[HN Gopher] BYD builds fastest car
___________________________________________________________________
BYD builds fastest car
Author : trextrex
Score : 82 points
Date : 2025-10-05 15:54 UTC (7 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.autotrader.co.uk)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.autotrader.co.uk)
| bsaul wrote:
| The kind of things that's going to put the last nail in the
| coffin of the german industry (in terms of brand image).
| Gys wrote:
| Worlds fastest car has never really been a German thing. See
| for example https://robbreport.com/motors/cars/lists/fastest-
| cars-in-the...
| WillAdams wrote:
| It will be far more interesting to see how:
|
| https://electriclemans.com/
|
| plays out.
| bestouff wrote:
| Look at the partners section. There's Palantir in there.
| AtlasBarfed wrote:
| It'll be a battery swap. There was that video of emergency
| battery pack ejection for battery fires, then you need a
| loading mechanism.
|
| I haven't tracked LeMans much, I know the Toyota hybrids have
| been dominating it, but is it unrestricted hybrid
| drivetrains? Can builders make any kind of hybrid / regen /
| battery size / recharge drivetrain?
|
| If not, I'd love to see what builders can do with go-nuts
| hybrids: wankel compact recharging, max-solid-state chems,
| etc.
| dmix wrote:
| It was designed by a German
| msk-lywenn wrote:
| Funny that it packs 3000hp while the Chiron << only >> needs
| 1600hp to achieve mostly the same speed.
| cenamus wrote:
| Well, power at top speed will probably be similar, they don't
| seem to be too different aerodynamically (maybe the Bugatti has
| got the edge there, but still, won't be a 2x difference).
|
| The question is also how much power the battery can
| continuously output, if it's the 3000hp for 15 seconds that
| won't be of much use for a max speed test.
| nostrademons wrote:
| At that speed the limiting factor likely moves from raw power
| output to things like cornering ability on the track, grip of
| the tires, aerodynamics, downforce, driver skill, mechanical
| linkages, etc.
|
| There's a reason why all the world's land speed records since
| the 1930s [1] get set at the Bonneville Salt Flats or similar
| flat desert terrain. FWIW, the speed listed in this article was
| exceeded in 1937. The hard part is not necessarily going fast,
| it's going fast in a street-legal vehicle.
|
| [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_land_speed_records
| eptcyka wrote:
| For a top speed run, cornering ability is next to useless.
| You need grip to put down the power and be stable at speed,
| the corners taken for top speed runs are fairly wide. The
| bigger issue here is for how long can a BEV sustain max power
| output - it can deplete its battery in 2 minutes. EVs also
| can only produce top power whilst battery is at top voltage,
| since draining it drops voltage, max power drops with charge
| levels. The tyre grip itself is fine, the issue is tyre
| durability - they can usually last less than 20 minutes at
| top speed.
|
| It is an impressive feat of engineering to get to a vmax
| record in a BEV.
| fpoling wrote:
| The best batteries have like 40 times less energy density than
| engines running on oil derivatives. Even considering that
| electrical engines are 90% efficient while combustion engines
| get like 25% efficiency, that still leaves the factor of 10 for
| energy density. That implies much bigger weight. And to
| compensate the engines must be more powerful.
| oritron wrote:
| I watched a video of the speed test a few days ago and it
| looked like the BYD car was still accelerating when the top
| speed was reached, such that it could have gone faster than the
| record they were aiming for--there was a speed curve and it
| wasn't plateauing. Of course there are lots of possible reasons
| why the car couldn't have managed a higher speed, but I wonder
| if it's like incredibly tall skyscrapers having secretly
| validated a taller version in the wind tunnel so they can
| change plans if competition catches up during construction.
| tim333 wrote:
| There was quite an interesting youtube from Engineering
| Explained speculating it had enough power to do 400 mph. There
| may have been other constraints limiting things like the tyres
| being safe and apparently the battery only has capacity for 2
| mins at full power, plus bits may overheat and the like.
