BYD breaks world's fastest EV record with U9 that outputs more than 3000 HP

While the recent acceleration record of the Rimac Nevera R hypercar put the upcoming Tesla Roadster 2 on notice, the world's biggest EV maker has now produced a much cheaper racer that just broke the speed record achieved with an electric car.

The test was done with a Track Edition of BYD's U9 sold under its premium Yangwang brand, on a closed circuit at the ATP test track in Germany. The specialized race car driver Marc Basseng managed to hit 472.41 KPH on the speedometer during a straight section of the circuit, or nearly 300 miles per hour before they had to hit the brakes. For reference, this top speed is already at Bugatti Chiron territory, achieved by an electric car with a lowly 80 KWh LFP battery that costs several times less.

The U9 Track Edition is capable of more than 3,000 HP of combined output via the first quad-motor system utilizing BYD's new 32,000 RPM electric motors, each of which can peak at 555 kW. To provide such a burst of energy for the powerful motors, BYD developed the first mass-produced 1,200 V electric car powertrain system, and enhanced the powertrain's thermal management, too.

The Track Edition is quite the upgrade from the "regular" U9 that runs on BYD's 1 kV platform, costs $235,000, and comes with four 240 kW motors for a combined 1,288 HP output. Still, it likely costs much less than the Nevera R which costs $2.7 million, but its top speed is 268.2 MPH.

BYD bragged that the U9 Track Edition has achieved the highest power-to-weight ratio of any car to date, too, with 1,217 Ps derived from a ton of vehicle weight. The fact that the fastest electric car record was set in Germany is not by accident, either, since BYD and other Chinese EV makers are vying for global expansion and are making inroads in Europe as their biggest potential overseas market.

Xiaomi recently showed its own YU7 Ultra supercar outfitted with German plates, and said that it will be arriving in the European market in 2027, making it an even more competitive EV market. One thing that was not shown in the video of the record run below is the remaining battery capacity after hitting a top speed close to 300 MPH, though, but the 500 kW of charging speed that the U9 is capable of should have dealt with the serious depletion fairly quickly anyway.

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