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BYD builds fastest car
- ksynwa 1y agoAny chance F1 could move to electric ever?
- leonnatus 1y agoThere's formula E for that.
- superb_dev 1y agoActually there is already an electric version of F1 called Formula E
- ksynwa 1y agoI didn't know that. Thanks. It would be more interesting though if electric and fossil fuel cars could compete against one another in some circuit.
- tstrimple 1y agoGiven the data and research that goes into these sorts of high dollar races, I suspect it wouldn't be very interesting. It would be a relatively simple calculation (that I cannot do and do not know all the variables for) to determine when the benefits of batteries clearly outweigh the benefits of combustion engines with quick and simple refuels. These teams know exactly how many laps they need to complete and the speed they need to do it in order to be competitive. They track the fuel and refuels and other pit stops very closely, so as soon as they can see they would benefit from batteries I'd expect almost the entire fleet to switch over. There will be almost no overlap between electric and combustion cars in races. The only benefit combustion engines have is the current faster refuel and run time. Everything else about electric motors is far superior to combustion. If and when F1 can hot-swap battery packs efficiently, combustion engines will be dead in that sport.
- Ekaros 1y agoCombustion engines have in general benefit of energy capacity. F1 has not had refuelling since 2010. Pit stops are for in essence forced for tire changes and have something to actually happen in races. As tires could be designed to last entire race as well.
- a96 1y agoIt's a regulations driven race. It would be hard or impossible to make any kind of fair rules and it would still end up a race about which manufacturer and driver(s) can find the best spots in the rules to focus on. Outside of Formula or Nascar or other monocultures, that would be interesting, though.
- mrguyorama 1y agoNo. The first few seasons of Formula E were such that, half way through the race you jumped out of one car and finished the race in a second car. Because your battery was dead. Electric does not have the capacity to compete with even F1's artificially limited gas tanks. This is despite dramatically reduced performance design and slower tracks. Formula E is so much more fun than F1 though, because it doesn't have all the BS drama that F1 has adopted to buoy viewership. They do have silly gimmicks though. Before a race, viewers vote on which driver they like the best, and that racer gets a boost they can use during the race! Also they use tires that are basically road ready, so that's fun.
- mhh__ 1y agoProbably not because of the batteries being too heavy and not having enough juice for a race, but more importantly because it would be terrible.
- bsaul 1y agoThe kind of things that's going to put the last nail in the coffin of the german industry (in terms of brand image).
- Gys 1y agoWorlds fastest car has never really been a German thing. See for example https://robbreport.com/motors/cars/lists/fastest-cars-in-the-world-ranked-1237089455/hennessey-venom-gt-270-4-mph-2/ https://robbreport.com/motors/cars/lists/fastest-cars-in-the...
- oldpersonintx2 1y ago[dead]
- WillAdams 1y agoIt will be far more interesting to see how: https://electriclemans.com/ https://electriclemans.com/ plays out.
- bestouff 1y agoLook at the partners section. There's Palantir in there.
- AtlasBarfed 1y agoIt'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 1y agoIt was designed by a German
- msk-lywenn 1y agoFunny that it packs 3000hp while the Chiron « only » needs 1600hp to achieve mostly the same speed.
- cenamus 1y agoWell, 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 1y agoAt 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 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_land_speed_records
- eptcyka 1y agoFor 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.
- privatelypublic 1y agoI'll need evidence of "Top power at Top Voltage." Since so little capacity is at that part of the curve, It'd make sense to design around (as in avoid, not feature) it rather than use it. I suspect theres inductance and capacitance enough that even if the motors can't handle the voltage, it can be "clipped" until the pack comes down. (Especially since fmu these are 3phase AC motors, the motor driver is already regulating voltage and current to produce whatever the optimal waveform is)
- darth_avocado 1y agoBut will it have full self driving by the end of the year?
- kirici 1y agoEven 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.
- panloss125 1y ago[dead]
- henry2023 1y agoTheir new hope is to have the Optimus humanoid take the driver seat and finally drive the car. Of course, we'll have to wait until this December.
