It seems that yesterday has been effervescence with the news that Xiaomi – better known for its smartphones, watches and portable devices – broke the electric production car record during the infamous Nurburgring.
The SU7 Ultra defeated the formidable Porsche Taycan Turbo GT and the Rimac nevera of $ 2.5 million, as well as to shame the Plaid Tesla Model, itself, a car that embarrassed many dedicated performance brands when it went up to closing in 2021.
Now Yangwang has carried out a similar feat, beating an EV top speed record by reaching a 293.54 MPH watershed on the ATP test track in Germany.
He broke the previous records held by the Aspark Owl and the Rimac Nevera. Yup, another blow to the brand whose CEO is now the head of Honcho in Bugatti.
The fact that the Xiaomi SU7 improved a Porsche Taycan Turbo GT during its very first round around the Nurburgring is slightly embarrassing
The Yangwang U9, which is only a model of the high performance sub-brand by Byd, is particularly impressive given its revolutionary electric motorcycle group. The track edition which defines the recording includes four engines, each develops a 744 hp.
The total exit tickles almost 3,000 hp, while the intelligent torque vectorization system guarantees that the majority of this growl can be delivered on the road by monitoring and adjusting the torque with each wheel more than 100 times per second.
There is also an intelligent dissusual-x intelligent body control system, which automatically adjusts the suspension system for maximum grip and reduction in pitch and roll. The same technology allows the standard road car to jump on pupil nests.
In addition, Yangwang says that he is a pioneer of an ultra-tension vehicle platform 1200 V in this car, which was optimized to manage the type of extremely felt battery discharge during a high-speed recording attempt.
China clearly has a workforce on battery technology and is currently leagues in front of Western car manufacturers in chemistry and production capacities
Currently, an 800 V system is considered to be peak and is sufficient to see batteries filled in less than five minutes of the most powerful load terminals. Yangwang has not entered the details, but we expect this U9 track edition to drag the juice from a megawatt charging station at amazing rates.
There is also no word on what the tailor -made track edition would cost a private buyer, but the “standard car”, with around 1,300 hp, was put up for sale in 2024 at the price of 1.68 million yuan (or around $ 236,000 / 193,000 £ / 400,000 at).
To put this in perspective, it is more than the current Ferrari F80, which cost nearly $ 4 million if you were lucky to be invited to buy one.
Changing perceptions
Despite the impressive exploits demonstrated both by Xiaomi and Yangwang, the general feeling among us and lovers of European performance cars is that the threat is largely over-typed, that it is “easy to make electric cars quickly in a straight line” or that no one will spend their money hardly won over something bad Yangwang.
If it is true that the value of the brand is undoubtedly one of the most important factors with regard to the world of luxury and performance cars (Ferrari’s profits reached $ 2.67 billion last year), the age of electrification changes all this and the Italian brand may not be undergoing the same success when it will launch its EV debut this year.
I have lost the account of the number of times that the phrase “Temu Ferrari” has been abundant in the comments sections
Porsche said this week that she had abandoned her high -performance battery division of Cellforce, which was set up to produce the type of new generation cells that would feed the next electric cars, such as the previously teasing Mission X concept.
The German automaker said that a “world lack of volumes” means that it is not financially viable to make its plans to develop its own batteries. It also slowed down its transition to purely electric vehicles because customer demand has been relatively low.
Performances that do not cost the earth
China clearly has maintenance on battery technology and is currently leagues in front of Western car manufacturers in chemistry and production capacities, but it also proves that it now has technical know-how to produce brutally competent electrical performance cars.
The fact that the Xiaomi SU7 improved a Porsche Taycan Turbo GT during its very first round around the Nurburgring is slightly embarrassing, in particular for a brand that has built and racing for more than 75 years.
Chinese brands are already busy making the electric vehicle more affordable for the masses, but it is also on a mission to democratize performance
Likewise, Yangwang seems to have the technological prowess of producing a version of the U9 which could break the maximum speed barrier of 300 MPH – something that was carried out by physics, $ 4 million + Bugatti Chiron Super Sport last year.
In simple terms, China is busy breaking electric vehicle records and many are always categorical that brands are somewhat lower or cheaper replicas. I have lost the account of the number of times that the “Temu Ferrari” sentence was abundant around the comments of various news.
Chinese brands are already busy making the electric vehicle more affordable for the masses, but it is also on a mission to democratize performance. A fact that has several of the most revered brands that return to the drawing board.
In China, the Yangwang U9 and Xiaomi SU7 have proven to be enormous commercial successes for the two brands, because the internal market naturally pivots towards the latest technological advances.
It remains to be seen if the rest of the world even wants high performance electric vehicles of this nature – but if this is the case, China will be there to offer them to a fraction of the price.
