BONUS: The Top 10 Fastest EVs Ranked

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Welcome back to EV News Daily and welcome to a special bonus edition of the podcast.

Today, just for fun, we're looking at the world of EV hypercars

and how the shift to EV has turned the established world order on its head.

The Electric Vehicle Revolution has reached its apex in the hypercar segment

where manufacturers are pushing the boundaries of speed, power and engineering.

German manufacturers, while maintaining their reputation for engineering nows and build quality,

face significant challenges in matching just the raw performance metrics

by their Chinese competitors these days.

With manufacturers coming in from Japan, Croatia, Sweden and even the UK

contributing unique solutions to the hypercar segment.

This global redistribution, if you like, of high performance EV manufacturers

represents a more of a kind of democratization of the car industry

than it was before when concentrated in, well, the names that you would think.

If you say hypercars, you might think, well, Bugatti, Lamborghini,

you might put Ferrari in there, but I don't know what you think of

when you think of really fast cars, but in the world of EVs, it's all being shaken up.

Hey, a reminder, our bonus shows are exclusively for our Patreon supporters

for the first seven days. Only Patreon insiders get their early access.

Get their name on the list of legends for exec producers and above.

You can shape the future shows we make as well.

If being in the know and recognized as a supporter sounds like you,

join us at patreon.com slash EV news daily and be part of something special.

So let's get into our top 10 countdown.

Look, this is just for fun. This is just something silly

that I've been wanting to do for a while now, making notes on these.

And really recently, I was looking at the AMG Mercedes Benz AMG GT double X,

a brand new hypercar to the segment, setting crazy speed records.

And I thought I should make a show about these.

Now, I'm not going to put that vehicle in the list because it's not in production yet.

But it will be next year.

And if they stick to the specs, well, if we do this podcast in a year's time,

it'll be easily in the top 10.

Let's get into our top 10 countdown.

I will give you a bonus one at the end.

Again, just for fun, which I think some people would argue shouldn't even be on the list.

All right, let's start number 10 on the countdown.

The Lotus IMEA top speed of 159 miles an hour 256 kph.

The IMEA's top speed is possible thanks to twin electric motors,

905 horsepower, 985 Newton meters, all four wheels being driven.

Used a two speed gearbox to do that.

So guess the quick launch, but the high speed efficiency.

Big battery 102 kilowatt hours.

Platform 800 volts, active aero movable grill,

flat underside, deployable spoiler, F1 DRS system,

chassis engineering is just as sharp.

There's extensive carbon fiber, a low slung hyper stance,

sticky Pirelli P0R tires, advanced cooling system,

and they allow for repeated acceleration runs with no loss of performance.

Every aspect from the structure to the electronics and thermal management is all about

not being quick but efficient as well, which is why it's not number one on the list,

but it does make the list.

Number nine, the Porsche Taycan Turbo GT.

It'll hit 190 miles an hour or 305 kph.

The Porsche Taycan Turbo GT with the Vizac package is engineered for just pure speed.

Porsche pushes all the numbers on this.

The Taycan will do 190 miles an hour.

Dual motor system, 1,034 horsepower in attack mode and 1,108 in over boost.

The car's rear motor uses the new 900 amp inverter,

silicon carbide semiconductors, two speed newly strengthened rear transmission

for sustained acceleration, 105 kilowatt hour battery,

and 800 volt platform aided by the new advanced thermal management

and even a race course mode as well that preconditions the battery.

The Vizac track package replaces anything that you would think is comfortable with performance upgrades.

Carbon rear wing, active aero underbody, lighter forged wheels, thinner glass.

Yeah, it's noisier.

Loads of carbon fiber, a helmet rack rather than seats.

The result is 75 kilograms lighter than the Turbo S.

The Taycan Turbo GT's drag coefficient 0.31 CD reflects a focus on downforce and cooling rather than making it slippery.

That's necessary when you start to go above 300 kilometers an hour.

