In Brief:

BYD's crazy goal: reach 500 km/h
It will try to set the record with the Yangwang U9
Promises to achieve this by November this year

Faster still: Last September BYD broke the production car speed record with an extreme version of the Yangwang U9. Yet that achievement now seems only to have spurred the company onward. Stella Li, vice president of the brand best known for affordable models that shook up the market in recent years, told the Goodwood Speed Festival that the firm will attempt to surpass 500 km/h this coming November.

This follows confirmation from the company's test team that speeds even higher than the mark set almost a year ago, just over 490 km/h, are attainable.

What else you need to know: The previous record was set on the Papenburg test track in Germany, a 12 km circuit with a 4 km straight. The record-breaking car belongs to a limited edition of just 30 units and delivers an astonishing 3,027 hp compared with 1,287 hp in the standard model.

To reach that extreme output BYD used four electric motors featuring the world's thinnest series-production silicon, just 0.1 mm thick. The motor housings are made of aerospace-grade aluminum, and each motor spins at 30,000 rpm, delivering 555 kW or 757 hp individually.

Before the Chinese firm decided to break this record as well, the production-car speed mark stood at 490.4 km/h and was held by the Bugatti Chiron Super Sport 300+, set in 2019.

What we think: While skepticism once greeted statements from Chinese manufacturers, that attitude has vanished. BYD is likely to meet its ambitious target, and another Chinese maker will probably soon eclipse even that figure.

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