- darth_avocado 1y agoI think the real plan is Optimus will transform into a car to drive you around and occasionally also fight Megatron.
- henry2023 1y agoDec 2026
- SideburnsOfDoom 1y agoBYD 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-autonomous-driving-features-free-to-entire-range/ https://insidechinaauto.com/2025/02/11/byd-rolls-out-autonom... https://edition.cnn.com/2025/02/11/cars/china-byd-smart-driving-tesla-hnk-intl https://edition.cnn.com/2025/02/11/cars/china-byd-smart-driv...
- homarp 1y agoIn case you don't speak mph, https://www.byd.com/mea/news-list/yangwang-u9-xtreme-is-the-worlds-fastest-production-car-with-top-speed-of-496kmh https://www.byd.com/mea/news-list/yangwang-u9-xtreme-is-the-... has converted it: 496.22km/h
- mkl 1y agoWell, Autotrader is the one that converted it.
- vjvjvjvjghv 1y agoThat'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 1y agoI guess it's interesting that you can do it in a street legal production car.
- lm28469 1y ago> 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
- vjvjvjvjghv 1y agoOn the track you need a good setup which has a lot of factors and can be very hard to achieve. Way more complex than going straight as fast as possible
- lelanthran 1y agoTracks are much more different than straight line speed. TBH the complexities are not even comparable, track engineering for a car is probably a few orders of magnitude more complex than straight line speed.
- dmix 1y agovideo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aD9v1WyAgLA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aD9v1WyAgLA same car doing Nürburgring Lap https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=td_c1zeEn2Q 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 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yangwang_U9
- jansan 1y agoSeven 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 1y agoand 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 1y agoAnd 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.
- esafak 1y agoIt broke the sound barrier too! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ThrustSSC https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ThrustSSC
- dijit 1y agoOh, it's still the fastest car in the world! That's really cool, I thought it was surpassed :D
- pstrateman 1y agoIs it a production car if they have made one and have sold zero?
- Animats 1y agoThe 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 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JYXGrt5qAuo
- chakintosh 1y agoIt 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 1y agoYet none of the other mainstream automakers has done so.
- lcnPylGDnU4H9OF 1y agoAre 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 1y ago> 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 1y agoResearch 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 1y agoIt might indeed be more difficult to push obsolete technology ever further.
- AlotOfReading 1y agoPeople 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.
- fauria 1y agoFrom the official site: https://www.yangwangauto.com/en/car/u9-xtreme https://www.yangwangauto.com/en/car/u9-xtreme - 6:59.127 Lap Time - The first lap record on the Nürburgring - 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 1y agoI 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.
- userbinator 1y agoMost cars have looked like that long before AI.
- Veedrac 1y agoIt'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.
- bobthepanda 1y agoPower for power’s sake is not necessarily a good thing. There is some indication that putting rapidly accelerating cars on streets is leading to a proliferation of accidents.
- Veedrac 1y agoFor sure; the US kills literally hundreds of thousands of people in ways other countries have solved, and bigger faster vehicles seems at odds with the lack of driver and infrastructure responsibility here. I don't want to make light of that. I just had the numbers run to check this. About 650,000 fewer people would have died over my short life so far, if the US had the vehicle fatality rate of my home country.
- hamdingers 1y agoA car with a 4 second 0-60 time can reach 40mph, a speed lethal to 80% of pedestrians, in under 80 feet from a standstill. That's the distance from the limit line to the far crosswalk when crossing a 5 lane road. Putting this level of performance (and better) into boring suburban SUVs bought by ambivalent consumers is negligence.
- tim333 1y agoThe power isn't much use for driving down the road but maybe we can hook it to fans and have flying cars at last.
- Gareth321 1y ago> It's wild that after a hundred years there is still exponential progress in the power output of cars. We hit a wall there for a while. Cars were actually becoming less powerful and slower on average for a couple of decades as governments tightened emissions and safety requirements. It took Tesla to blow the walls off EV production and consumer acceptance. It's a good reminder that progress doesn't happen in a straight line.