Special 21 inch tires and ceramic brakes are fitted to handle the grip.

The 0 to 62.1 seconds VMAX 190 and loads of thermal conditioning

so you can do it again and again on a track very important, they say.

Alright, moving on. Number eight, the Neo EP9.

Slightly faster, 194 miles an hour, 313 kph.

Four motors on this one though, it's our first quad motor vehicle.

335 horsepower a piece, so 1341 in total.

It's quick, north to 100 kph 2.7, top speed, like I say, 313 kilometers an hour.

777 volts architecture, you can even swap the battery in this as it's a Neo.

Downforce, they say, peaks at around 240 kilometers an hour.

About twice what an F1 car makes.

It corners at 3G, it stops at 3.3G, you might want to lay down after this.

Carbon ceramic brakes and 408 millimeter discs, everything is carbon.

Carbon fiber chassis, all about performance.

The bodywork is 70% lighter than a steel equivalent, but it's stiffer,

active suspension, custom slick tires to head towards 200 miles an hour.

The EP9 is a proper race car, but I'm not sure I'd take it out for, you know,

a nice little Sunday drive and yet it's got exactly the same top speed as the next car on our list.

So I put them at seven and eight because, well, this is the Maserati Gran Turismo Fulgore.

Triple motor system with each permanent magnet motor doing 300 kilowatts.

It's pushing out. They give it a combined 760 horsepower.

The rear motors will work independently to do torque vectoring.

Formulary derived silicon carbide inverters.

92 kilowatt hour pack, 83 kilowatt hours usable.

It's it's low in a central T shape as well.

800 volt architecture, 610 kilowatt discharge rate.

They've worked on intelligent thermal preconditioning so that you got peak performance,

fast charge times as well.

Aerodynamic tricks like active splitters, diffusers, plus the car's low height,

just 1,300 millimeters, cuts the drag, boost the stability.

The chassis is aluminium magnesium and high strength steel.

Unsurprisingly, the metrics are good, 0 to 62 miles an hour, 2.7 seconds.

It's a triple motor, all wheel drive, rear torque vectoring car that you would take on a cross-continent blast.

This is much more of a road going car.

Hence it being called a Gran Turismo.

This is a really special vehicle that hasn't just stripped out everything in the name of making a track day kind of monster.

This is something that, well, dare I say it, you could even take to the shops for a pint of milk.

Well, I will say it and guess what?

We're not done.

We're not done with cars like this that can be your, I hate the phrase daily driver because anyway,

but it could really be a car that you drive every day.

Or would you buy the next one?

That would be the Lucidaire Sapphire.

And this car fascinates me because I've earlier this week just finished a long video,

I'm going to say long, it's Kyle out of spec.

So my friend Kyle, who has got the YouTube channels, the Out of Spec network,

and he's been in Germany recently for the IAA show in Munich and he got his hands on this car.

At number six, Lucidaire Sapphire, top speed rated 205 miles an hour.

In the same vein as the last car, the Maserati, this really is a car that you can take the kids to school with on Friday morning

and by Saturday afternoon be doing a track day in it.

This is so special and yet a very placid car if you want to drive it that way.

Now, I'm fascinated by it because, well, I've just seen it do over 200 miles an hour on the German Autobahn.

Kyle's in Germany, took it on an unrestricted section that was pretty quiet, actually.

There was some, a couple of busy set.

Kyle's a great driver, by the way, and he wasn't hooning it and he did it very controlled way.

But when the road was clear on a straight piece, he did give it some VMAX.

I'm not sure it hit 205 in his video, but he didn't look terrified and he didn't look like he was trying to keep the thing in a straight line.

He was commentating through it and at the heart of the Sapphire's performance is its three motor configuration.

One permanent magnet synchronous motor on the front, two at the rear.

The arrangement is a 1234 horsepower, conveniently 1234.

Each motor can do more, by the way, that their motors are incredible, a 670 horsepower each.

Theoretical maximum, over 2000, right?