|
| (https://youtu.be/z6q7du1q2U8)
|
| It's also interesting that the fastest time on the Nurburgring
| at 5 min 19 was from a Porsche hybrid with 900 hp, a fair bit
| quicker than the BYD which took 6:59 I think. The Porsche had a
| lot more downforce than the BYD.
| chakintosh wrote:
| > 5 min 19 was from a Porsche hybrid with 900 hp
|
| You're talking about the non-production Porsche 919 Hybrid
| Evo race car. A Corvette ZR1X did 6:49 with a third of the HP
| spookie wrote:
| Yeah, the weight and battery are the limiting factors.
| Their battery tech is impressive though.
| chakintosh wrote:
| Head to head, the Chiron SS would probably smoke this car at
| the top end, heat is a way more difficult problem to deal with
| for EVs than ICEs.
| darth_avocado wrote:
| But will it have full self driving by the end of the year?
| kirici wrote:
| Even if they did they still won't have caught up, because Tesla
| has had full self driving at the end of every year for the past
| 8 years.
| SideburnsOfDoom wrote:
| BYD made their Autonomous Driving Features free (1).
|
| But they don't make false claims about them.
|
| (1)
|
| https://insidechinaauto.com/2025/02/11/byd-rolls-out-autonom...
|
| https://edition.cnn.com/2025/02/11/cars/china-byd-smart-driv...
| homarp wrote:
| In case you don't speak mph, https://www.byd.com/mea/news-
| list/yangwang-u9-xtreme-is-the-... has converted it: 496.22km/h
| mkl wrote:
| Well, Autotrader is the one that converted it.
| vjvjvjvjghv wrote:
| That's probably one of the least interesting records. Besides the
| tires, what's the problem reaching that speed? Need a big engine
| and some downforce. This is much easier than building a car that
| cam set a record on the track.
| tim333 wrote:
| I guess it's interesting that you can do it in a street legal
| production car.
| lm28469 wrote:
| > This is much easier than building a car that cam set a record
| on the track.
|
| Why ? You "just" need a car that can steer and brake, what's
| the problem with steering and braking ? Need a steering wheel,
| good brake pads and tires
| dmix wrote:
| video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aD9v1WyAgLA
|
| same car doing Nurburgring Lap
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=td_c1zeEn2Q
|
| > The U9 was developed by German car designer Wolfgang Egger, who
| previously served as a head designer for Alfa Romeo, Audi and
| Lamborghini, and began working for BYD in 2017.
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yangwang_U9
| jansan wrote:
| Seven minutes for the Nordschleife? Sabine Schmitz could have
| done that with a van.
|
| But honestly, ther are a Lot of production cars that went
| considerably faster. And the non-production Porsche 919 Hybrid
| EVO did it in 5:19, which is an entirely different league.
| dijit wrote:
| and here we learn that fast and a straight line does not
| necessarily mean fastest round the track.
|
| There is a "car" in my hometown in Coventry that goes (I
| think) 700 mph, but I can only do it in a straight line
| because it's powered by two turbo jet engines
| jansan wrote:
| And it is very difficult to fine a straight road that is
| long enough to reach the top speed. At the Volkswagen test
| track the Bugatti had to leave the oval with 200km/h to
| reach top speed on the connected 9km straight track.
| chakintosh wrote:
| This is why the Ring is the absolute benchmark of how well
| rounded a car is.
| nabla9 wrote:
| It's the fastest EV lap currently.
| pengaru wrote:
| > Seven minutes for the Nordschleife? Sabine Schmitz could
| have done that with a van.
|
| Sabine Shmitz did the 19,100m length in 10:08.49 using the
| ford transit van.
|
| That's a far cry from 7:14
| jansan wrote:
| I did not expect that anyone would take the first part of
| my comment seriously, but here we go.
|
| However, this year a Ford SuperVan 4.2 made the
| Nordschleife in 6:48.393, so even without Sabine Schmitz a
| van was faster than the BYD.
