Ferrari has dropped the first details about its maiden EV, next year’s Elettrica crossover, and some people might be wondering if, by doing so, it’s dropped the ball as well. Because while its peak output will be over 986 hp (1,000 PS / 735 kW), Ferrari has confirmed it will not make as much power as the new breed of rapid Chinese electric cars.

“You can see on the market some electric cars that already have 2,000 horsepower,” Ferrari product boss Gianmaria Fulgenzi told media.

Related: Ferrari’s EV Mystery Prototype Teases Breadvan But It’s An Illusion

“It’s very easy and simple to create that power with an electric engine. So you can see in the market a lot of companies that have never done cars, and now they’re able to produce a car with 1,000 horsepower.”

Fulgenzi didn’t mention smartphone firm turned automaker Xiaomi by name, or its 1,526 hp (1,547 PS / 1,138 kW) Xiaomi SU7 Ultra. But it’s the car that most obviously springs to mind, and we know that Ferrari recently had its hands on an SU7 at its Maranello HQ.

He could also have been thinking of the BYD’s 2,977 (3,018 PS / 2,220 kW) YangWang U9 Xtreme, which this month recorded 308 mph (491 km/h) at VW’s Ehra-Lessien test track, beating the Bugatti Chiron Super Sport 300+’s record.

Super-Power EVs Are “Elephants”

“But what is the joke? What do you feel when you drive this kind of car?” he asked journalists, per Auto Express. “They are elephants because you need very big engines and a very big battery.”

Let’s leave aside the elephant in Fulgenzi’s room – the Elettrica’s huge 122 kWh battery dwarfs the ones in the SU7 and U9 – and look at the other figures.

A combination of a 282 hp (210 kW / 286 PS) front axle from the F80 supercar and 831 hp (620 kW / 843 PS) from the rear motors will give “more than” 986 hp, Ferrari says, enough for a 2.5-second zero to 62 mph (100 km/h) time and electronically limited 193 mph (310 km/h) top speed. Those are still impressive numbers in absolute terms, but won’t set the Elettrica apart from the crowd.

It’s kind of funny to hear a company like Ferrari, which for years pushed power outputs, acceleration and top speeds to new highs, talking about how pointless the fastest modern cars are. But Fulgenzi is right: we (and automakers) seem to have crossed a line here in terms of power and performance and don’t know how to stop.

Why? Because horsepower, top speed, and 0-60 times are the metrics by which we’ve judged performance cars for decades. Remove them and we’re kind of lost, unless we actually get a chance to jump behind the wheel and experience them ourselves.

It’d be difficult to explain to a potential customer why they should buy your car if it made less power and was slower than the one they already have (though Detroit had to do that during the emissions-strangled 1970s), so automakers keep pushing. And for years, that was fine.

When you traded in your naturally aspirated E46 330i that required 6.5 seconds to get to 60 mph for a turbocharged E90/92 335i that did the job in 5.5 seconds, you could feel the difference, and that could be fun.

How Much Is Enough?

But when even fairly ordinary electric cars like the $54,990 Tesla Model 3 Performance can get to 60 in 2.9 seconds, you have to wonder how much longer automakers can keep pushing in this direction. Beyond bragging rights, there’s little extra benefit in having a car that accelerates more quickly than that.

And definitely none to insurance companies, because an uptick in accident rates is surely inevitable if we keep going. Rarely mentioned today is that crippling insurance premiums had as much to do with the death of the original American muscle car in the early 1970s as tightening emissions regulations.

Related: Ferrari’s New Playground Might End Maranello’s Favorite Spectator Sport

Anyone who lifts weights for recreation might recognise a parallel in all of this to men’s bodybuilding. From the mid 1990s, partly off the back of the use of new drugs like insulin and growth hormone, the guys competing in the top tier literally exploded in size, shifting the focus from aesthetics to freak-show levels of mass.