But they pull it back, they limit it to help, well, just manage everything.

Like I say, it's an everyday car, 118 kilowatt hour pack, 427 miles EPA, which half the cars on this list would dream of.

So very, very high voltage, so 924 volt architecture.

The Sapphire will do 0 to 62 miles an hour, 1.89 seconds, quarter mile, 8.95 at 158 miles an hour, and it'll get to 100 miles an hour in 3.84 seconds.

It's something special, isn't it, about driving a vehicle that you think,

in less than four seconds, I can be breaking the law in pretty much every country for a top speed.

Of course, the unrestricted parts of the German Autobahn, where it's safe and appropriate to do so in good weather,

with a good driver behind the wheel and all the relevant kind of safety things being done.

It was a brand new car by the look of it, and the Lucid SFI hitting over 200 miles an hour.

Go check out Karl's video, done in a really respectful way to safety and top speed.

Although, when he then hit it and slowed down, the lab was pumped.

You could just tell the adrenaline was flowing.

He was pumped a big life goal, as he put it, hitting 200 miles an hour in the Lucid Air Sapphire.

And we're only halfway.

It's about to get serious, girls and guys.

So we'll take a quick break, and then we'll come back.

We've got the top five, and our bonus one as well.

And you can argue amongst yourselves whether that should have been in the list or not.

Stick around, I'll be back in a mo.

All of our bonus shows here on EV News Daily go on to the Patreon pages.

Seven days exclusive first.

So if you don't mind listening to the free feed, the ad supported feed,

you get all of the content, by the way, and I'll never put the really newsy stuff behind the paywall.

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We put it behind it just for a week.

And if you don't mind waiting, then don't bother looking at the Patreon page

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it's how I earn a living these days as I gave up all my other work.

It was partly also to raise my kids because they're, you know,

it was a slightly non-typical situation that we had with those two.

And so I wanted to be there for them, and they both require a little bit extra.

And so I gave everything else up, and I just do this now as a job.

And I know what you're thinking, it's not a job, but let's continue.

Number five in the countdown, the Pininfarina Batista.

There's a little bit of variance in the top speed here.

222 to 225 miles an hour.

That's 358 kilometers an hour.

Zero to 61.8 seconds top speed, like I say, 350, maybe 358.

That is the Pininfarina Batista.

So four motors on this.

1900 horsepower, 120 kilowatt hour T shaped battery for perfect balance.

Every wheel gets independent power for vectoring, torque vectoring, traction, agility,

carbon fiber monocoque, which weighs 2000 kilograms,

Brembo carbon ceramics, which will take you only 31 meters to stop from 100 kph.

The active rear wing adds downforce and helps breaking active adjustable suspension.

All the dynamics tuned with advanced software.

They say comfortable cruising in the Pininfarina Batista.

Only 150 of these will ever be made.

That's how exclusive they are.

This is, they say, you know, comfort and everyday driving.

Yeah, this is another one of those hypercars that would looks like a hypercar.

If you haven't seen one looking very kind of Lamborghini-ish in terms of its sharp angles

and things like that.

Only 150 will be made in Italy.

They are infinitely customizable.

128 million possible personalization options.

They cost 1.9 million pounds each.

And if you want record shattering speed, EV tech, craftsmanship,

very rare air you're breathing up at this price point, one can be yours.

Let's get into the top four.

And at number four, the Lotus Evire.

Do we call this the UK's entry?

Do we call it the China entry?

Well, Lotus is sadly downsizing.

I grew up not far from Hethel in Norfolk, actually.

I know I haven't got the Norfolk accent anymore, but there we all, my family have.

And so I come from the heart.

I slip into it.

I said stop the accent because I slip into it.

So, yeah, you know, I have some kind of allegiance to Lotus.

It's really sad to see them downsizing.

The big bet on EVs didn't pay off for them, sadly.

Kind of they're moving into e-revs and trying to do something to maintain combustion.

