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China's NextEV NIO EP9 Claims To Be 'World's Fastest' Electric Supercar (hothardware.com)

Posted by msmash on from the need-for-speed dept.

Brandon Hill, writing for HotHardware: NextEV, a Chinese manufacturer that fields a team in Formula E, is looking to take the world by storm with its EP9. Launching under the NIO sub-brand, the EP9 is said to accelerate to 60 mph in just 2.7 seconds and can hit 124 mph in 7.1 seconds. After 15.9 seconds, the EP9 will be traveling at a heady 186 mph. The EV weighs 3,825 pounds, or 1,730kg (about 200 pounds heavier than the 918 Spyder), of which 1,400 pounds is devoted solely to the lithium-ion battery pack. Despite the fact that the EP9's motors combine to produce an astonishing 1390 horsepower, it still has a respectable driving range of 265 miles. So what do all of these performance numbers mean in the real world? Well, NextEV says that the EP9 is capable of lapping the famed Nurburgring Nordschleife race track in 7 minutes, 5 seconds. Interestingly enough, NextEV is claiming that the EP9 is the world's fastest EV, but we have the feeling that Rimac Automobili would take issue with that statement. Rimac's Concept_S can dash to 60 mph in just 2.5 seconds and can hit 186 mph in 13.5 seconds. Likewise, the Concept_S is capable of topping out at 226.8 mph, whereas NextEV hasn't provided a top speed for the EP9.

56 comments

  1. tesla models S by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    > accelerate to 60 mph in just 2.7
    That's slower than a tesla model S top version, which does it in 2.4s.

    1. Re:tesla models S by Luthair · · Score: 2

      The Tesla is also a 5000lb sedan which is problematic when you want to corner or brake at high speed on a track.

    2. Re:tesla models S by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      What's the Tesla's top end? We're discussing speed here, not acceleration.

    3. Re:tesla models S by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The Model S tops out at 155 MPH. Not sure about the other ones.

    4. Re:tesla models S by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      1. What does any of this matter when, here in the U.S. anyway, you can't exceed 65mph without being in violation of the the law, and
      2. Anything over 100mph is a felony?

    5. Re:tesla models S by AmiMoJo · · Score: 1

      They are talking about the maximum speed. Model S is limited to 155 MPH, this thing claims over 185.

      Presumably they also tuned it for performance, it's very low, probably a stiff racing suspension etc. The Model S doesn't do too well on tracks because the battery tends to reach its thermal limit quite quickly, so presumably they had some powerful cooling systems to get that time on the Nurburgring.

      Be interesting to know what size battery it has too. They state 265 miles range, so I'd guess 60-70kWh.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    6. Re:tesla models S by Oswald+McWeany · · Score: 2

      Well... actually, That varies State by state. I see plenty of 70mph interstates around where I am, and doesn't Montana have 80mph speedlimits. (for a while they had no daytime speed limit in Montana- and since implementing speed limits ,fatalities have gone up and there is talk about removing them again).

      That aside, I understand you sentiment that most of us would never get to enjoy the full performance option that a supercar offers.

      Most of us won't be buying supercars either! If you can afford one, you can afford to take it to the track from time to time. What is impressive is that it shows electric vehicles are quickly demolishing the idea that it requires petrol to have high-performance.

      This car looks cool, but I'd take the Tesla over it anyday, much more practical.

      --
      "That's the way to do it" - Punch
    7. Re:tesla models S by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      In the US we have these things called race tracks where there are no speed limits.

    8. Re:tesla models S by geekmux · · Score: 1

      Be interesting to know what size battery it has too. They state 265 miles range, so I'd guess 60-70kWh.

      I wonder if what you're looking for could be extracted from the fact the battery weight is 1,400 pounds (as compared to other 60-70kWh models)

      On a related note, sitting on top of 1,400 pounds of lithium-ion, traveling at 180MPH+ speeds...what could possibly go wrong?

      Given the fact that range is the FAR more relevant factor with consumers, I grow very tired of this bigger-dick contest between EV vendors.

    9. Re:tesla models S by AmiMoJo · · Score: 3, Insightful

      TBH it doesn't sound any worse than sitting on top of gallons of flammable liquid in a car powered by explosions.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    10. Re: tesla models S by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Car companies have always had dick-measuring contests. This drives their engineers to find new, innovative solutions and try cutting edge things, of which many eventually make it into normal production cars. The publicity is also good.

