China’s Yangwang U9 Xtreme Just Set A 308.4 MPH Top Speed Record, But An American Car Is Still The Champ — Here’s Why
The world’s fastest electric production car just became the world’s fastest production car. From a certain point of view.
The Yangwang U9 Extreme hit 308.4 mph on the Automotive Testing Papenburg test track in Germany to beat the 304.77 mph mark set by the Bugatti Chiron in 2019.
The Chinese supercar has a 2,978 hp quad-motor 1,200 volt all-wheel drivetrain. it’s an upgrade from the standard U9, which is rated at just 1,287 hp and costs $250,000.
The U9 Xtreme had previously set a 293.54 mph record for electric cars, but Yangwang returned to the track to see how much more it could get out of it. Its price hasn’t been confirmed, but only 30 will be built and they’re not for U.S. sale.
This is the same facility where GM President Mark Reuss drove the Chevrolet Corvette ZR1 to a 233 mph top speed earlier this year, which is the fastest ever for any mainstream American production car.
But there are a few boutique cars that are faster than the Corvette, including the Washington-built $2 million SSC Tuatara that set a 282.9 mph record in 2021, which many still consider the true record.
Read Also: OF COURSE THE CHEVY CORVETTE ZR1 WILL SMOKE THE FORD MUSTANG GTD IN A DRAG RACE
That’s because the speed was the average of two runs in opposite directions, which accounts for wind and other factors, while the Chiron and U9 Extreme’s speeds were only clocked going one way.
The 1,750 hp Tuatara hit a maximum speed of 286.1 mph going one way, but was being tested on a relatively short and straight runway instead of an oval track like the Papenperg test center’s. SSC has not announced any firm plans for another test, although it once said the car had a theoretical 360 mph top speed.
SUBSCRIBE TO THE FREE AMERICAN CARS AND RACING NEWSLETTER FOR THE LATEST PERFORMANCE CAR NEWS
But there is another American challenger. When the Hennessey Venom F5 was first revealed in 2020, the company said it was designed to break 500 kmh, which is 311 mph and had a theoretical top speed of 328 mph. That was when it had a 1,817 hp engine, but now has one with 2,003 hp.
Hennessey has tested the Venom F5 to more than 250 mph and has said it plans to go for a top speed record one day. It hasn’t firmed up a date or venue, but John Hennessey said he’d like to do it on a closed public road instead of a test track to prove what it can do in the real world. As unreal as that sounds.