New Yangwang U9 review: insane hypercar has Ferrari and Lamborghini in its sights

Verdict

A brief drive was enough to get an impression of what the Yangwang U9 could be: mightily fast, and out for the establishment’s heads. Yangwang will have a job convincing people to make the leap to an unknown brand, but set a keen price point, get bums on seats and eyebrows will raise in Europe. 

China’s BYD is growing at an incredible rate. It’s selling hybrid cars and electric cars hand over fist almost everywhere and showing little sign of slowing. In its home market, there are five brands in its portfolio, each with slightly different positioning. The super-plush Yangwang is all about making its drivers feel a cut above with tech, luxury and looks, and its U9 hypercar, it thinks, is the halo that’ll put it to the top of a lot of lists. 

With mid-engined looks, an (optional) massive wing, some truly fantastic headlight details and a base power output of 1,288bhp thanks to four electric motors, Yangwang doesn’t appear to be holding back with the U9. 

There’s a more powerful 2,978bhp Xtreme version kicking about that’s achieved a top speed of 308mph, too. When BYD (and Yangwang by extension) sets its mind on doing something, it appears to doggedly stick to its goal until it has been achieved. It wanted to make the fastest production car in the world, and it has.

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The U9 does all the usual hypercar things – it’s low, the doors open at odd angles, it only fits two people and it looks really good in red – but as it’s an EV, the spec sheet will surprise and shock. 

The big power figure means 0-62mph takes 2.36 seconds, and it’ll top out at 186mph, but to get there you need to push around 2,475kg. Its 80kWh Blade battery contributes a decent chunk of that – BYD’s in-house battery tech is small, dense, structural, and can survive being pierced rather better than other packs. Despite the use of carbon fibre and other weight-saving measures, there’s only so much that can be done to mitigate its heft.

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However, with 500kW fast charging on board, and up to 280 miles of range (according to China’s equivalent of WLTP), many of the penalties brought about by the weight are negated fairly quickly. 

The U9 also has a neat air-suspension system – the DiSus-X Intelligent Body Control is the firm’s most extreme active set-up, designed for keeping fast things in check. It helps the car remain flat in corners, and even helps it ‘jump’ over the likes of potholes. 

Inside its seats are low slung and cosseting, their bolsters filling with air to keep your kidneys snug as it prepares to hammer you around corners. We were given a few laps in the U9 around BYD’s new test track in Zhengzhou. It’s part of a multi-million dollar complex designed to show off everything BYD’s cars can do, and is pleasingly long, with a leg- stretching straight down the back. We were limited to race mode, and asked politely not to bend the U9; 1,288bhp is rather a lot of power after all. 

The first thing you notice is how harsh the brakes are. Giving them a gentle dab to get your eye in stops the car in a surprising hurry. No matter, because on the track the hugely powerful U9 is very, very swift indeed. The base car is a few horsepower down on a Rimac Nevera, but it still feels plenty quick enough. Numbers on the dash fly ever higher as you’re pinned backwards. When you (rather briskly) get to a corner, its brakes don’t feel quite as urgent any more, and feel just right for the job of slowing a heavy, maddeningly quick car down. 

Its steering is neatly direct and gives you confidence that the U9 will go exactly where you want it to every time, plus it offers decent feedback. With all of that, and the trick suspension, the U9 doesn’t feel heavy at all – more akin to the hypercars it’s going after. 

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