    11. Re:tesla models S by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Your a moron.

    12. Re:tesla models S by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      What does any of this matter when, here in the U.S. anyway, you can't exceed 65mph without being in violation of the the law

      True, with the small exceptions of the 41 states that have speed limits higher than 65mph, and the several hundred racetracks in the US that have open track days.

    13. Re:tesla models S by TechyImmigrant · · Score: 1

      In the US we have these things called race tracks where there are no speed limits.

      Well there's C.

      --
      I should use this sig to advertise my book ISBN-13 : 978-1501515132.
    14. Re:tesla models S by TechyImmigrant · · Score: 1

      I grow very tired of this bigger-dick contest between EV vendors.

      I know right. The petrol and Diesel vehicle makers have always been so responsible and have never pushed the performance angle.
       

      --
      I should use this sig to advertise my book ISBN-13 : 978-1501515132.
    15. Re:tesla models S by Nethemas+the+Great · · Score: 1

      Limited by governing software like nearly all production street cars. What's actually possible absent the governor is quite likely much more. What would be more interesting is comparing how long they can respectively sustain these speeds.

      --
      Two of my imaginary friends reproduced once ... with negative results.
    16. Re:tesla models S by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      A true story. Silicon Valley neo multi-millionaire was craving to do something with his newfound wealth. He went to Italy and spent insane amount of money to get custom Ferrari. After bringing it home, he found he had no way to drive it at high speed. So he started driving at 2:00 am on highways. He was caught three times and on the third time, he was arrested and jailed.

      Seriously, why do we even care about such cars?

    17. Re:tesla models S by gnick · · Score: 1

      TBH it doesn't sound any worse than sitting on top of gallons of flammable liquid in a car powered by explosions.

      If US safety standards were universal 150 years ago, there would be a lot more horses today.

      --
      He's getting rather old, but he's a good mouse.
    18. Re: tesla models S by geekmux · · Score: 1

      Car companies have always had dick-measuring contests. This drives their engineers to find new, innovative solutions and try cutting edge things, of which many eventually make it into normal production cars. The publicity is also good.

      SuperCar companies have always had dick-measuring contests.

      For the other 99% of cars on the road, the metrics are quite a bit more sane, and dick-measuring with this kind of performance will not end well when someone sneezes behind the wheel of their new EV car, accidentally launching them across an intersection, pulling 3Gs and killing 17 people in a crosswalk in the blink of an eye.

      There is a safety point to be taken into consideration, and EV vendors are not doing that with this constant race to 60MPH or faster. As I said before, it's range that should be the metric, not "ludicrous" speeds.

      Let's put this another way. In 5 years when the average EV "family wagon" will do 0-60 in less than 2 seconds and top out at 200MPH, will you feel comfortable on the roads knowing teenagers are learning to drive with that under their novice foot?

    19. Re:tesla models S by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Watkins Glen
      Laguna Seca
      Road Atlanta
      Barber Motorsports Park
      Mid Ohio
      Senoma Raceway
      Willow Springs
      Lime Rock
      Circuit of the Americas
      Miller Motersports Park
      Daytona
      Waterford Hills
      Portland International raceway
      Virginia International raceway
      New Jersey Motorsports park

      You're right there's nowhere to drive a super car here.

    20. Re:tesla models S by Anubis+IV · · Score: 2

      Neither of those is true nationwide, so far as I know. Most states have allowed speeds above 65mph since the mid-90s, with only a handful of states keeping their maximum speeds under 70mph. For instance, here in Texas our speed limits go as high as 85mph in some parts of the state, though the fastest I see in everyday driving is 75mph.

      As for anything over 100mph being a felony, maybe that's true where you live, but I doubt it's true here. In Texas we have prima facie speed limits, rather than absolute speed limits. Whereas in most states the very act of speeding is a crime in and of itself, in Texas and a few other states that isn't the case. Rather, when we get pulled over "for speeding", it's actually for going faster than what is considered safe for the conditions (the ticket will even have details about the road and environmental conditions at the time you were pulled over). You can contest the ticket in court if you lay out a case for why you were driving safely, despite exceeding the limit (e.g. common speed that day was higher than posted speed, so it would have been unsafe to drive at the posted speed). Likewise, if everyone is passing you while you drive the limit, you may find yourself getting ticketed for unsafe driving, regardless of the fact that you were at the speed limit.

