-kilometer stretch of the E11 highway in the desert, removing sand and microscopic metal shavings from cleaning brushes to protect the tires.
After initial runs on October 31 reached a maximum of 490 km/h, engineers overnight adjusted the rear wing angle, reprogrammed dampers, optimized tire pressures, and managed battery thermal thresholds. The following day, Basseng pushed the hypercar past the 500 km/h threshold.
| Metric | Yangwang U9 (2024 Base) | Yangwang U9 Xtreme (Record Spec) |
|---|---|---|
| System Power | 960 kW (1,305 hp) | Over 2,200 kW (~3,000 hp) |
| Electrical Architecture | 800 Volts | 1,200 Volts |
| Motor Configuration | Four wheel-mounted motors | Four 555 kW independent motors |
| Top Speed Record | Standard production envelope | 503.17 km/h (FIA Verified) |
Complementing the baseline specifications reported by SITA.sk, the vehicle features a 4.97-meter length, a 2.9-meter wheelbase, and a total weight approaching 2.5 metric tons. Wolfgang Egger, former designer for SEAT, Alfa Romeo, Lamborghini, and Audi, styled the exterior lines of the underlying model.
Electronics adjust driving force distribution more than a hundred times per second. The vehicle also completed the Nürburgring Nordschleife in 6 minutes and 59.157 seconds, establishing a lap record for production electric vehicles, according to Pravda.
Market observers note that while the 503.17 km/h figure represents a one-way run rather than a traditional two-way average, the FIA recognition places battery-electric architecture directly into territory once reserved for specialized internal combustion engines.
