Five years ago, the notion of a Chinese manufacturer being the fastest around the Nürburgring Nordschleife would’ve been unimaginable. Back then, the dominance was expected to grow, but Chinese cars were more bread-and-butter than anything enthusiast oriented.
Xiaomi’s mind-blowing SU7 Ultra breaks through the hypercar glass ceiling, with a 7:04.957 lap time. The Ultra version of the SU7 is a development from last year’s SU7 Ultra prototype – a stripped out and race-ready version of the SU7 which managed a lap time of 6:46.874.
While not matching that car’s astonishing time, it has dethroned not only the Porsche Taycan Turbo GT (7:07.55), but the Rimac Nevera as well (7:05) – which is a purpose-built electric hypercar.
Stats for the SU7 Ultra are eye-watering. 1138KW and 1770Nm propel it from 0-100km/h in 1.89 seconds, on its way to a claimed 350km/h top speed. It gets close to that in the video, hitting 345km/h on the final straight of the Nordschleife. To think, only a few years ago we saw EVs struggling to maintain full power or suffering overheating batteries when attempting the ‘Ring.
The SU7 Ultra beats the previous record holder for EV sedans; the Lucid Air Sapphire’s 1.95 second 0-100km/h time and 330km/h top speed, let alone the Tesla Model S Plaid’s 2.1 seconds and 322km/h top speed. For reference, the Porsche Taycan Turbo GT with Weissach package (including no rear seats) manages the sprint in 2.2 seconds and has a top speed of 305km/h.
We expect the recently revealed YU7 to get an Ultra version too.
The car’s full lap can be seen in the video below. Is this China’s most desirable car? It would have to be up there, but the lightweight Small Sports Car SC-01 we covered last month is challenging what was previously thought possible for Chinese cars as well.