It was, and still is, fascinating to see what the body can achieve when pushed to the limit, in the same way that it’s impressive that a BYD can do 308 mph. But more recently we’ve seen a huge boom in the popularity of the Classic Physique division, whose shapes hark back to the “golden era” of bodybuilding, when men like Arnold Schwarzenegger still looked super, but also human.

Stepping Back From The Speed Wars

Andrea Canuri for SHProshots

Is Ferrari (of all people) leading a similar shift in the car world with its Elettrica (seen above, testing)? If it is, it wouldn’t be the first time it’s turned its back on the battle to have the biggest numbers.

Although the F40’s 202 mph (325 kmh) top speed broke new ground, for the past 25 years Ferrari has capped its fastest cars at 217 mph (350 kmh) and was content to let Bugatti build cars that ate up a drag strip in less time. That decision in no way diminished Ferrari’s credibility in the eyes of enthusiasts.

But letting other brands make everyday crossovers that are more powerful, accelerate more quickly, and cost less, while also still not publishing any other metrics like a Nurburgring lap time to show us how the sum of the car, including its chassis and brakes, is more important than the schoolyard stats? Now that’s a bold move.

And it’s one that’ll really test Ferrari’s brand strength, particularly among younger buyers who are less familiar with Maranello’s history – one built in large part on cars that were the fastest and most powerful of their time.

Can you see an end to the performance wars? Do you think legislators might eventually step in to curtail the madness? What is the sweet spot for power and acceleration anyway? And is Ferrari right to take its foot off the gas? Throw a comment down below and let us know your thoughts.

Ferrari hasn’t released any exterior images of the Elettrica yet, but it has given us a peek under the skin at the battery and motors, which you can see in the gallery below.

Ferrari

The electric super-sedan rivalry just tilted in a new direction. Lucid’s Air Sapphire has claimed the title of the quickest-accelerating production car Motor Trend has ever tested, beating not only Tesla’s Model S Plaid, but also Porsche’s Taycan Turbo GT.

What makes the feat even more impressive is that the Air Sapphire managed it while being larger, heavier, and more luxuriously appointed than its rivals. The secret weapon, as it turns out, is rubber. Well, that and boatloads of uninterrupted power.

Breaking the Two-Second Mark

After jumping behind the wheel of a 1,234hp Air Sapphire fitted with Pirelli P Zero Trofeo RS Elect LM1 tires, now offered as an $8,250 option plus installation straight from Lucid, Motor Trend recorded a 1.881-second sprint to 60 mph (96 km/h).

That’s noticeably faster than the Air Sapphire previously tested with the standard Michelin Pilot Sport 4S LM1 tires, which needed 2.2 seconds to hit 60 mph.

Watch: How Fast Can The Lucid Air Sapphire Lap The Nürburgring?

For comparison, the publication recorded a 2.07-second 0-60 mph time in the Tesla Model S Plaid. Until the Air Sapphire came along, the Taycan Turbo GT Weissach was the king of MT’s acceleration tests, recently hitting 60 mph just 0.006 seconds slower than the Lucid. Importantly, all of the times were recorded on an unprepped surface and include a one-foot rollout.

Motor Trend hasn’t said how quickly the Air Sapphire is without factoring in rollout, but tests of the Model S Plaid and Taycan Turbo GT show rollout adds about 0.2 seconds to the 0-60 mph time.

Stretching Its Lead

Down the quarter-mile, the Air Sapphire, priced at $250,500 and rising to $258,750 as tested, opens up a bigger gap on the competition. It had previously run a 9.21-second time at 157.1 mph with the standard Michelin tires, but fit a set of the stickier Pirellis and it takes just 9.03 seconds to launch down a 1,320-foot drag strip.

The new rubber also help in braking and handling. The EV needs just 93 feet to brake from 60 mph, which is the same as the Taycan Turbo GT Weissach and 10 feet less than the Air Sapphire with standard tires. It also ran around MT’s figure-eight course in 22.3 seconds, a 0.3-second improvement over a previous test, but slightly slower than the Porsche’s record-breaking 21.9 seconds.

