Before its record-breaking run, BYD’s engineering team has been doing a more than year-long testing (since July 2024) at the Nürburgring Nordschleife (also known as the “Green Hell”). Data gathered at the track was directly fed into the development of the U9 Xtreme and on August 22, the U9 Xtreme clocked in at 6 minutes 59.157 seconds—making it the fastest EV around the challenging racetrack. It’s also the first time an EV ever dipped below the seven-minute barrier.

The driver for the record lap was Moritz Kranz, an experienced German racer who has notched up almost 10,000 laps of the ultra-challenging Nordschleife circuit during a career in GT competition. He said: “The Nürburgring Nordschleife is the most demanding track, and our lap time is a testament to the development skills of BYD and Yangwang. Wthout their intense work to balance a high-powered EV platform with the difficult demands of the chassis set-up, this great lap time would not have been possible.”

The U9 Xtreme uses a ultra-high-voltage 1,200-volt platform equipped with four high-performance motors. The car delivers a total output of over 3,000 horsepower. In addition, it uses the e⁴ Platform and DiSus-X intelligent body-control system helping it balance both top-speed and lap-time performance.

To conquer the Nürburgring’s classic 20.832km circuit, known for its steep elevation changes and demanding corners, BYD redesigned the U9 Xtreme’s cooling system and fitted it with a new titanium-alloy carbon-ceramic braking system. Its GitiSport e·GTR² Pro semi-slick tires, jointly developed with Giti, is the same tire type used to break the fastest production car record.

BYD Executive Vice President Stella Li said: “We are dedicated to pushing the limits of what can be achieved through technology, and the Nürburgring is such a legendary challenge for cars and drivers that it is only natural for our engineers to pursue their dreams there. I congratulate the entire team on this phenomenal achievement. The limited-edition U9 Xtreme has proven that it is not only the world’s fastest car in a straight line, but also a vehicle with the performance and dynamic qualities necessary to break lap records on a circuit with a wide variety of corners.”

The U9 Xtreme is now being made available to customers, with a limited series production run of no more than 30 units. Its name is derived from the English word ‘Extreme,’ meaning ‘limit’ and ‘ultimate’, with added emphasis on the ‘X,’ which represents the unknown.