503.17 km/h, the fastest production car on earth, as Yangwang U9X top-speed run lands in one unbroken shot

Yangwang announced that its U9X reached a top speed of 503.17 km/h (about 312.7 mph) during a top-speed challenge on a public road in Abu Dhabi, setting a new global record and making it the fastest production car on earth.

The company then released a V-box video captured in one continuous shot, recording the whole run on the Abu Dhabi public road from beginning to end.

https://x.com/QDMD12345/status/2118615329312211269/video/1

Footage shows the U9X hitting 503.17 km/h, with about two minutes from launch to the pass at peak speed, at an outside temperature of 30 degrees Celsius (about 86 Fahrenheit) and 59 percent humidity.

Yangwang's own wording was confident, saying the run should let the process speak and the data answer, and inviting people to experience what lies above 500 km/h and share a breakthrough moment for a Chinese supercar.

What 503.17 km/h actually means is roughly 140 meters (about 460 feet) covered every second, and since a high-speed train runs at full speed around 350 km/h (about 217 mph), the car's top speed is more than 40 percent faster than a bullet train.

Before this run, the throne for the world's fastest production car belonged to the Bugatti Chiron Super Sport 300+ at 490.484 km/h (about 304.8 mph). Last September the U9X ran 496.22 km/h (about 308.3 mph) at the ATP test track in Papenburg, Germany, taking combustion engines off the top step for the first time.

This time the battlefield moved from a purpose-built oval to an open road in Abu Dhabi facing heat, crosswinds and sand, and the record went up by nearly 7 km/h.

Yangwang's ability to break the 500 km/h barrier for a production car comes down to the hardware, since the U9X runs the world's first mass-produced full-domain 1,200V ultra-high-voltage platform, four high-performance motors spinning to 30,000 rpm, more than 3,000 PS of combined output and a power-to-weight ratio of 1,217 PS per tonne.

Yangwang says the U9X will be limited to 30 units worldwide, each with its own bespoke specification, with 28 going overseas and only 2 staying in China, and while unverified online reports put the price at around 20 million yuan (about 3 million dollars), the model is already sold out.