3 days ago
The Newest Nürburgring Lap Record Belongs to China
While the U.S. has pretty much banned Chinese-made cars by tariffing the value out of them, Chinese brands continue to prove they are a force to reckon with, now and if they ever come to our shores. The latest proof of that has just been set by the Xiaomi SU7 Ultra, an all-electric sedan that just reset the lap record for electric sedans at the Nürburgring. It's a record that was once set by Germany's own Porsche in 2004.
This isn't the first time the Xiaomi SU7 Ultra has set a record lap at the track known as 'the Green Hell.' In October of 2024, the stripped-down prototype went out and shattered the record for four-door vehicles by setting a 6:46.874 lap time. Of course, it wasn't a full production vehicle, but it still set that impressive lap on a partially wet track and even lost power for around 12 seconds during the run. Xiaomi did declare, however, that it would return to the Nürburgring with a production version of the SU7 Ultra and reset the production electric sedan record.
April 1st would mark the day that Xiaomi would do it, but it would need to beat the official record of 7 minutes, 7.55 seconds—a record recently set by the 2025 Porsche Taycan Turbo GT with the Weissach package. The SU7 Ultra would also utilize track ready parts just as the Porsche did with a set of Bilstein Evo T1 coilovers, Endless high-performance brake pads for its carbon ceramic brake system, upgraded motor and battery cooling system, and high-performance tires. With Vincent Radermecker—former World Touring Car and British Touring Car driver—behind the wheel, the 1,527-hp triple-motor sedan crossed the line in 7:04.957 and stole the production EV sedan record.
To put this time in further perspective, the SU7 Ultra starts at $73,724 (when converting from 529,900 Chinese Yuan, at the time of writing) and set a time faster than the Rimac Nevera. The Nevera is an all-electric hypercar that starts at $2.2 million with four motors outputting 1,888 hp and it was beat by 0.341of a second (a time of 7:05.298 for its official production car record) by a sedan that can have a fridge equipped inside the center console (there is no word if the record setter was chilling some drinks during the run). The SU7 Ultra also hit a top speed of 214.994 mph racing down the Döttinger Höhe straight. It's safe to say that Xiaomi has helped put the world on further notice that the Chinese OEMs are not slacking around—and why Ford's Jim Farley loves his Xiaomi.
