YangWang U9 is the world's newest electric hypercar | GRR
The world’s top seller of electrified vehicles? Tesla, perhaps? Or is it Toyota, with all its hybrids? Nope. It’s BYD (Build Your Dreams), a Chinese carmaking giant that sold almost two million fully-electric and hybrid cars last year, and is the world’s foremost manufacturer of EVs.
Almost every kind of car you can think of, BYD makes it with an electric or plug-in hybrid powertrain. It’s even taking over Europe’s bus networks with fully-electric transit in many cities now wearing the BYD badge. But there’s one area it’s not quite conquered: the world of luxury and performance.
This then, the somewhat interestingly named YangWang U9, is where BYD’s path to world dominance ultimately leads next. Right in tune with current automotive trends, YangWang has been launched as a new sub-brand under the BYD banner, and it’s all about – you guessed it – luxury and performance. A Chinese rival for Audi, Mercedes, BMW, you name it.
A huge, all-electric G-Class-like SUV called the U8, with over 1,100PS developed by a four-wheel-drive electric powertrain is the YangWang brand’s real first car. But what has caught our eye is the promise of a new all-electric supercar, revealed with few details save for an eye-popping promise.
The low-slung, yellow, somewhat computer-game-looking supercar is called the U9, and when it arrives later this year, it will join a number of all-electric supercars and hypercars hitting the market. Think your NIO EP9s, Lotus Evijas, Rimac Neveras and Pininfarina Battistas of the world, and the U9 is likely another one to add to the list.
No performance specifications have been revealed, but BYD says that the YangWang branded hypercar will feature a quad-motor electric drivetrain. Nothing too unconventional about that – rivals use this setup to deploy huge power figures, such as the Evija’s claimed 2,000PS (1,470kW), and the Rimac Nevera’s similar 1,940PS (1,427kW) tally.
However, BYD says that the U9 will be capable of 0-62mph in less than 2.0 seconds. That’s not a new feat – the Rimac Nevera and Pininfarina Battista both achieve the benchmark dash under that figure. But for YangWang to turn up out of nowhere and show most of the world’s hypercar establishment a clean pair of heels from the get-go? Perhaps that’s something that would have been absurd five years ago, but with EV tech only levelling the playing field, maybe it’s not as preposterous as it once would have been.