*NOW UPDATED WITH VIDEO* On-board footage emerges of the 1341bhp, all-electric NIO EP9 breaking both the electric and production car lap record at the Nürburgring in less than seven minutes
Nürburgring lap times have been dropping like flies lately, with both the new Porsche 911 GT3 and Honda Civic Type-R doing their respective honours on Germany’s most famous stretch of sinuous asphalt. Chinese brand NextEV, similarly, dropped several hundreds jaws recently when its all-electric NIO EP9 hypercar lapped the Nordschleife in 6m 45.9s, creaming its own record for the fastest electric lap by a scarcely credible 19s, but also the overall production car lap record by just over two seconds.
If the slightly shaky dash-cam footage above doesn’t quite do that figure justice, let’s add a little context: the NIO EP9’s 6m 45.9s beats not only the Lamborghini Huracán Performante and Radical SR8 LM as former record holders, but inches NextEV to within the 35s of the outright 6m 11.13s lap record, set by sports car legend Stefan Bellof in 1986 aboard a Porsche 956. In 2017, a Chinese hypercar just lapped the Nürburgring 21s quicker than the McLaren M23 James Hunt used to grab pole position for the 1976 German Grand Prix [cough] we shot his 1977 F1 car [cough]. That is SERIOUSLY quick.
The EP9 then is no regular supercar. Underneath that carbon fibre skin lies four high-performance electric motors – one powering each wheel – that collectively produce a megawatt of power (around 1341bhp). The consequent speed then will turn your chest hair grey: despite weighing 1735kg, 0-100kph is in the bag in 2.7 seconds, and 0-200kph is done in 7.1 seconds en-route to a 313kph top speed. Not bad for a – gulp! – $1.5million supercar, particularly when the $3.2million Bugatti Chiron will get you to 200kph ‘only’ four-tenths quicker….
This is not the only accolade the NIO EP9 has claimed in 2017. Back in February, the all-electric brute lapped the Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas, in 2m 40.33s, just under 30s shy of its own 2m 11.30s production lap record. Not bad, given that this was done without a driver (see below video). It does make us wonder how long James Glickenhaus, who’s made no secret of his desire to decimate the Nürburgring lap record with the Scuderia Glickenhaus SCG003S, will stay on the sidelines before throwing his hat into the ring…
