BYD's Yangwang U9 Xtreme Hits 503 km/h on Closed Abu Dhabi Road, a Single-Direction Record

The record has a caveat. The two Guinness titles listed in the FIA announcement, for the highest speed by a production car and by an electric production car, are both marked "single direction", Electrek reported. Production-car top-speed records have traditionally been the average of two runs in opposite directions, completed within an hour, to cancel out wind and road gradient. BYD says the run earned four Guinness records. The FIA announcement lists two.

The run matters beyond the speed itself. It gives BYD a high-profile showcase for its 1,200-volt electric platform and high-discharge battery technology, and it puts the UAE forward as a venue for vehicle testing on public roads closed for the purpose. Yangwang is BYD's ultra-premium brand. The company announced the result on November 6, a few days before it presented its Yangwang Altior luxury sedan in Abu Dhabi.

For the attempt, authorities closed about 10 km of the Sheikh Khalifa Bin Zayed International Road (E11), giving a straight of roughly 7 km for the high-speed runs. German racing driver Marc Basseng, who set the car's previous record, drove both days, according to Electrek. He reached 490 km/h on the first day, the FIA said. Overnight the team changed the rear wing, damping and tyre pressures, and the record came on his second run of the following day.

It was not a smooth lead-up. Days before the attempt, BYD released footage of a U9 Xtreme hitting a guardrail at about 280 mph (around 450 km/h) during testing. The driver was not hurt, and the team went back to testing, reaching 457.89 km/h on its next run, Electrek reported.

The Abu Dhabi figure beats the car's previous certified mark of 496.22 km/h, set in September 2025 at the ATP proving ground in Papenburg, Germany. That run had already passed the 490.48 km/h a pre-production Bugatti Chiron Super Sport 300+ recorded in 2019, which was also a one-way run and which Bugatti did not present as an official record. The Koenigsegg Agera RS's 447.19 km/h from 2017 was a two-way average. Rimac's Nevera R has a quoted top speed of 431.45 km/h.

The car has four electric motors, each rated at up to 555 kW and spinning at up to 30,000 rpm, for a combined peak output of 2,220 kW, more than 3,000 PS. It runs on what BYD calls the first mass-produced 1,200-volt ultra-high-voltage platform, with a version of the company's Blade Battery built from lithium iron phosphate cells and rated for 30C discharge. Its semi-slick tyres were developed with Giti Tire for speeds above 500 km/h. Electrek said it is unclear whether customer cars will get the same tyres.

The U9 Xtreme also holds the production electric vehicle lap record at the Nürburgring Nordschleife, 6:59.157, set in September 2025.

BYD plans to build only 30 units. CnEVPost reported a price of more than 20 million yuan (about $2.98 million) each. The standard U9, which went on sale in February 2024 with four 240 kW motors, starts at 1.8 million yuan. BYD does not sell passenger cars in the United States, so the car's commercial value lies in what it does for the Yangwang brand and for BYD's push into Europe and the Gulf.

The obvious challenge for rivals is a certified two-way run above 500 km/h. Koenigsegg says its Jesko Absolut could in theory reach that speed but has never attempted it.