There’s a new name at the very top of the production car speed charts, and it doesn’t come from Europe, Japan or America. Instead, it’s BYD’s YangWang brand that has grabbed headlines. Not long after the YangWang U9 Track Edition set an electric car top speed record, the hypercar returned with a new name, the U9 Xtreme, and delivered something extraordinary. On its latest run, it reached 308.4 mph, or 496.22 km/h.

The vmax was achieved at the ATP Papenburg high-speed oval in Germany with Marc Basseng behind the wheel. Because since the record was only logged in a single direction, SSC’s Tuatara still retains the official two-way average title at 282.9 mph (455.3 km/h), at least for now.

Taking On The Big Guns

Even with that caveat, the numbers are remarkable. The U9 Xtreme eclipsed the Bugatti Chiron Super Sport 300+, which Andy Wallace drove to 304.77 mph (490.48 km/h) in 2019, also in a one-way run. For a Chinese EV to edge past one of the most revered European hypercars marks a significant milestone in itself.

Read: BYD’s Track-Focused Hypercar Beats Rimac As The World’s Fastest EV

High power is one of the key reasons behind the U9 Xtreme’s monumental top speed. It features four electric motors that combine to produce 2,978 hp, more than double the 1,288 hp output of the regular U9. It is also the first production car to feature a 1,200-volt platform and has significantly denser batteries than all other BYD models.

Production will be extremely limited, with just 30 cars scheduled to be built. Pricing remains under wraps, but it is unlikely BYD will struggle to find buyers for a machine with this kind of performance and bragging rights.

Flat-Out At Papenburg

An onboard clip shows the electric hypercar on its way to the record top speed. Basseng drove around the sloped curve of the oval at over 186 mph (300 km/h) before pinning the throttle and gaining speed at a truly shocking pace. The car roars past 280 mph (450 km/h) and 292 mph (470 km/h) with ease and doesn’t even appear to break a sweat reaching 308 mph (496 km/h).

It appears likely the car could have breezed past 310.6 mph (500 km/h), but Basseng had to lift off the throttle and jump on the brakes as the car started to drift towards the left-hand barrier next to the track.

A Nurburgring Record Too

It’s not just the top speed of the YangWang U9 Xtreme that’s impressive. BYD has also confirmed it has lapped the Nurburgring Nordschleife in 6:59.157, snatching the EV production car record away from the Xiaomi SU7 Ultra that lapped the circuit in 7:04.957 earlier this year.

Chinese automakers have been steadily pushing the limits of speed and track performance, often outpacing their Western rivals in recent years. Now, an unlikely challenger has joined the race: a company best known for its vacuum cleaners aims to build “the world’s fastest car.” Ambitious stuff for a brand that made its name chasing dust bunnies.

More: Chinese Smartphone Giant’s European EV Push Might Spell Trouble For Tesla

The company behind the plan is Dreame Technology, which refers to itself as the “Apple of China.” According to its website, Dreame’s current product lineup includes cordless and robotic vacuum cleaners, air purifiers, hair dryers, robotic lawn mowers, and pool cleaners. Founded in 2017, Dreame has since moved beyond its home turf, carving out a growing presence in the US and other international markets.

In a post on Chinese social media, Dreame laid out plans to enter the automotive world, following in the footsteps of tech groups like Xiaomi and Huawei. Unlike them, however, Dreame is aiming straight at the hypercar elite, setting its sights on Bugatti and Koenigsegg with a goal of chasing speed records.

It’s worth recalling that another company known for its vacuum cleaners, Dyson, once explored a Tesla-rivaling EV before shelving the project altogether as “not commercially viable.” Dreame clearly hopes for a different outcome.

The Ambitious Plan

According to the announcement, Dreame is not starting “from scratch”. Instead, the company plans to leverage China’s mature EV supply chain and manufacturing ecosystem, positioning itself “on the shoulders of giants.” That phrasing hints at potential collaborations with established suppliers or automakers, which could give the project more credibility than it might appear to have at first glance.

