Yangwang says its U9 Xtreme hit 503.17 km/h on a closed stretch of public road in Abu Dhabi on November 1, 2026. The brand announced the result on November 6. Endurance driver Marc Basseng was at the wheel, on the Sheikh Khalifa Bin Zayed International Road (E11) in the Al Dhafra region.
The figure beats the same car's previous 496.22 km/h mark from ATP Papenburg in September 2025. Yangwang and BYD present it as the first production car to clear 500 km/h. Guinness World Records credits the run for fastest production car and fastest electric production car in a one-way direction, and the FIA has also recognised the speed. It is not a two-way average. The SSC Tuatara's verified two-way mean from 2021 remains a separate benchmark.
How the run was set up
Authorities closed about 10 km of road for the attempt, with a longest usable straight of roughly seven kilometres. Because the route sits near desert and normally carries traffic, the surface was swept and then checked metre by metre for debris from the cleaning brushes.
Two passes on October 31 peaked at 490 km/h. Overnight, engineers refined start temperatures for the battery and motors, increased rear-wing angle for more rear downforce, raised rebound damping for road undulations and adjusted tyre pressures. Two further passes followed on November 1. The second produced the 503.17 km/h result.
The timing matters for readers who followed the car earlier in the week. On November 2, footage circulated of a U9 Xtreme that crashed on a closed track in China and lost its rear axle. Yangwang said that day it would restart the top-speed challenge in Abu Dhabi. The November 6 announcement confirms that the road attempt went ahead and produced a new one-way mark.
The car
Each of the four motors is rated at 555 kW, or 755 PS, and can spin to 30,000 rpm. Yangwang puts combined peak output above 3,000 PS and quotes a power-to-weight ratio of 1,217 PS per tonne. The car runs on a 1,200-volt architecture with a Blade Battery supporting high discharge rates. Active DiSus-X body control and Giti semi-slick tyres developed for extreme speeds form part of the high-speed package.
Production of the U9 Xtreme is capped at 30 cars worldwide. The first production-standard example appeared at the Beijing motor show earlier in 2026. Some customers have already approved bespoke specifications and are moving toward contracts and build slots.
The Abu Dhabi figure strengthens Yangwang's claim as the first production car past 500 km/h on a one-way run. Buyers and record-keepers still need to treat two-way averages as a different category.