It looked really bad for Lotus, their legendary name.

And the Evire is the top rated Lotus on our list.

I'll tell you that much.

It's four independent electric motors, 2,000 PS, 1,700 Newton meters of torque,

all controlled by single speed gearboxes, actually mid-mounted battery,

lightweight carbon fiber structure weighing 1,700 kilograms,

and the Evire will top out at 217 miles an hour.

So, yeah, let's call this the UK's entry, even though China owned these days.

Aerodynamic body uses Venturi tunnels to guide the airflow,

to boost downforce, to cut drag,

all of that aerodynamic focus being underneath the car.

Much like modern day Formula One, key features are an active rear wing,

F1 style DRS drag reduction system.

Diffusers, front splitters that make the electric hypercar very stable at high speeds.

And it's all about doing high speeds repeatedly.

0 to 100 kilometers an hour in less than three seconds.

They give the 0 to 300 number, which I think is hilarious.

0 to 300 kph in nine seconds.

That's almost top speed.

And advanced trashy electronics keeping everything cool and consistent.

With five drive modes, it'll do 80% charge in 12 minutes.

It's got the full track package brakes and wheels.

They say it all works together in a way that is entirely repeatable.

Let's get into the top three then, should we?

All right, here we go.

Number three, you've been waiting for this one.

You might have even thought that this was number one.

And when I started to write this list,

if I hadn't seen the recent news,

I would have thought this was going to be number one, maybe.

But there was a recent record set in August

that put this one down to number three.

This is the Croatian entry.

This is the Rimats-Navera R.

So the Rimats-Navera was a monster.

It was incredible anyway.

And then Mate Rimats and the incredible team in Croatia thought,

you know what, let's make a different one.

And we'll call it the Navera R, four independent electric motors.

2,107 horsepower, 1.66 seconds, 0 to 60.

And if you can hit V-Max,

and I wouldn't be able to because I'm not talented enough,

my knuckles would be white, 268.2 miles an hour.

At the quarter mile, if you're interested, 7.9 seconds.

And they also give the record-breaking number

of going from zero to 400 kilometers an hour to zero.

So how fast can you go and how good are the brakes?

And if you've got 25.79 seconds to spare,

well, then you can have a go at it.

And it's still in the record books, by the way.

The battery, 108 kilowatt hours.

Lithium, manganese, nickel chemistry.

H-shaped for weight and stiffness.

Peak power all the way down to 60% state of charge.

So you haven't got to have this thing topped up to the brim

to get maximum charging.

And it will charge to 80% in 15 minutes at 450 kilowatts.

Aerodynamics, well, all the usuals at this end of the market.

Massive diffuser, rear wing, active aero.

Revised air management over the Navara.

Downforce is up by 15% over the standard car.

What do we call the Navara?

Like the base model?

I don't know.

It runs on Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 rubber.

Every system, from the torque vectoring to the chassis,

all controlled centrally.

Remats really go big on their custom software code.

The car has broken so far 24 speed records.

And it still manages real world 300 miles of range.

Hypercar engineering in, again, maybe not an everyday car

because you can't afford one like me.

But certainly you could drive it every day.

Right, what's the top two cars?

Any guesses?

I'll tell you number two.

It's the Aspark Owl.

OK, this is interesting because you may not have even heard

of this depending on how deep you are into EV world.

Aspark Owl hit 273 miles an hour.

That's 438.7 kph.

Four motors, total of 1,953 horsepower.

4,600 newton meters of torque to the rear.

And another 2,000 plus up front.

Teeny weeny battery, 69 kilowatt hours.

Designed for extreme power output,

but then stop and charge again.

Active thermal management, active aerodynamics,

a long tail, a central fin to cut the drag,

lightweight carbon fiber body and chassis.

Variable ride height, double wish bone suspension,

active torque vectoring.

Stopping power comes from carbon ceramic brakes

and some specially developed rubber.

These are Bridgestone Potenza race tires.