      Also, as others have pointed out, there are plenty of private race courses and the like at which people may want to push their cars to their limits.

    21. Re: tesla models S by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Your a moron.

      You're more a moron than your moronic post.

    22. Re:tesla models S by LifesABeach · · Score: 1

      Is the EP9 3D Printed? Or was fabrication not important?

    23. Re: tesla models S by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It would be a lot nicer if everyone switched from 0-100 to 0-100-0 average across a range of road surfaces from clean tarmac through gravel to black ice. Perhaps throw in a minimum no skid turning radius at 100 in standard conditions (which would have to be done in both directions to avoid the oval car setup shenanigans).

    24. Re: tesla models S by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Though come to think of it lap time around the ring is pretty good, it's far from a great surface and really tests the handling and breaking and all round driveability of the car. The only problem is the bloody companies would be killing drivers to try and gain the last second off the time that nobody should ever be looking for. Though again perhaps that's not that tragic as they might have to factor in driver safety in the event of a high speed crash.

    25. Re:tesla models S by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Hmmm, seriously, why even bother having super powered computers, you don't need that horsepower to run microsoft word.

      Just because you have no enjoyment of mechanical operations that perform highly doesn't mean that others shouldn't.

      A supercar is just that; it's super. So what if you need to take it to a track to really open it up, you're not going to be gong over 150 the first few thousand miles anyways.

  2. Do Or Do Not by Luthair · · Score: 1

    You either do a lap in that time or you do not, there is no 'capable'.

    1. Re:Do Or Do Not by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      well the video does show the impressive record. And the driver makes it look soooo easy at the high speeds(sic) he's doing. Also quite the cinematic achievement; worth a watch for fans of Top Gear or Need for Speed

      Provocateur

    2. Re:Do Or Do Not by i.r.id10t · · Score: 2

      Indeed. Here's a youtube vid of the car on Das Ring

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

      Enjoy!

      --
      Don't blame me, I voted for Kodos
    3. Re:Do Or Do Not by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Der Ring. Die Nordschleife. Die grüne Hölle.

    4. Re:Do Or Do Not by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 1

      You either do a lap in that time or you do not, there is no 'capable'.

      Yeah, TFA is silly. Instead of having a long drawn out discussion of which racing car is "fastest", why not just ... race them.

    5. Re:Do Or Do Not by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      For some context, here are the top 100 lap times for the Nordschliefe. Wikipedia has a different list with more details, but nevertheless the EP9's time of 7:05.12 is in the top 5 in any category.

  3. "heady 186 mph" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    That's not heady. That's suicidal for most people under normal conditions.

    1. Re:"heady 186 mph" by dehachel12 · · Score: 1

      headless then.

  4. Nordschleife by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It's not gonna take 5 years before the fastest lap will be electric, I am expecting a tesla model R beating all petrol times.

  5. MPH again ? And the winner is .... by testman123 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    MPH ? Why not Avoidupois system insteand ? Or maybe ancient egyptian mesurement system.

    Are we on /. or what ? Stuff that matters, such as using a practical unit system.

    Ey, by the way, did you know that only 3 countries in the whole world have not moved yet officially to the universal metric system : Myanmar, Liberia and ..... the USA !

    Years back, it was a pun intended but nowadays, it's starting to make phooey sense ;-)

    Meahwhile, in the rest of the planet earth, people mostly use km/h to rank a car speed ...

    1. Re:MPH again ? And the winner is .... by sjbe · · Score: 2

      MPH ? Why not Avoidupois system insteand ? Or maybe ancient egyptian mesurement system.

      You must be new here. The US not using the metric system has been discussed ad-nauseum here on Slashdot for many years. While most of us would like the US to go metric it's not going to change any time soon so I suggest you get over it. Most of the readership on Slashdot is in the US so most of us are perfectly comfortable with MPH as a unit. Those who aren't used to mph as a unit are mostly smart enough to handle the conversion. Roughly 0-60mph = 0-100kph.

    2. Re:MPH again ? And the winner is .... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Ey, by the way, did you know that only 3 countries in the whole world have not moved yet officially to the universal metric system : Myanmar, Liberia and ..... the USA !

