A Chinese electric car that beat Bugatti wants to break the 500 km/h mark in Dubai. It’s missing almost 4 km/h

The fastest production car in the world today is a Chinese electric vehicle, and its manufacturer still isn’t satisfied with that. BYD’s powerful executive vice president Stella Li said that Yangwang U9 Xtreme will attempt to cross the 500 km/h mark in Dubai in November. According to her, the team needs an approximately 15-kilometer-long street for this, so it wants to contact the local police to find a suitable stretch together.

The record that took the crown from Bugatti

The U9 Xtreme is a limited version of the U9 electric supercar from the luxury brand Yangwang, which belongs to BYD. Last year, on September 14, the German racing driver Marc Basseng achieved 496.22 km/h with it on the ATP Papenburg test track in Germany. That means it beat the gasoline Bugatti Chiron Super Sport 300+, which hit 490.48 km/h in 2019 and has since been considered the fastest production car in the world.

The record was preceded by another one. In August 2025, the U9 Track Edition variant hit 472.41 km/h on the same track—back then it was the world record for electric cars—and only a few weeks later it was topped by the U9 Xtreme itself. However, both runs were measured in only one direction, just like with Bugatti. Koenigsegg Agera RS from 2017 has 447.19 km/h, but that’s the average of runs in both directions—so these records can’t be compared directly.

Only 3.78 km/h is missing to reach the magical five hundred mark for the U9 Xtreme. At a speed of 496 km/h, the car will cover roughly 138 meters per second.

Why Dubai, specifically

Stella Li announced the second attempt in July at the Speed Festival in the English Goodwood, where in front of the cameras she said the test team still has some margin and will get a second chance in November. According to Top Gear magazine, during the record run Basseng still had about 1,5 seconds of full-throttle left. CarNewsChina at the time assumed the car would return to Papenburg, where it has an oval track with 12,3 km in length and two straight sections of four kilometers each.

Li, however, mentioned Dubai already on July 6 in an interview in Abu Dhabi, where she said that after the German test the team chose this city. Web CarNewsChina, though, points out that BYD has not yet published the specific road, permits, or the exact date, so the location of the attempt is still not certain. A long straight line alone, according to the editorial team, isn’t enough, because at such speeds the surface, wind, tires, aerodynamic stability, and braking distance all matter. Driving on a public road would also require closing it and implementing safety measures.

The United Arab Emirates is an important market for Yangwang. The luxury U8 SUVs are sold there via the Al-Futtaim company, and according to the CnEVPost portal, BYD with the Yangwang brand wants to begin a global expansion in the Middle East first—before Europe. Around November 5, a premiere of the luxury Yangwang Altior sedan is also expected in Dubai, but no announcement links it to the record run.

Almost 3 000 horsepower and four motors

Under the U9 Xtreme’s bodywork are four electric motors, each spinning up to 30,000 rpm. Together they deliver 2,220 kW, which is roughly 3,000 horsepower. The entire electric system runs on 1,200 V, while the regular U9 uses 800 V. Energy comes from an LFP Blade battery, which can handle discharge with 30C current—so it can send huge power to the motors at once.

The car weighs according to CarNewsChina 2 480 kg; power is distributed to the wheels by electronics up to a hundred times per second, while the body is kept in a stable position by the active suspension DiSus-X. It brakes with carbon-ceramic brakes and drives on semi-slick GitiSport e·GTR² PRO tires, developed for it by the company Giti.

The U9 Xtreme holds the record even on the track. According to a BYD press release, Moritz Kranz set a time of 6:59,157 with it on the North Loop of the Nürburgring, making the car the first electric supercar to lap there in under seven minutes. Visually, the giant rear wing, the carbon front splitter and the hood with a channel that routes air through the front of the car give it away.

Cockpit for two and only 30 units

Inside, the U9 Xtreme is a two-seater car and the cabin feels more race-inspired than luxurious. The driver has a sports steering wheel with a digital instrument cluster in front, a vertical display sits in the middle of the dashboard, and on the center tunnel there’s a controller with another screen. The sport seats feature gold stitching and an Xtreme embroidery on the backrest.

In total, up to 30 units will be made. Yangwang doesn’t disclose the official price, but one unit was sold at a car show in April in Beijing for more than 20 million yuan (about €2.7 million). The car was bought by Australian businessman Nick Politis, and the keys were personally handed to him by BYD CEO Wang Chuanfu. A regular Yangwang U9 in China costs from 1.8 million yuan (about €242,800).

At the Beijing auto show, Yangwang also showed a production version in black-and-gold trim. In our country, the brand isn’t officially sold yet, so you won’t see the U9 Xtreme on Slovak roads anytime soon. If the brand has piqued your interest, check out our older article about the luxury Yangwang U7 sedan with 1,305 hp.

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