Video: Watch the NIO EP9 electric supercar smash the Nürburgring

On May 12^th the new wannabe poster boy of the electric car market NIO unleashed its EP9 on the Nürburgring in a second attempt at taking the spoils. Just 6min 45.9sec later it had completed the tortuous 12.9 miles to reassert its hold on the electric car record – and this time to set the outright fastest time for a road-legal car.

It beats the long-standing mark set by Radical with its SR8LM, famously driven to the Nürburgring from the UK for its record attempt in 2009. The Radical’s time was 2 seconds slower – and its lap a great deal noisier – than the NIO’s.

Now, only racing cars – headed by the Porsche 956 – are quicker around the Nordschleife than this battery-powered two-seater. 

Accompanied by nothing more than a faint whine, the EP9’s one megawatt of power (that’s equivalent to 1342bhp) and all-wheel drive delivers otherworldly acceleration, as the rate at which the Green Hell flashes by outside the windows in this in-car video clearly shows.

It would be good if the vid had a speed readout but, really, you don’t need one to tell just how phenomenally quick the car is. NIO says the EP9 can sprint from 0-124mph in 7.1 seconds on its way to a 194mph top speed. The car was 19 seconds quicker than its last (damp) ‘Ring run. 

And to put that into perspective, its time is a whole minute quicker than last month’s ‘Ring record in the front-drive class by the Honda Civic Type R, see a video of that here.

Performance head at the global start-up Gerry Hughes said: “This is a fabulous achievement for NIO and I am very proud of the team that has worked tirelessly to achieve this accolade.” 

So now you want a NIO EP9 of your own? Well, you can have one. The China-based company has announced plans to build a second batch of 10, each made to order and priced at US $1.48 million.

And if that’s too rich there’s the NIO ES8 on its way – a full-size electric seven-seat SUV to be launched later this year. It’s sure to be as quiet as the new ‘Ring record holder but maybe not quite as fast…