Dreame’s track record with innovation could work in its favor. By the end of last year, the company had filed more than 6,000 patents, some reportedly connected to electric vehicle technologies. According to Chinese media outlet Lyiou, Dreame Auto, the firm’s newly formed automotive division, already employs around 1,000 staff, including specialists from the vehicle manufacturing sector.

That figure sounds impressive, but whether it reflects the depth of expertise needed to challenge Bugatti or Koenigsegg is another matter entirely.

The same source indicates that the electric hypercar is set to debut in 2027. What remains unclear is whether the Bugatti-style silhouette shown in the official teaser represents the actual model in development. Either way, it will be worth watching to see if the finished product lives up to the ambitious vision behind it.

Record-Breaking Rivals

To understand what Dreame is up against, consider the current benchmarks. The official speed record for a production car is held by the SSC Tuatara, which hit 474.8 km/h (295 mph) in 2022. A prototype of the Bugatti Chiron Super Sport 300+ reached a top speed of 490.48 km/h (304.77 mph) back in 2019, but it didn’t count as a record because it wasn’t replicated in the opposite direction.

More: BYD’s Track-Focused Hypercar Beats Rimac As The World’s Fastest EV

In August 2025, the BYD YangWang U9 Track Edition became the world’s fastest production EV, hitting an impressive 472.41 km/h (293.54 mph) at a test facility in Germany. The Chinese EV stole the record from the Rimac Nevera R, which had clocked 431.45 km/h (268.2 mph) in July 2025.

Future challengers are already lining up. Koenigsegg, Hennessey, and Bugatti all have projects in motion that aim to push past the symbolic 500 km/h (310 mph) barrier.

Dreame’s Statement

Below is a translated version of Dreame’s official announcement, shared with employees and the public:

Dear Dreame colleagues: Today, Dreame officially announces its plan to build the world’s fastest car. This was no light decision, nor was it a whim. From drafting our first car-building plan at Tsinghua SkyWorks in 2013 to now standing at the pinnacle of the global clean energy sector, we have spent twelve years waiting for Dreame’s “opportunity.”

We revere this industry. Car manufacturing is the crown jewel of industry, the ultimate battleground of technology, and a grueling, life-or-death expedition. Competition has become multi-faceted, all-encompassing, and high-intensity, challenging not only technological innovation and iteration speed but also system capabilities, supply chain integration, brand positioning, and global market insight. We understand that only with awe can we see the path forward clearly, and only with humility can we go further.

But we also believe that great dreams are born from fearlessness. We are fearless because we are clear-headed. We are not adventurers trying to “build from scratch,” but rather we stand on the shoulders of giants in Chinese manufacturing. Countless Chinese companies have, through decades of hard work, forged the world’s most mature electric vehicle supply chain and technology ecosystem.

Our mission is to achieve global optimization: using the right products, the right strategy, and the right pace to bring Chinese smart manufacturing to the world’s high-end market. We are fearless because we are uniquely born and bred in the global market. In China, we have become the undisputed leader in the cleaning sector. Globally, we hold the top spot in over 20 countries and regions. We consistently position ourselves at the high end, insisting on value over price.

We are one of the very few Chinese brands to quickly rise to the top in every market we enter. For this reason, we are often called the “Apple of China.” We know how to make global users pay for innovation and applaud our experience. This time, in the automotive sector, we will once again prove that Chinese brands can not only be high-end, but also become symbols of global consumer love. We are fearless because we are determined.

This is not a gamble, but a test. It will test all our past accumulation: technological research and development, organizational culture, global operations… We have made sufficient strategic preparations. But we also believe that the real barrier is not capital, but the ability to make the “right products.”

We will not waste a single penny on the wrong path. Fellow students, the automotive industry will be another full-scale explosion of our technological ideals and business acumen. We may not be the first to set out, but we will be the most determined. Because we are fearless, we dare to act; because we firmly believe, we arrive. Now, let’s set off together!

Dreame Auto Team

Chinese automaker BYD announced that the Yangwang U9 Track Edition has reached a top speed of 472.41 km/h (293.54 mph) at a test track in Germany, making it the fastest electric vehicle in the world.