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]
- neom 1y agoIn case you're curious about the driver: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marc_Basseng https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marc_Basseng
- le-mark 1y agoIs it common for race car drivers to start in kart racing?
- rkomorn 1y agoVery common, at least, I'd say.
- somedude895 1y agoYes, pretty much every modern F1 driver started in karting.
- sph 1y agoPretty much all Formula 1 drivers have started in kart. An F1 car is just a big kart that costs a few hundred million $.
- lbreakjai 1y agoAt the higher level, pretty much all of them did. They've usually been racing since they were four or five.
- twilo 1y agoAMG One did it in 6:29.xxx
- jakeinspace 1y ago3000 hp? Not sure if that's measured at the "crank" or the dynamo, but that's over 2MW, probably pushing 2.5MW of power draw from the batteries assuming a motor efficiency of 90% and some other losses. Apparently that's getting drawn at 1.2kV from the batteries, so "only" around 2kA of current draw. That top power draw would drain the 80kWh batteries in around 2 minutes, though I'm guessing you'd hit thermal throttling or catastrophic failure before that. The batteries are allegedly rated to 30C, meaning 2 minutes to full discharge at max current. I'm curious how the heat dissipation of EVs compares to ICE vehicles. You have much higher efficiency vs combustion and get to split the power between 4 motors instead of one engine, but you don't get the heat capacity of a massive engine block, or the convection of cold air intake + hot exhaust out the tailpipe.
- est 1y ago> how the heat dissipation of EVs compares to ICE vehicles Xiaomi Su7 Ultra had a 400W twin fan, 530W liquid pump and a 28kW heat dissipation for powertrain.
- jakeinspace 1y ago28kW of dissipation is pretty solid, though obviously is irrelevant during a short burst with hundreds of watts of heat generated. I guess the frame itself act as the fallback heatsink for storing excess heat in these scenarios? Because by my math, a modest 100kg heatsink (no idea if that's reasonable) would reach 270°C in only around 45 secondw if it's trying to handle 250kW+ of heat transfer (270C is roughly the max differential for heat pipes,liquid cooling might be significantly lower limit). And obviously the batteries can't handle 270C.
- moralestapia 1y agoYeah man, this is obviously a lie ... *yawns*
- gsnedders 1y agoMotor output, so you’ll still have transmission loses beyond that (but with a fixed drivetrain, with no multi-speed gearbox, quite possibly more like 95%).
- ryandrake 1y agoEver since I rode in a BYD in China I've thought it would be great to be able to get one in the USA. It just really felt complete, put together and polished in a way that I haven't seen in a "normie" U.S. car in a long time. Too bad our country uses high tariffs and regulatory barriers to protect its dinosaur companies.
- hackernewds 1y agoBy dinosaur companies, you mean Tesla and Elon Musk
- bdangubic 1y agodinosaur would be a compliment for tesla which designs/releases one new car every decade (each delayed by a decade from initial release date) :)
- mkl 1y agoThey've released 6 models in the 22 years since founding (not counting Semi).
- bdangubic 1y agoBYD released that many since you wrote this comment :) Also check the same for say a Toyota
- bzzzt 1y ago> BYD released that many since you wrote this comment :) You say that like it's an advantage while it's really the opposite. As a car buyer I'm only looking at cars their manufacturer plans to fully support over their lifetime. That rules out new, unproven manufacturers as well as the ones with proven bad support.
- bdangubic 1y ago
- esafak 1y agoMeanwhile, the Tesla Roadster is nowhere to be seen. China really has arrived.
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]
- moomoo11 1y agoYou need to enter a K hole to see it.
- encoderer 1y agoSoviet Union builds largest space shuttle.
- freediver 1y agoIt is a nice looking car, pleasently surprised.
- jpfromlondon 1y agoThe Citizen Caliber 0100 is the most accurate wristwatch ever made, except for http://leapsecond.com/pages/atomic-bill/ http://leapsecond.com/pages/atomic-bill/ but I'd still take the Patek.