And I'll tell you why you need them.

Because if you want to go above 420 kilometers an hour,

the move to electric vehicles is now making

the actual engineering to go that fast

not as much as a headache as it used to be in combustion world.

And I'm not saying this is easy when we're up at this level.

But the physics then transfer to those four tiny patches of rubber

where the rubber meets the road, as they say.

So the engineering around just the tire technology

so they don't just disintegrate

has to be next level as well.

The Asparcow SP600 specifically

is the result of a partnership between Asparc,

MAT, which is Manifestura Automobili Ciorino,

and Bridgestone with a focus on safety and reliability

at high speeds, testing covered virtual development,

wind tunnels, track sessions,

and real world top speed runs in Germany

before they went on to do that benchmark

top speed run in 2024.

Shall we do the number one?

All right then.

And this is where I go back to the beginning of the podcast

and say the Chinese are really taking it

to the German engineers

because the number one spot is now held by BYD,

specifically their sub-brand Yang Wang

and the Yang Wang U9.

Recently, last month, hitting a new record,

293.54 miles an hour.

That is 472.41 kilometers per hour.

Going faster than any EV before it.

The Yang Wang U9 set a new record.

Key to the blazing speed is its quad motor platform,

four independent motors, which spin at 30,000 RPM.

Each one outputting 744 horsepower.

If you were to combine it,

and it's not, you can't quite add it all up that way,

it would be over 3,000 horsepower.

That's 2,220 kilowatts.

It sits on a 1,200-volt architecture.

Now most EVs are around 400, some are 800.

Lucids are on a pretty high voltage at around 900.

This is a 1,200-volt system.

Each wheel gets real-time 100 hertz,

so 100 times a second, torque adjustment,

for traction and agility.

And peak acceleration is unofficially tested

as far as I know, but well under two seconds of course.

Shassy control comes from their intelligent body control system.

Each suspension corner independently managed

to stabilize the car.

These are extreme speeds.

The U9 can even jump on the spot

or lift a wheel off the ground, be a three-wheeler,

or just drop its ride height on demand.

Hence, when I talk about the independent corner control

of the suspension.

So that keeps the, you know,

when it's not doing party tricks,

the grip on uneven roads as best it can be.

It weighs about 2,480 kilograms curb weight.

Aerodynamics are tailored for minimal drag.

A big carbon splitter, no rear wing for the record run, by the way.

They even end up getting really funny over things like panel gaps

because it makes a difference up at this.

It runs on bespoke semi-slick tires, all corners,

providing maximum mechanical grip.

They're wide-shape and special compound

with astounding that the speeds are almost 500 kilometers an hour.

The battery and the inverters, obviously,

are custom designed for sustained power

with some very advanced cooling.

The result is an ultra-high-voltage power car,

quad-motor intelligent suspension,

tire-tech designed to cope with the speeds

and absolute top speeds.

The Yang Wang U9 Track Edition provides just how far

electric hypercars can push performance,

setting a benchmark not just for EVs anymore,

setting a benchmark for how fast a car can go,

regardless of how it's powered.

Now, one of the self-imposed rules on this Top 10 Countdown,

putting it into the list,

had to be that these cars are in series production

and that if you or I won the lottery,

or maybe if you have the cash, then congratulations could go and buy one.

And you can with this.

It's a proper track day car that you could just go out in China, of course,

and buy if you want to.

They're making them and plenty of them.

In fact, in the first five months, they sold over 100.

The latest data I've got to is August 21st.

Last time I could, the latest I could find rather.

And that was that they've now sold 149 units.

Now, what was been like three weeks since then,

so maybe some more.

And with the price is 1.68 million yuan per vehicle.

But again, compare that to what you would have paid

in combustion world for these rare hypercars.

Not only is it the ultimate reply to them,

but it bests them as well.

And it's a proper production car that everyday people,

well, for right or wrong, without extra training, can just go and buy.

And that's our Top 10.

And I hope you liked it.