The record run took place on August 8 at the ATP Automotive Testing Papenburg facilities, with professional driver Marc Basseng behind the wheel. The previous record was held by the Rimac Nevera R that hit 431.45 km/h (268.2 mph) on July 2025. Furthermore, the Track Edition proved to be much faster than the standard Yangwang U9 that reached 391.94 km/h (243.54 mph) in November 2024.

More: Mate Rimac Questions If China’s 3,000 HP Hypercar Can Really Deliver

The Track Edition is fitted with quad electric motors generating a peak power of 744 hp (555 kW / 755 PS) each. According to BYD, the combined output is over 2,960 hp (2,207 kW / 3,000 PS), translating to an impressive power-to-weight ratio of 1,200 hp per tonne. By comparison, the Nevera R has 1,989 hp (1,571 kW / 2,017 PS) and a ratio of 978 hp per tonne.

In order to control all that power, the EV utilizes advanced torque vectoring abilities, and the e4 Platform’s DiSus-X Intelligent Body Control System making automatic adjustments to the suspension for maximum grip. Furthermore, it is said to be use “the first mass-produced 1200V ultra-high-voltage vehicle platform, paired with a thermal-management system optimized for extreme conditions”.

BYD

The Yangwang U9 Track Edition made its first appearance earlier this month through China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology. The model that achieved the record appears to have duct tape on the panel gaps for improved aerodynamics. It also features an optional redesigned carbon fiber splitter and does without the swan neck rear wing.

More: AMG Hyper EV Circles The Globe In Seven Days And Smashes 25 Records

The record-breaking EV rides on a set of track-focused semi-slick tires developed in collaboration with Giti Tire. These feature optimized compound materials and a bespoke tread design, along with a high-viscosity lubricant and a special knurling treatment between the tire and the rim for minimizing relative slippage.

Basseng, who was also behind the wheel of the previous record run with the regular Yangwang U9, said: “Last year, I thought I’d peaked. I never expected to break my own record so soon – but here we are, at the same track, with new technologies that have made it possible.”

Mercedes-AMG is no stranger to chasing records, yet it might have just outdone even itself. The Concept AMG GT XX just circled the globe virtually in just over a week. In the process of setting that record, it smashed 24 others as well. There’s no doubt about it. The AMG.EA platform just proved that it’s not just good for short bursts. It’s capable of long-haul dominance.

At the heart of the GT XX is a trio of axial-flux motors paired with a directly cooled high-performance battery. This is the same kind of tech that AMG says will underpin production cars starting next year. The concept delivers more than 1,360 hp (1,000 kW) and can sustain triple-digit speeds for days. That’s not hyperbole – it’s a certified fact now.

More: Only Two Of These Ferraris Exist And One Just Shattered Records

Essentially, this car circled Germany’s Nardo circuit for 7.5 straight days, only stopping to charge back up. Mercedes brought two GT XX prototypes, and the pair racked up 3,177 laps of the 7.87-mile (12.68 km) track during the record attempt. In the process, they set records for the furthest distance traveled by an EV over 12-168 hours and the fastest EV to go 2,000-40,075 km.

Key EV Distance Records

Inspired by Jules Verne’s “Around the World in Eight Days,” Mercedes actually beat that figure. 40,075 km is the distance around the globe at the equator. The AMG GT XX went that far in just 7 days, 13 hours, and 24 minutes. That means that on average, during that time, it was going 137 mph, including when it was stopped to charge.

Of course, that was only possible because of the engineering on tap here. Charging at 850 kW is something only concept cars can do right now, but it enabled the AMG GT XX to add 249 miles (400 km) of range in five minutes.

The axial motors also provide more power density, and Mercedes used F1-inspired direct battery cooling to ensure nothing got too hot. That’s key because Mercedes reports track conditions of 35°C (95°F) at times. While we don’t expect to see EVs keeping up with ICE cars in endurance races anytime soon, this is a big step in that direction.

Time-Based Records – Distance Covered