BYD Yangwang U9 Xtreme Reaches 503.17 km/h in Abu Dhabi

BYD’s Yangwang U9 Xtreme reached 503.17 km/h on a closed section of Abu Dhabi’s E11 on November 1, becoming the first production car reported to exceed 500 km/h. The Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA) and Guinness World Records recognized the result, which Guinness designated as the highest speed for a production car and an electric production car in a single-direction run. German racing driver Marc Basseng, who set the car’s previous top-speed mark, drove the attempt. The team used a closed stretch of road in Abu Dhabi’s Al Dhafra region. After runs on October 31 reached a maximum of 490 km/h, engineers adjusted the rear wing, suspension settings and tire pressures before the next day’s attempt. The new speed surpassed the U9 Xtreme’s reported previous mark of 496.22 km/h, set at Germany’s ATP Papenburg proving ground in September 2025. That earlier run had made the car the fastest production car in the reporting, before it broke its own mark in Abu Dhabi. The 503.17 km/h result was recorded in one direction, not as an average of runs in opposite directions. Two-way runs are used in conventional top-speed comparisons to account for factors such as wind and road...