Oh, yeah. Do you want a bonus one just for fun?

All right, let's throw in the Tesla Roadster,

a claimed speed of 250 miles an hour.

That's 402 kilometers an hour.

The second generation Tesla Roadster was unveiled in November 2017.

Despite multiple announced timelines,

it's never been launched or delivered to a single customer.

As of now, Tesla say the car should debut by the end of 2025.

At least that's the last I paid attention to.

The new Roadster was launched to deliver a hardcore smackdown.

That was the phrase that the CEO used to combustion cars

with the aim to redefine electric performance.

They say it will deliver the quickest acceleration ever announced

for any production car in the world.

Three electric motors, one up front, two in the rear,

for all-wheel drive and torque vectoring.

They say 200 kilowatt-hour battery, which is easily almost double

anything else on the list that we've talked about today.

So that does seem that the other cars we've talked about

are significantly better today,

and they're not doing 200 kilowatt-hour batteries.

They say that it'll use the new 4680 cells

that Tesla are developing themselves,

and that it'll do 620 miles on the highway in terms of range.

Well, okay, but that's going to be a very, very heavy battery.

And where are all the cells going to go?

The Roadster will have a dedicated EV platform,

a low center of gravity, removable glass roof.

Aerodynamics will be prioritized, they say.

Charging speeds will be 350 kilowatts,

although, of course, announced that in 2017.

It sounds good.

Announce it now, and well, it's a little bit average.

In fact, it's a lot slower than some average cars.

There aren't this much money.

Some very achievable family cars,

like the new BMW iX3 or the Mercedes-Benz GLC EV

would both charge a lot quicker than that.

Wireless home charging was announced as well,

but Tesla just killed that off for the Cybertruck,

so I don't know.

The car will be made out of carbon fiber,

have a yoke steering wheel, and be a 2 plus 2 layout.

It'll have the SpaceX package,

where the back seats get taken out,

and you get compressed air thrusters based on rockets technology.

0 to 60 less than one second.

But they haven't had to prove it, of course.

And they say a 250 mile an hour top speed.

Look, it's clear that whilst Tesla has delayed the Roadster

for almost 10 years now,

the competition hasn't sat around on their backside.

It hasn't just caught up.

It's far exceeded it.

The Roadster was meant to be the world's fastest EV,

and hit 250 miles an hour.

That would be an achievement

that wouldn't even put it in the top three of our countdown today.

So I don't know.

What do they do with it?

Do they try and release it and not have it as the ultimate

hardcore smackdown that it was meant to be?

Because it would no longer make the headlines.

It would be a wonderful vehicle.

I'm not criticizing.

But it wouldn't be what it was meant to be.

Will they ever make it?

Like, I mean, does it even matter?

They've got bigger problems than that

to sort out right now at Tesla.

But it's certainly interesting if they want to regain their crown,

their momentum, their reputation,

as leading the way in the EV world.

Well, at the minute, it's the Chinese,

and it's the BYDs that do.

Hey, that's the success of the move to EV.

Previously unknown manufacturers are achieving world-class performance

that only the move to EV adoption has allowed them

to create opportunities for new industry leaders

and established automotive hierarchies completely challenged.

As electric vehicle technology continues advancing,

the current performance achievements represent

merely the beginning of this new era.

How scary is that?

Traditional limitations of the internal combustion engine

no longer constrain vehicle performance,

where global competition for being number one

is reshaping the structure of the entire automotive industry.

I hope you enjoyed our top 10 countdown.

I love putting it together.

What a giggle.

Didn't take it too seriously.

Not exactly the everyday car.

There's the cars that you and I can buy.

But boy, was it fun.

Thanks for listening, and I'll see you on the next one.

BONUS: The Top 10 Fastest EVs Ranked

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Porsche Taycan

Maserati Gran Turismo

Lucid Air

Yangwang Yang Wang U9

Tesla Roadster

Lucid Gravity

Tesla Cybertruck

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