Yangwang U9Xtreme pushes to 312mph top speed

Yangwang has smashed several performance car records with a high-speed run of its U9 Xtreme.

The high-performance electric car pushed past the 500 km/h barrier – and its own previous benchmark of 496.22 km/h – to hit a top speed of 312mph. In the process, it secured two Guinness World Records – Highest Speed achieved by a production car in a single-direction run, and highest speed achieved by an electric production car.

Yangwang is the luxury subsidiary of BYD and its U9 is one of the flagship models to have been developed by the group/

The high-speed run took place on the Sheikh Khalifa Bin Zayed International Road in Abu Dhabi, with endurance racer Marc Basseng behind the wheel. Basseng had also piloted the U9X during its previous high-speed run but pushed beyond previous records to hit the new high speed.

Stella Li, BYD Executive Vice-President, said: “I always tell people that our engineers are young, bold and maybe a little crazy – but in a good way! And again, we must congratulate them and the whole Yangwang U9X team for an incredible next step and these astonishing records.

“Even as the team celebrated the astonishing 496.22km/h (308.22mph) in Germany last year, they were looking through the data and discussing how to take U9X to its next level. 503.17km/h (312.65mph) is a fantastic achievement, and it moves the benchmark for pure electric power even further ahead of where others might dream.”

The U9 Xtreme uses electric motors at each wheel which, combined, produce 2,959bhp while a quad-motor torque vectoring system constantly monitors the road feedback and adjusts the amount of power sent to each wheel to ensure maximum traction – even at very high speeds.