Yangwang U9 Track Edition creates new EV track record

New Delhi: BYD-owned Yangwang have announced that their U9 Track Edition has made a new top speed record for an electric vehicle. The Yangwang U9 Track Edition managed to record a speed of 472.4 kph at the ATP Automotive Testing Papenburg track in Germany. 

While the Yangwang U9 Track Edition is quite identical to the standard EV, the BYD-s high-performance brand has tweaked the software on all four 30,000 rpm motors, one being in each wheel. This has resulted in 775 bhp being produced by each motor. Yangwang have claimed that the U9 Track Edition makes around 3000 bhp of total power and has a power-to-weight ratio of 1,217 bhp per tonne. By comparison, the Koenigsegg One:1 has a power-to-weight ratio of 1000 bhp per tonne. 

Other changes to the standard U9 EV include new track-focused semi-slick tyres that have been manufactured by Giti Tire and a carbon-fibre front splitter, which is an optional extra on the stock model on sale in China. 

Yangwang says that in every other way, the U9 Track Edition is the same as the standard EV, from the quad-motor’s independent torque-vectoring system to the DiSus-X ‘Intelligent Body Control System’, which is a sophisticated suspension setup that lets the EV jump over potholes. The previous record-holder of being the world’s fastest EV was from Aspark's OWN SP600 hypercar, which had the highest speed of 438.7 kph on the same test track in Germany.