- The Nurburgring Nordschleife lap record for electric vehicles has been smashed by BYD’s Yangwang U9 supercar, lapping the 12.9 mile circuit in just 6 minutes and 59 seconds.
- This makes it the fastest time recorded within the ‘Electric Super Sports Cars’ class, beating the previous EV record holder, the Xiaomi SU7 Ultra, by over 5 seconds.
- The Nurburgring has always been the ultimate proving ground for automotive manufacturers, translating into real-world R&D results, and that looks set to remain in the EV era.
The Yangwang U9 laps the Nurburgring Nordschleife in record time
The limited edition Yangwang U9 Extreme beat the EV lap time record, which brings ‘body-attitude control’ technology over the standard Yangwang U9 to give it an edge when it comes to lap time performance.
The Nurburgring facilities have long been a key tool in an automaker’s R&D arsenal. Whilst record lap times by manufacturers could initially be seen as simply bragging rights, the Nordschleife’s 12.9 mile route, along with 1,000 feet of elevation changes and 73 corners, places a tremendous amount of stress on a car’s drivetrain, suspension components, and brakes. The results of this torture testing eventually filters down to more normal and affordable road cars, ensuring both reliability and improved driving dynamics for the end customer. Recently, Chinese EV brand Xiaomi, the previous EV record holder, became a premium partner of the site and joined the Nurburgring’s ‘industry pool’, giving it access to develop vehicles and components at the site for 16 weeks of the year – helping to further advance emobility.
The overall production car record for the Nurburgring Nordschleife is currently held by the ICE-powered Mercedes-AMG ONE, with a time of 6 minutes and 29 seconds. But, with EV technology accelerating at an astounding rate, watch this space, as future performance EVs could quickly close the gap.
BYD Executive Vice President, Stella Li, commented:
“We are dedicated to pushing the limits of what can be achieved through technology, and the Nurburgring is such a legendary challenge for cars and drivers that it is only natural for our engineers to pursue their dreams there. I congratulate the entire team on this phenomenal achievement. The limited-edition U9 Xtreme has proven that it is not only the world’s fastest car in a straight line, but also a vehicle with the performance and dynamic qualities necessary to break lap records on a circuit with a wide variety of corners.”
