There's nothing like a high-speed German test track to bring out the best in a car and Chinese make Yangwang has proved the point by hitting a record 472.4 km/h with its all-electric U9 to become the fastest EV on the planet.
The hypercar from BYD's fancy sub-brand Yangwang stormed around the ATP Automotive Testing in Papenburg with German racing driver Marc Basseng at the wheel.
The feat puts the Chinese electric well ahead of the Rimac Nevera, which managed 431.45 km/h only last month but is unlikely to stand for long since there is fierce competition for the accolade among hypercar makers.
BYD has released a YouTube video showing the record-breaking run from an onboard perspective. It shows Basseng having some trouble keeping the wavering car in lane before it stabilises and passes the 300 and 400 km/h marks with little effort.
The km/h reading on the display in the video rises steadily until it finally reaches a maximum of 472.41 km/h at 2:12 minutes.
Basseng is no stranger to extremely fast electric cars. In June 2024, he drove the Aspark SP600 electric hypercar to a speed of 438.7 km/h on the same track.
At that time, the Japanese claimed the electric car top speed record for themselves after the Rimac Nevera had reached "only" 412 km/h just under two years earlier. Now this record has also been smashed – by the same driver on the same track.
"I never thought I would break my own record so quickly," Basseng told German car magazine Auto Motor und Sport. "But new technologies have made this possible".
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