| pengaru wrote:
| > I did not expect that anyone would take the first part
| of my comment seriously, but here we go.
|
| > However, this year a Ford SuperVan 4.2 made the
| Nordschleife in 6:48.393, so even without Sabine Schmitz
| a van was faster than the BYD.
|
| You are spouting such absurdities, that is a van in name
| only:
|
| https://carbuzz.com/nurburgring-ford-supervan-42-lap-
| record-...
|
| And it was driven by Romain Dumas someone far more
| qualified to set such a record than Sabine Shmitz -
| despite your "even without Sabine Shmitz" disingenuous
| wording. Sabine is half television personality half
| racing driver...
| its_down_again wrote:
| There's no point comparing apples to deep fried oreos for
| caloric density. The 919 Evo is a fully de-restricted
| prototype based off a legendary homologated race car, not
| remotely in the same category. The BYD U9 is a road-legal
| EV, comparing the two doesn't mean much.
|
| Funny you mention the Ford SuperVan because that's much
| closer to the 919 Evo in the "no homologation no limits"
| category than anything you could register and drive off a
| lot. A fairer and much more impressive benchmark is the
| road-legal Ford Mustang GTD running a 6:52. That's still
| far quicker than the BYD, with roughly two thousand less
| horsepower.
| lossolo wrote:
| > Porsche 919 Hybrid EVO did it in 5:19
|
| If anyone hasn't seen this, I highly recommend it, even if
| you're not a car fan.
|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQmSUHhP3ug
| pstrateman wrote:
| Is it a production car if they have made one and have sold zero?
| Animats wrote:
| The Yangwang U9 is a production car. This is a boosted version,
| the 9X Track Edition.
|
| The regular 9X costs about US$236,000 before Trump tariffs.
| About half of a Ferrari. Also jumps potholes, can do tank
| turns, and has some autonomous capability.[1]
|
| There's also the Yangwang U8, which is an hybrid off-road SUV.
| Does tank turns, and floats.
|
| It's really a promotion for their other cars, but these things
| are sold in the UAE, Kuwait, and China, at least.
|
| [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JYXGrt5qAuo
| chakintosh wrote:
| It seems to me like building the fastest EV has nowhere near the
| complexity of building the fastest ICE car. Way too many moving
| parts and fine tuning required to get an engine to 440Kmh (Chiron
| SS) than an EV with 4 big motors.
| beAbU wrote:
| Yet none of the other mainstream automakers has done so.
| lcnPylGDnU4H9OF wrote:
| Are they even trying? It seems like the only reason to do
| this is for publicity. Maybe a manufacturer that's known for
| their ICE vehicles would want an opportunity to show off
| their electric vehicle engineering but I don't know any it
| would make a difference for. US manufacturers even sell
| electric trucks. It's not like any mainstream manufacturer
| needs to rebrand to sell electric vehicles.
| lm28469 wrote:
| > Are they even trying?
|
| Nope, probably too busy faking emission results, lobbying
| at the EU parliament , or designing overpriced mid tier
| cars in the US
| ozgrakkurt wrote:
| Research also might trickle down to production cars. Maybe
| research for some extreme project has more opportunity to
| find unexpected improvements compared to more tightly
| budgeted production research
| diarrhea wrote:
| It might indeed be more difficult to push obsolete technology
| ever further.
| AlotOfReading wrote:
| People have been putting engines that powerful in cars since
| Campbell's blue bird in the 1930s. I'm not going to say it's
| easy, but it's doable in custom vehicles.
|
| The hard bits are connecting that power with the ground long
| enough to reach speed safely, and storing enough energy to do
| so. EVs don't solve that.
| onlypassingthru wrote:
| Isn't the complexity in storing and and moving the electrons
| rapidly? Stringing a bunch of 18650s with a copper wire harness
| won't cut it. You've got to invent some novel chemistries and
| new materials to pull it off.
