It 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.
> 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
Seven 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.
and 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
And 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.
I watched a video of the speed test a few days ago and it looked like the BYD car was still accelerating when the top speed was reached, such that it could have gone faster than the record they were aiming for—there was a speed curve and it wasn't plateauing. Of course there are lots of possible reasons why the car couldn't have managed a higher speed, but I wonder if it's like incredibly tall skyscrapers having secretly validated a taller version in the wind tunnel so they can change plans if competition catches up during construction.
At 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.
For 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.
There was quite an interesting youtube from Engineering Explained speculating it had enough power to do 400 mph. There may have been other constraints limiting things like the tyres being safe and apparently the battery only has capacity for 2 mins at full power, plus bits may overheat and the like.
It's also interesting that the fastest time on the Nürburgring at 5 min 19 was from a Porsche hybrid with 900 hp, a fair bit quicker than the BYD which took 6:59 I think. The Porsche had a lot more downforce than the BYD.
The best batteries have like 40 times less energy density than engines running on oil derivatives. Even considering that electrical engines are 90% efficient while combustion engines get like 25% efficiency, that still leaves the factor of 10 for energy density. That implies much bigger weight. And to compensate the engines must be more powerful.
Well, 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.
It'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.
That'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.
It 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.
Yet none of the other mainstream automakers has done so.
In case you don't speak mph, https://www.byd.com/mea/news-list/yangwang-u9-xtreme-is-the-... has converted it: 496.22km/h
Is it a production car if they have made one and have sold zero?
But will it have full self driving by the end of the year?
video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aD9v1WyAgLA
same car doing Nürburgring Lap 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
Seven 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.
This is why the Ring is the absolute benchmark of how well rounded a car is.
and 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
And 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.
Funny that it packs 3000hp while the Chiron « only » needs 1600hp to achieve mostly the same speed.
I watched a video of the speed test a few days ago and it looked like the BYD car was still accelerating when the top speed was reached, such that it could have gone faster than the record they were aiming for—there was a speed curve and it wasn't plateauing. Of course there are lots of possible reasons why the car couldn't have managed a higher speed, but I wonder if it's like incredibly tall skyscrapers having secretly validated a taller version in the wind tunnel so they can change plans if competition catches up during construction.
At 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
For 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.
There was quite an interesting youtube from Engineering Explained speculating it had enough power to do 400 mph. There may have been other constraints limiting things like the tyres being safe and apparently the battery only has capacity for 2 mins at full power, plus bits may overheat and the like.
(https://youtu.be/z6q7du1q2U8)
It's also interesting that the fastest time on the Nürburgring at 5 min 19 was from a Porsche hybrid with 900 hp, a fair bit quicker than the BYD which took 6:59 I think. The Porsche had a lot more downforce than the BYD.
> 5 min 19 was from a Porsche hybrid with 900 hp
You're talking about the non-production Porsche 919 Hybrid Evo race car. A Corvette ZR1X did 6:49 with a third of the HP
Head to head, the Chiron SS would probably smoke this car at the top end, heat is a way more difficult problem to deal with for EVs than ICEs.
The best batteries have like 40 times less energy density than engines running on oil derivatives. Even considering that electrical engines are 90% efficient while combustion engines get like 25% efficiency, that still leaves the factor of 10 for energy density. That implies much bigger weight. And to compensate the engines must be more powerful.
Well, 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.
The kind of things that's going to put the last nail in the coffin of the german industry (in terms of brand image).
Worlds fastest car has never really been a German thing. See for example https://robbreport.com/motors/cars/lists/fastest-cars-in-the...
It was designed by a German
It will be far more interesting to see how:
https://electriclemans.com/
plays out.
Look at the partners section. There's Palantir in there.
It'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.
That'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.
I guess it's interesting that you can do it in a street legal production car.