Chinese tech giant Xiaomi, primarily known for its smartphones, is branching out by making cars. The SU7 is the company’s inaugural model and has already spawned a high-performance Ultra version. Last October, a prototype lapped the Nürburgring in an astonishing 6 minutes and 46.8 seconds. At that point, Xiaomi promised it would return to the Green Hell and repeat the hot lap with a production-ready car.
Predictably, the SU7 Ultra that customers can purchase in China was unable to match the performance of the stripped-down prototype. Nevertheless, a lap time of 7 minutes and 4.95 seconds is a remarkable achievement. It makes Xiaomi’s electric super sedan faster than the Porsche Taycan Turbo GT, which lapped the challenging German track in 7 minutes and 7.55 seconds.
The Xiaomi SU7 Ultra is also a tad faster than the Rimac Nevera, effectively dethroning the Croatian electric hypercar from the production EV leaderboard. The exotic two-door EV completed the lap in 7 minutes and 5.29 seconds. To clarify, all times mentioned refer to the longer configuration of the Nürburgring, which spans 12.9 miles (20.8 kilometers).
The Mercedes-AMG One’s record for the fastest production vehicle isn’t in any danger for now. The F1-engined hypercar completed the lap in 6 minutes and 29 seconds last year. As for the outright record, it belongs to the track-only Porsche 919 Hybrid Evo, with a blistering lap time of 5 minutes and 19.55 seconds. It’s hard to imagine a street-legal car will ever get close to that.
Onboard footage shared by Xiaomi shows the SU7 Ultra reaching a GPS-verified speed of 215 mph (346 km/h). That makes the SU7 Ultra the fastest production sedan ever, whether gas or electric. The title previously belonged to the Maserati Ghibli 334 Ultima, with a top speed of 208 mph (334 km/h). The defunct Italian luxury sedan was only 1 mph faster than the Bentley Flying Spur W-12 and 2 mph faster than the Lucid Air Sapphire.
Photo by: Xiaomi
Photo by: Xiaomi
Xiaomi mentions that the car can go even faster. With enough road ahead, it can exceed 217 mph (350 km/h). It’s worth noting that the SU7 Ultra that tackled the Nürburgring wasn’t completely standard. Xiaomi fitted the optional track package available to customers, so it doesn’t disqualify the car from being considered a production model.
As a refresher, the tri-motor EV has a combined output of 1,527 hp and can hit 62 mph (100 km/h) in 1.98 seconds. At 201.3 inches long, it’s bigger than a Taycan and even heavier, at 5,203 pounds (2,360 kilograms). It went on sale in China at the end of February with a base price of just 529,900 yuan (nearly $74,000).
