The Nio (NextEV) EP9 all-electric supercar has set another new record at the Nürburgring Nordschleife track, according to recent reports.
The new record lap time (for an electric vehicle) of just 6 minutes and 45.9 seconds bests the record set last year (7 minutes + 5.12 seconds) by a fair margin, and shows that there’s still some more performance to be squeezed out of the EP9 before its limits have been clearly established.
That said, the new record-breaking lap used up a lot of the car’s battery capacity, so the disadvantage of charging time (for electric vehicles) vs. refueling time (for internal combustion engine vehicles) is of course still a reality in situations such as this.
It should also be noted here, though, that the new record actually established the Nio EP9 as the record holder for “fastest road-legal production car” as well, electric or otherwise — as far as performance at the Nürburgring track goes, that is. The previous record-holder on that count was the Lamborghini Huracán Performante, which did a 6 minutes + 52.01 seconds lap time earlier this year.
Autoblog provides more: “The Nio EP9 is no regular consumer car, though. Production is very limited, with only 6 cars made so far, with a second run to be priced at $1.48 million apiece. The car provides a megawatt of power (1,342 horsepower), with a top speed of 194 miles per hour, and can sprint from 0–124 mph in just 7.1 seconds. Nio claims it can pull three Gs in a corner, and that it achieves 24,000 Newtons (5,395 pounds) of downforce at 149 mph.
“The Nio EP9 doesn’t need a driver to go fast, either. Back in February, the car clocked an autonomous lap of 2 minutes, 40.33 seconds at the Circuit of the Americas, with a top speed of 160 mph. A driver was in the car for that run, but Nio says the EP9 completed the lap ‘Without any intervention.'”
Self-driving features probably aren’t the reason that someone would drop more than a million dollars on a car that can provide the equivalent of 1,342 horsepower, but it’s still interesting that the company’s tech is apparently coming along well.
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