The New Fastest Car in the World Is an EV

By Douglas A. McIntyre Published Sep 23, 9:15AM EDT

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The Yangwang U9 Xtreme hypercar has set a new global production-car speed record.
That may help EV maker BYD become better known outside China.

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The New Fastest Car in the World Is an EV — © Deagreez / iStock via Getty Images

The new Yangwang U9 Xtreme hypercar set a new global production-car speed record. In a test, it reached 308 miles per hour. It took the lead from the Bugatti Chiron Super Sport 300+. The Yangwang brand belongs to China-based BYD, the largest EV manufacturer in the world.

According to Yangwang, the U9 Xtreme puts out 3,000 horsepower, which is almost unimaginable. Bloomberg reports, “Energy is stored in BYD’s lithium iron phosphate Blade Battery.” The car also needed custom-made tires.

The announcement is a victory for BYD. A few years ago, it was barely known outside its home country. It is the world’s largest EV maker because China is the world’s largest EV market by far. BYD has started to expand in southwest Asia and Latin America. It is in the early stages of entering Europe, but there are tariffs there. In the United States, 100% tariffs, put in place largely to help Ford and GM, block BYD sales.

Most of the world’s fastest cars are built in Europe. They come from Porsche, Ferrari, McLaren, Lamborghini, and niche car companies such as Koenigsegg. They are combustion-powered cars, usually with massive V8 engines, and they are also expensive. Price tags can reach above $2 million.

The speed record may help BYD become better known outside China.

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About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.