Yangwang U9 Xtreme Breaks 500 Kmph Barrier With New Top Speed Record At 503.17 Kmph

Yangwang, another luxury brand of BYD, just shattered the production car top speed record by clocking a speed of 503.17 kmph with the U9 Xtreme electric hypercar. This isn’t even the first top speed record rodeo for Yangwang, as it has broken its own previous record of 496.22 kmph it set a year ago. 

Unlike the last time, when the Yangwang U9 Xtreme set the record at Germany’s ATP Papenberg test track, the latest was set at a closed course in Abu Dhabi. However, both times, the U9 Xtreme was piloted by Marc Basseng, an FIA GT1 World Champion and 24 Hours of Nurburgring winner. 

Basseng piloted the Yangwang U9 Xtreme at the Sheikh Khalifa Bin Zayed International Road in Al Dhafra, Abu Dhabi, on a 10 km long stretch. The longest straight here was 7 km long, helping the Yangwang. 

This isn’t the first time Yangwang has attempted the top-speed record. The first one was in January 2025, when the regular U9 achieved a top speed of 309 kmph at the Wuhan Hannan Airport. The next one came just under 10 months later, when the same U9 variant set a top speed of 391.94 kmph at the Papenberg test track. The U9 Xtreme set the record at Papenberg twice, once in August 2025 (472.41 kmph) and then in September 2025 (496.22 kmph). 

Yangwang U9: Overview

Powering the Yangwang U9 Xtreme are four electric motors that churn out a massive 3019 PS (combined). Each motor is capable of 755 PS and can spin up to 30,000 rpm. The U9 has an astonishing power-to-weight ratio of 1217 PS, which is more than the horsepower of the fastest Bugatti Veyron ever made. 

While the standard U9 runs an 800 volt architecture, the U9 Xtreme has a 1200 volt architecture, which the brand claims was necessary for managing the thermals and additional power from the electric motors. It also runs special, track-focused, semi-slick tyres manufactured by Giti Tyres. 

Yangwang is another luxury division of BYD, but with more focus on performance and luxury, rather than outright luxury like Denza. Yangwang specialises in making extreme sports vehicles, like the U9 and U9 Xtreme, or the U8 luxury off-road SUV. 

The U9 and U9 Xtreme utilise the most advanced electric vehicle engineering that BYD has to offer. Both are cars that produce upwards of 1000 PS, making them some of the most powerful production cars in the world. The U9 Xtreme has a very quintessential sports car design with a low-slung body, a two-seater layout and a swan-neck spoiler. 

The cabin, too, is proper sports car-like with only two seats, a digital driver’s display and a vertical infotainment touchscreen. It also gets carbon-fibre bucket seats and a roll-cage, which seems like a necessary given the power the U9 Xtreme makes. 

CarDekho Says…

Finally, after more than a century of the start of the automotive industry, we have finally breached the coveted 500 kmph top speed record for production cars. Dedicated land speed record cars already shattered this milestone decades ago, but they were purpose-built cars made exclusively for this. The Yangwang U9 Xtreme is a car you can use to go grocery shopping while still hitting over 500 kmph (if road conditions permit), without changing anything about it.

This landmark top speed record was achieved by an electric vehicle, since apparently the limit of internal combustion engines reached its peak with the SSC Tuatara hitting a top speed of 455.3 kmph. However, there’s still hope for an ICE car to break the record because Koenigsegg claims its Jesko Absolute hypercar can theoretically achieve a top speed of 530 kmph, but it’s yet to be tested. With Yangwang crossing the 500 kmph mark, brands like SSC North America, Hennessey, Bugatti, and Koenigsegg will try to beat Yangwang in the future.