Yangwang exceeded 500 km/h

Racing driver Marc Basseng has said: “To go 360-400 km/h is easy, but from there on it is really a challenge.”

On November 1, 2026, driven by Basseng, the Yangwang U9 Xtreme crossed the 500 km/h (310 mph) mark on a 7 km-long (4.3 miles) straight road in the United Arab Emirates.

Prior to the record set in the UAE, the U9 Xtreme (U9X) was tested on the 4 km-long (2.5 miles) straight at the Papenburg test track in Germany.

Speeds achieved with U9X at the Papenburg test track were:
391 km/h / 243 mph (2024 October)
472 km/h / 293 mph (2025 August)
496 km/h / 308 mph (2025 September)

Yangwang is not hiding the major crash that occurred during testing at the new test track in Xinfeng County, Guangdong, China.

The main straight sections are 2.5 km (1.5 miles) long, and the track is approved for speeds of up to 280 km/h (174 mph). The U9X reached more than 420 km/h on this track.

Transparency leads to trust. I think showing the crash is a fantastic marketing move. The message to the buyers is: driving at extremely high speeds is dangerous, and we don’t want our valuable customers to try it themselves. We’ve done it for you. Your car is capable of that.

Let’s look at the main components that made it possible to reach a top speed of 500 km/h with a street-legal car.

Motors:
The car has 4 electric motors running at up to 30,000 rpm. That’s 500 revolutions per second. Each motor has an output of up to 555 kW, giving the U9X a combined output of up to 2,220 kW. For comparison, the standard U9 has “only” 946 kW.

Battery:
The U9X has a 1,200-volt electrical system. The battery can sustain extremely high current outputs without overheating. What’s also interesting is that even at 20% state of charge, the battery can still deliver 1,800 kW of power.

Tires:
Custom-made by Giti. Front and rear 325/35 R20 GitiSport e.GTR2 Pro “Yangwang 500”.

Body:
To reduce aerodynamic drag, the panel gaps at the front of the car were covered with duct tape.

The large rear wing was removed for top-speed testing.

Location of the record run:
Road E11 in the United Arab Emirates.

Before high-speed runs, the road had to be carefully cleaned using street-cleaning machines.

The road surface then required another inspection to pick up any wire fragments that might have been left behind by the cleaning brushes.

Two cars were prepared to attempt the record

Record drive:
Two runs were completed on October 31, 2026, with a top speed of 490 km/h achieved. This was 2% short of the goal. After that, the engineers worked through the night to set up the car even more suitably for the record run.

The runs continued the following day, and on the second attempt of the day, a record of 503 km/h / 312 mph was set!

Yangwang sells the U9 Xtreme only to 30 lucky buyers.