The Fastest Car on Earth – Is 400 MPH Possible?

[00:02] Only two production cars have ever exceeded 300 mph in an instrumented test. First was the 1 1600 horsepower Bugatti Chiron, which has now been Bugatti Chiron, which has now been dethroned by the nearly 3,000 horsepower

[00:15] Yang Wang U9 Extreme, which reached nearly 500 km per hour in this record-beating run. Now, calling either of these production cars is a bit of a stretch as both were modified for their respective runs, and neither completed a

[00:31] run in both directions. But the latest from BYD, the Yang Wang U9X, which will from BYD, the Yang Wang U9X, which will have 30 units produced, is undeniably mind-melting as it breaks so many production car records. It's the most

[00:45] production car records. It's the most powerful production car ever, just shy of 3,000 horsepower. It has the fastest spinning electric propulsion motors for spinning electric propulsion motors for an electric vehicle at 30,000 RPM. It

[00:58] has the highest battery voltage for an electric vehicle at,200 volts. It has the highest discharge rate for an electric vehicle's battery at 30C. And oh yeah, it looks to be the fastest car in the world, too. Absolutely bonkers.

[01:15] So, for this video, I want to focus on three aspects of this car. First, what's its actual top speed? Because if it really has nearly 3,000 horsepower, that's nearly double that of the Bugatti Chiron, which made its record-breaking

[01:30] run with 1,600 horsepower. And yet, the U9X is only beating that record by less than 4 mph. There's definitely still more in the There's definitely still more in the tank or battery. Is 400 mph possible?

[01:44] Second, what's so special about a 30,000 RPM motor? And third, what does a 30C discharge rate mean? Because when you compare this to the rest of the industry, it's genuinely nuts. All right, so starting off, what is the

[01:58] vehicle's theoretical top speed based on how much power it has? Because I think it's obvious from watching the video that it could easily hit 500 kmh. But if it actually has 2,220 kW, then its theoretical top speed is much higher. So

[02:14] what is that speed? Well, we can calculate velocity with this equation here. Power equals force times velocity. We know power 2220 kW. We can calculate the resistive forces being aerodynamic drag and rolling resistance. And that

[02:28] just leaves us with V. So, we can solve for our maximum velocity. So, there's a calculate this. We know power. We know the weight of the vehicle. Quite heavy, 2,480 kg. We know its width and its height. So, we can use that to get a

[02:43] pretty good estimate of what its frontal area is. Now, we don't know what its drag coefficient is. This hasn't been released, but I did find one website quoting it, and they seem to have all the other numbers correct, so I don't

[02:55] We're going to use it as a guess. And then, just as a safety, we're going to get a range of a drag coefficient from 02 to.3 to see where that would put that top speed at. And then as far as tires, we don't have to be crazy accurate here

[03:09] aerodynamic drag is what's playing the biggest role. And then for efficiency, we're going to say 95% of the motor's output makes it to the wheels. Now energy from the battery. It's gone through the inverters and it's gotten to

[03:24] the motor. That quoted output being 22. So we're going to say 95% of that actually reaches the wheels. So we plug in the numbers and we solve for velocity. And what do we get? 668

[03:38] 668 kmph or about 415 415 mph. What are we even talking about? But as mentioned, we don't know the drag

[03:53] coefficient with certainty. So calculating a bit of a range here coefficient, which I think is fair for an electric vehicle. It's going to be somewhere between 385 and 440 mph for the estimated

[04:09] theoretical top speed. Now, there are a bunch of disclaimers that of course go along with this. First of all, you need the space to do it, right? You need an insanely long straightaway of paved road that you can test this out. Second,

[04:21] you're going to need some really good tires. Some tires that are street legal tires. Some tires that are street legal and somehow can handle 400 mph. The battery, of course, it needs to have the capacity to do this and the capability.

[04:33] How long can it actually deliver 2,220 kW as output from the motor? That I do not only for the battery, but for the motors and inverters. And of course, you

[04:45] need the gearing to be able to reach that top speed, which also leans into the question, you know, does that electric motor actually have that peak output at the very top end of its theoretical top speed? So, if it's

[04:57] spinning at 30,000 RPM, can it still deliver that peak output at that motor have to take into consideration, but if it actually can put 2,220 kW as output from the motors, yeah, the theoretical

[05:11] top speed is bonkers. All right, so let's move on to the four electric motors, which as mentioned can spin up to 30,000 RPM. So, what's the big deal?

[05:23] Well, most electric vehicles don't use multi-speed gearboxes. Why not? Well, there's added complexity. There's reduced efficiency, and it's simply not needed because electric motors rev high, and they have a wide torque curve. So,

[05:37] you don't need those multi-speed gearboxes. But if you only choose a single gear ratio for that gear reduction, well, if you choose too low of a gear ratio, say 3:1, you're going to have worse acceleration. And if you

[05:50] choose too high of a gear ratio, so you have lots of wheel torque, well, that reduces your top speed. Okay, so what's the benefit of a high- revving motor? Well, if you increase how fast your motor can rev, you can increase the top

[06:03] speed of the vehicle and you can increase the gear ratio that you use. So you can reduce this compromise that is made based on gearing. Now, we don't know what gear ratio the U9X is using. However, if you take a motor speed and