| torginus wrote:
| I recommend you watch this video (the channel's pretty good in
| general):
|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ev6DiHOidcg
|
| While I agree with your statement in broad strokes - I'd
| reframe it as _the same amount of engineering takes you much
| further in an EV than an ICE car_. Considering this, the
| Chinese really swung for the fences, and what they made here is
| quite impressive
| hengheng wrote:
| Chiron still has that Piech handwriting on it. It's driveable
| enough to take your wife to the opera. Full regulatory
| compliance, low wind noise at high speeds, all that. I don't
| want to say it is compromised, but it's not as extreme as it
| could be.
|
| The closer ICE comparison would be Koenigsegg (447 kph/278
| mph), Hennessy Venom GT (435/270) and SSC Tuatara (455/283, no
| shenanigans). SSC have reached 295, they were clearly aiming
| for 300. It's no 308 but it's reasonably close.
|
| All these are also relatively small companies with relatively
| low budgets -- none of the big manufacturers seem interested in
| top speeds anymore.
| unglaublich wrote:
| Which shows that ICEs are a ridiculous choice for performance
| cars?
| kikimora wrote:
| No, EV are too heavy. On an actual track they loose to
| lighter ICE cars since they corner better. Plus for a
| prolonged race EV might run out of battery.
| seydor wrote:
| are we bound to see a huge increase in speed limits as EVs
| start to dominate?
| pengaru wrote:
| no
| spookie wrote:
| Well, while impressive I would like to see them do a second lap
| right after or try the Nurburgring (seems they have, way off
| pace versus ICE cars).
|
| One thing many car channels are pointing out is that the car
| could've reached even better numbers looking at how easily it
| reached its record pace. I wonder if the bottleneck is the
| battery. Hell, it supposedly discharges at full power in 2
| minutes.
|
| (Edit: noting they did the ring)
| ricardobeat wrote:
| The second fastest lap at the ring, and at least another five
| records in the top ten, are all EVs: VW
| ID.R Xiaomi SU7 Ultra Lotus Evija X
| F-150 Lightning SuperTruck Nio EP9 Ford
| Transit SuperVan
|
| #1 is the Porsche 919 Hybrid.
|
| Cars built for straight line speed are rarely fast in a track
| - you won't find the Bugattis breaking any fastest lap
| records either.
| adamhartenz wrote:
| This comment has the same vibe at "football is easy, because
| the rules are simple". Something is only easy if you don't have
| to compete with others. If it's "easy" for you, then it is easy
| for others. So being the best/fastest is hard.
| SideburnsOfDoom wrote:
| True, if your goal is "the fastest car, period" then you're
| going to pick the best technology for that. And as of now
| onwards, that's not Internal Combustion Engines. As you say,
| there are way too many moving parts in a legacy tech ICE
| engine.
| fauria wrote:
| From the official site:
| https://www.yangwangauto.com/en/car/u9-xtreme
|
| - 6:59.127 Lap Time - The first lap record on the Nurburgring
|
| - 496.22 km/h - The Fastest Car on the Planet
|
| - 1200v - World's first series-production model with ultra-high-
| voltage platform
|
| - Over 3000 HP - Global horsepower record for production cars
|
| - 30000 rpm - Global fastest motor rpm - 4 motors
| varispeed wrote:
| I find it interesting that Chinese brands copy Western brands,
| then Western brands copy Chinese brands and so on. Result is that
| new cohort of cars look like characterless AI slop.
| Veedrac wrote:
| It's wild that after a hundred years there is still exponential
| progress in the power output of cars. The most unusual part to me
| is how EVs are fundamentally a consumer technology, so it all
| rapidly falls into mass production territory; eg. Xiaomi sells a
| 1527hp car for $73k. Horsepower is rapidly reaching 'solved'
| territory; even at its record speed, BYD's car wasn't even power
| limited.
___________________________________________________________________
(page generated 2025-10-05 23:00 UTC)