Did NextEV’s New 1,360-HP NIO EP9 Electric Supercar Set a Nurburgring Record?
Chinese carmaker is claiming some pretty wild specs for its new EV.
In yet another sign that the age of the battery-powered hypercar will soon be upon us, Chinese EV maker NextEV pulled the sheet off its new electric supercar yesterday in London, revealing a twin-motor performance monster that the company claims puts out a megawatt of power and laps the fabled Nurburgring Nordschleife in record time.
The NIO EP9, as NextEV calls the low-slung wedge of batteries and badassery, is powered by a four-pack of inboard electric motors that drive all four wheels—the better to help it lay down its claimed output of 1,360 metric horsepower, which translates to 1,000 kilowatts—or in proper metric terminology, one megawatt. (Which is still a few factors away from your flux capacitor-powered DeLorean, but hey.)
That powertrain, which was developed in conjunction with the carmaker’s Formula E team, helps deliver—or at least lets the company claim—some borderline-ridiculous performance statistics. The claimed 0-60 mile-per-hour time of 2.7 seconds seems about right, if even a little conservative in an era when two-ton Teslas with half as much power rip off faster sprints. Likewise, the 194-mph top speed seems fairly realistic.
But NextEV’s claims that the NIO EP9 can hit 2.5 g’s in the turns, stop with 3.3 g’s of force, and make twice as much downforce as a Formula One seem a wee bit hard to swallow without independent verification. Likewise, considering the prodigious amount of electrons crammed into the two lithium-ion batteries, the claimed maximum range of 265 miles seems realistic—but a 45-minute charge time seems tough to believe, unless the company has whipped up some sort of 800V wonder-charger.
Same goes for that Nurburgring lap time. NextEV claims the NIO EP9 ran the ‘Ring in seven minutes and 5.12 seconds, 17 seconds faster than the previous EV record-holder—and less than 10 seconds behind the Porsche 918 Spyder, the current holder of the production car record. The company released a video showing the supercar lapping the famed track, but it’s so heavily edited, there’s no way to know for sure whether the record is valid or if the company is just blowing smoke.