[06:18] you divide it by the gear ratio that's going out to the wheels and then you multiply that by the circumference of your tires, you can get your vehicle's your tires, you can get your vehicle's velocity. Now, let's just say the U9X

[06:30] velocity. Now, let's just say the U9X hits its top speed at that 30,000 RPM top motor speed. And let's say the top actual speed is geared at 500 kmh. So then we can calculate a gear ratio based on the motor speed and the maximum

[06:45] based on the motor speed and the maximum velocity to be 8.32. All right. But how does this compare to the competition? So if you look at the Remok Nea, if you look at the Lucid Air Sapphire, if you look at the Tesla Model

[06:58] S Plaid, all of these are ridiculously fast electric vehicles, but all of them are significantly lower revving electric motors. They have significantly lower top speeds and they have lower gear ratios. So, not only could this vehicle

[07:13] thus get better wheel torque for a longer period of time, well, it also has a higher top speed. So, kind of best of both worlds here. And of course, if they higher top speed, they could reduce this gear ratio, still have really good

[07:28] acceleration, and reach a higher top speed. Now, on top of the crazy motors and the crazy power, there is, of course, a crazy battery. And unlike its supercar counterparts, it's actually using an LFP or lithium iron phosphate

[07:43] chemistry. And it's rated at 1,200 volts and capable of a 30C discharge rate. Now, by the sounds of it, this is about an 80 kWh battery pack, which is the same size as the other U9 variants. Of course, now it's at a higher voltage,

[07:58] and that 80 kWh number isn't confirmed, but it is probable considering the vehicles weigh nearly exactly the same, and the math lines up. All right, so what's so crazy about a 30C discharge rate? And for a production car, this is

[08:13] crazy. So C rate can be calculated as current over capacity. In other words, the amount of amps you're delivering over the amp hours that that battery pack has. Now, if you're looking at amps over amp hours, you could take out the

[08:26] amp and say that's 1 over hours. So, one over time. C equals 1 over time. In other words, flip that C and T around. Time in hours is equal to 1 over C. So,

[08:38] if our time in hours is equal to 1 over our discharge rate of 30. That means we would be able to deplete the entire battery pack theoretically in just 2 minutes. That's how quickly this battery pack is discharging. If it were

[08:53] constantly delivering peak power, it could fully deplete in just 2 minutes. Now, another interesting thing we can do if we know C rate is amps over amp hours. Well, if we multiply that by volts over volts, essentially 1. Well,

[09:07] amps time volts gives you watts. Amp hours time volts gives you W hours. So, hours time volts gives you W hours. So, we know our motor's output at 2,220 kW. And we know our battery capacity at 80 kwatt hours. So, we do that division and

[09:20] kwatt hours. So, we do that division and what do we get? a C rate of 27.75. Now, that's pretty close to 30, but it's not exactly 30. Now, remember, this is the motor output. 2220 kW is the motor output. So, in order for it to achieve

[09:35] that, the battery output would actually have to be higher, which means your C rate would actually be slightly higher. So, 30C makes a lot of sense. Now, there's an interesting line in the press release that states, "The U9 Extreme is

[09:48] release that states, "The U9 Extreme is the first production model with a 1200vt ultraigheed platform, up from the 800 volt of the existing U9, and the system is capable of supporting up to 1,000 amps of current. All right, but help me

[10:02] amps of current. All right, but help me out here. 1,000 amps times 1,200 volts, that gives you,200 kW. far less than its output of 222 kW.

[10:14] So, is this 1,000 amps maybe just for the front and rear power units individually? I don't really know. You would need 1850 amps multiplied by 1200 would need 1850 amps multiplied by 1200 volts to give you that 2,220 kW. Further

[10:28] confused by the fact that they say that the battery can still output 1,800 kW at 20% state of charge. So, I'm not sure where this 1,000 amp number is coming from. But going back to this 30C discharge rate, how does this compare to

[10:44] other electric supercars? So, if you compare the motor output to the battery capacity, of course, you get that 27.75 number we calculated earlier. Comparing that to the competition, Remaca, a very fast electric car, right? It's less

[10:58] than, you know, half of that. As far as the C rate for the Lucid Sapphire, less than a third at 7.7. Something more normal, a Tesla Model 3 performance 4.7 versus 27.75. Now, so all of this is saying for a

[11:14] production car, this is an absolutely absurd number. It's not, you know, unheard of out in the rest of the world. So, Formula 1, for example, uh they've got 120 kW electric power coming from a roughly 1.5 kWh battery pack. could be a

[11:29] bit larger. The minimum is 1.1 kilwatt hours, but that would give you a C rate of around 80. So absurd, right? So, you know, the thing that's going to differ is that the design of the battery cells is going to much more favor than it

[11:44] favors energy. So, of course, these are going to have longer range, while the U9X will have more power output relative to the size of its battery. So, of course, there's got to be a disadvantage here, right? Well, the obvious very big

[11:58] and very heavy disadvantage is just that weight. This thing is crazy heavy, especially considering the size of the battery. Well over a,000 lbs heavier

[12:10] than the Model 3 Performance, yet with a similar battery size. But LFP batteries do have significant advantages as well, primarily in terms of safety and longevity. The U9X is a wildly impressive vehicle, and there's more to

[12:24] have any questions or comments, feel free to leave them below. Thanks for free to leave them below. Thanks for watching.