BYD Faster Than a Bugatti? – BYD Smashes Bugatti’s Fastest Car Record

A Chinese EV company that makes a car called Seal, actually managed to beat Bugatti! Confirm nobody expected this one. BYD just came out of nowhere with their YangWang U9 Xtreme and absolutely smashed Bugatti’s record. I’m talking 308.4 mph here. That’s 496 km/h, faster than our ERL speed limit by… well, let’s not do that math.

I know what you’re thinking. “Chinese car faster than Bugatti? Really ah?” Trust me, I had the same reaction but the numbers don’t lie, and this thing is absolutely nuts for an EV.

Did It Really Become The Fastest Car? Official Or Not?

On September 19th, 2025, at some German test track called ATP Automotive Testing Papenburg. You know how Germans are with their testing, very thorough one. They got this German race driver Marc Basseng to pilot this beast, and boom. 308.4 mph on the speedometer.

The previous record holder? That legendary Bugatti Chiron Super Sport 300+ that hit 304.77 mph back in 2019. Yeah, that car that costs more than most people’s houses. BYD just casually overtook it like it’s nothing.

Now before you ask, yes, both records were one direction runs. The official record needs you to average speeds from both directions, but Bugatti’s record was also single direction, so technically, BYD’s results are not ‘official,official lah’ , since it only recorded the one way speed.

The Tech Behind This EV Speed Demon

Here’s where it gets really gila. This U9 Xtreme pumps out 2,978 horsepower. Let me repeat that. Nearly 3,000 horsepower. Your Myvi has what, 95hp? This thing has more than 30 times that power.

It uses four electric motors, each one spinning up to 30,000 rpm. That’s faster than most people’s ceiling fans, and each motor alone produces 757 hp. More than most supercars’ total output.

But wait, there’s more. BYD built this thing on the world’s first 1,200 volt platform in mass production. Most EVs run on 400V or 800V systems. This is like they decided to go full send and just doubled everything.

They’re using something called ultra thin super silicon technology. The components are just 0.1 millimeters thick. That’s thinner than a human hair, bro. And somehow they made it work in a car that weighs 2,480kg.

You want to know the power to weight ratio? 1,217 PS per tonne. That’s bonkers territory. For comparison, most hot hatches are happy with 200 PS per tonne.

The Actual Speed Run

The driver’s going through the banked curve at over 186 mph like it’s a normal day at the office. Then he hits the straight and this thing just launches.

You can see the speedometer climbing past 451 km/h, then 470 km/h, and it’s still pulling like there’s more to give. The car looks so stable too, not like it’s fighting for its life at those speeds.

The run only ended because the car started drifting toward the left barrier. The driver had to back off. Makes you wonder if this thing could have hit 310 mph if they had more space.

Kopitiam Bragging Rights

BYD’s only making 30 units worldwide. Thirty. That’s it. They haven’t announced the price yet, but with numbers like these and that exclusivity, you know it’s going to be expensive as hell.

But honestly, if you can afford one, you’re basically buying a piece of automotive history. The first Chinese car to claim the world speed record.

This Isn’t Their First Record

The crazy part? This isn’t even BYD’s first speed record. Back in August 2025, their U9 Track Edition already set the EV top speed record at 472.41 km/h. They were just warming up.