It was little surprise to find that news of the Xiaomi SU7 Ultra prototype securing a formidable Nurburgring lap time attracted plenty of comments; more than 120 at the last count, owing to the astonishing 6:46 lap. But there were only so many firm conclusions to be drawn, really, given the car’s prototype status; it was a great achievement, if of limited relevance given it wasn’t quite production representative.
But now a showroom-spec, albeit with optional track package (if it’s good enough for Porsche...) SU7 Ultra has set a verified Nordschleife lap time. More than that, it set a new record for EV execs, with a 7:04.957. Ahead of the Porsche Taycan Turbo GT (7:07.55, with its own raft of circuit-focused upgrades included), and just beating even the Rimac Nevera, a dedicated and even more powerful EV hypercar (7:05.298).
Porsche will be consoled by the fact that a comparable car with hundreds of horsepower less is within a couple of seconds of the new record holder. The Xiaomi’s 1,527hp from a trio of motors comfortably exceeds the Turbo GT’s 952hp Attack Mode peak, with the crazy 1,108hp number only a system max for two seconds. But, well, nobody remembers second place. And Xiaomi is already suggesting, via its CEO Lei Jun, that the company will be back at the Nurburgring to improve on its performance.
Quite where the SU7 Ultra will go faster is anyone’s guess. Because alongside hitting 214mph (!) down the Dottingher-Hohe, it carries decent speed and composure through the bends; that aero kit would certainly seem to be helping with high-speed stability, even if the Xiaomi inevitably doesn’t deal with the slow stuff quite like a lighter car. We don’t know which tyres were used; whatever rubber was on the SU7 Ultra doesn't howl in protest too much. It's all very impressive, even to those of us who’ve watched days of Nordschleife footage. The Norfolk numberplates are nice to see as well. We knew that Prodrive was involved with the Xiaomi SU7 Ultra prototype; seems like they might be taking advantage of some more English expertise in addition…
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