BYD’s YangWang U9 is an electric sports car that CarScoops describes as China’s first-ever supercar, and its review sizes the car up against Ferrari and McLaren. The review calls the U9 a 1,280-hp electric machine, quotes a 0-100 km/h time of 2.3 seconds and prices it at 1,800,000 yuan, about $269,000, which puts it in the territory of established European performance cars.
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Reviewer Sam D. Smith reviewed the car for CarScoops, and his summary was measured: “Make no mistake, the U9 is a great first attempt at a supercar.”
Four motors and a 1,200-volt Blade battery
The numbers start with the powertrain. The CarScoops review describes a fully electric car with a BYD Blade battery using LFP chemistry, a 1,200-volt electrical architecture and 500 kW DC fast charging, with the caveat that a charger that fast has to be found. Output is given as 1,280 hp in the review’s summary and as 1,288 hp in its body text, a small discrepancy within the same piece.
The original specification report from December 2023 explains the arithmetic. CarScoops wrote then that the U9 uses four electric motors, each producing 322 hp, for a combined 1,287 hp, up from the 1,100 hp originally expected. Four times 322 gives 1,288, and the 1,287 figure is BYD’s own combined rating. A pack of 100 kWh built by BYD subsidiary FinDreams sat between the axles in that early description, and the car weighed 2,475 kg (5,456 pounds), about 175 kg heavier than the Rimac Nevera.
The 1,280-hp figure used here is therefore the review’s own billing, and BYD’s combined rating as reported in 2023 sits a few horsepower higher.
Range is the other number BYD attached to the car at its reveal. CarScoops reported a claimed 700 km, or 435 miles, on the Chinese CLTC test cycle, a measure that is not directly comparable to the European or American cycles, and the review does not report a real-world range figure. For a car with a 500 kW charging ceiling and a 100 kWh pack in its original description, the charging claim matters more to ownership than the peak power, because few public chargers can deliver that rate.
Weight, a 2.3-second sprint and a Nürburgring time
The review measures the U9 at 2,470 kg, or about 5,500 pounds, which is heavy for something sold as a supercar. Smith reports a 0-100 km/h time of 2.3 seconds and a Nürburgring lap in under eight minutes. The review does not state a 0-60 mph time or a top speed, and it does not give a motor count, so those details come from the 2023 report instead, where BYD claimed 0-100 km/h in 2 seconds and a 300 km/h top speed.
Smith is more qualified in his praise on character. He compares the U9 to McLaren, but describes its manner as “a bit more clinical (also known as soulless),” and he calls the car a great first attempt. By his account the engineering is convincing and the personality is the part still to be developed.
A rough power-to-weight check shows why the car is quick despite its mass. Dividing the review’s 1,280 hp by its 2,470 kg gives about 518 horsepower per tonne, a derived figure that does not appear in the review, and four motors on a 1,200-volt system supply it. The 2.3-second 0-100 km/h time and the sub-eight-minute Nürburgring lap are the results Smith cites, and neither is independently timed in the sources reviewed here.
Underneath, the U9 uses a hydraulic suspension system called DiSus-X, with sensors that scan the road ahead and adjust each wheel, and it rides on carbon ceramic brakes. CarScoops notes that the suspension system Bose developed in the 2000s was a precedent for the idea of an actively controlled electromagnetic setup. The review car wore Pirelli tires, while the U9 Extreme, a track-focused version, uses Giti tires.
Priced against the McLaren Artura and Porsche 911 GT3
Price is how the review frames the Ferrari and McLaren comparison. At 1,800,000 yuan, about $269,000, the U9 sits alongside the McLaren Artura and the Porsche 911 GT3, according to Smith. That is far above the roughly 1 million yuan, about $140,000, that CarScoops reported as the expected price in December 2023, so the car arrived with a very different sticker than the one first floated.
The review also steps outside the powertrain to judge the product. It names Ferrari, Porsche, Lamborghini and McLaren as the marques a supercar buyer normally considers, and it compares the U9’s LFP battery with the NMC chemistry Tesla uses. The review excerpt available does not say how many cars have been sold. CarScoops frames the U9 as a first for China in a class long held by European marques, and Smith’s verdict is that the first attempt is a strong one. That leaves open whether buyers at this price will choose a first-generation car from BYD’s luxury brand over a nameplate with decades of racing history behind it.
This article was produced with the assistance of AI and reviewed by Morning Overview editors prior to publication.
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