Remember the Yangwang U9? You probably looked at this all-electric supercar from China when it was unveiled the year before last, saw its party trick of being able to bunny hop on the spot and thought ‘huh, that’s neat’, and then swiftly forgot about it, because it’s not on sale outside of China and anyway, lots of these mega-powerful electric cars aren’t all that interesting anyway.
Well, Yangwang – a luxury wing of car manufacturing giant BYD – has just given us more reason to remember that the U9 exists, because a new Track Edition variant has just set a new EV speed record of 472.41kph – 293.54mph in old money. That sees it eclipse the 278mph achieved by the Koenigsegg Agera RS, although the ’egg still reigns supreme as the official fastest production car, because the U9 Track Edition isn’t on sale yet, and it’s not even clear if it’s road-legal.
Yangwang U9 Track Edition – side
How does the Track Edition differ from the regular U9, which is itself no slouch? For starters, it turns up each of the car’s four electric motors to a peak of 744bhp each, meaning it delivers a total of 2976bhp. That, in metric numbers, is north of the hallowed 3000ps mark.
It also features the first mass-produced 1200-volt electric architecture (seems like not that long ago we were impressed by anything with 800 volts), and a bespoke thermal management system ‘optimised for extreme conditions’. Finally, it wears bespoke semi-slick rubber from Indonesian company Giti.
Yangwang U9 Track Edition – front
Besides all that, it gets the same torque vectoring capabilities as the standard car, and Yangwang’s signature DiSus-X suspension setup that allows incredibly fine individual adjustments on all four corners.
The record run took place at the high-speed bowl at Germany’s Papenburg test track – the same place the new Corvette ZR1 hit 233mph last year – with German racing driver Marc Basseng at the wheel.
It’s not clear if there are plans to offer the U9 Track Edition for sale, and even if it does, BYD is still debating whether to bring the Yangwang brand to Europe. For now, though, it’s your move, Rimac.
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