      Nonsense. I can assure you that while we in the UK have adopted the metric system for most things, cars, maps, speed limits etc use miles/miles per hour. And beer is measured in pints.

      And even in more exclusively metric countries, non-metric values are still widely used in certain areas. Germany for example may measure distance in kilometres, but car power is still commonly specified in horsepower (pferdestarke).

    3. Re:MPH again ? And the winner is .... by Oswald+McWeany · · Score: 1

      I think it's important for everyone to have a rudimentary grasp of both systems. Metric is far superior, but it doesn't help to stick one's head in the dirt and scream "I'm not pulling my head out until everything is in kilometers".

      --
      "That's the way to do it" - Punch
    4. Re:MPH again ? And the winner is .... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Kilogram meters per minute is just not as sexy as horsepower, and its more a mouthful

    5. Re:MPH again ? And the winner is .... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      People in "officially" metric countries still user non-metric units.

      Ask a Canadian how tall they are and how much they weigh.

      Ask a German how much power an M3 BMW makes.

      Ask an Australian how big the wheels on his mountain bike are.

      Check the tires on your car. The diameter is specified in Inches.

    6. Re:MPH again ? And the winner is .... by _merlin · · Score: 2

      Check the tires on your car. The diameter is specified in Inches.

      This is a really weird one though, the spec like 205/55/R16 means 205mm tread width, 55% aspect (sidewall is 55% of tread width) for 16 in rims. It has both millimetres and inches in it, just to be confusing.

    7. Re:MPH again ? And the winner is .... by _merlin · · Score: 1

      Kilograms per minute makes no sense, its joules per second, aka watts, and the typical denomination is kilowatts (kW). At least kilowatts are the same everywhere unlike horsepower that are different in different countries.

    8. Re:MPH again ? And the winner is .... by Malc · · Score: 1

      Despite the efforts of the EU, the UK hasn't moved to the metric system either. Distances and speeds are still using Imperial units if you're driving.

      That said, you're right to be irritated by this article. Given that the car is Chinese, the speeds would have been measured in KPH. The quoted MPH numbers in this summary are not just jarring, they include a rounding error. Why not just say the actual correct values, which are 200 and 300 kph for instance?

    9. Re:MPH again ? And the winner is .... by someoneOtherThanMe · · Score: 1

      And about bicycles... let's sort the common adult bicycle rim sizes by their actual size:

      26 27.5 28 = 29 27

    10. Re:MPH again ? And the winner is .... by someoneOtherThanMe · · Score: 1

      Eh.. slashdot ate my less-than signs, so let's try again.
      26" is smaller than 27.5, which is smaller than 28, which is equal to 29. 27 is larger than all others.

    11. Re:MPH again ? And the winner is .... by angel'o'sphere · · Score: 2

      Most of the readership on Slashdot is in the US
      This is extremely unlikely :D

      --
      Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
  6. Safety be damned by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Unless it is able to pass US automotive safety standards then this isn't much of an accomplishment.

    1. Re:Safety be damned by Oswald+McWeany · · Score: 1

      Sell it as a kit-car in the US and they can ignore the safety standards.

      --
      "That's the way to do it" - Punch
    2. Re:Safety be damned by Nethemas+the+Great · · Score: 1

      Perhaps part of the point is that Tesla's S for instance pulls comparable performance specs but does so while acing government safety tests.

      --
      Two of my imaginary friends reproduced once ... with negative results.
  7. Purchasing criterea by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Um, did I miss something? When did electric-car drag-racing become a thing?

    1. Re:Purchasing criterea by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Um, did I miss something? When did electric-car drag-racing become a thing?

      Since the late 90s.
      http://www.nedra.com/about_us.html

    2. Re:Purchasing criterea by Marxist+Hacker+42 · · Score: 1

      About the time the White Zombie started hitting the drag races at Portland International Raceway. Look it up (though that's a purpose-built electric car that has two totally different modes- cruise around town slowly, or dump a full 1000 KW/h battery pack into two 1000 horsepower motors in 3.6 seconds for a quarter mile speed burn).

      --
      SJW: a person who perceives an injustice, and while correcting it, commits a greater injustice.
    3. Re:Purchasing criterea by Greystripe · · Score: 1

      As soon as there were two electric cars.

  8. It is really important..... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    That these cars can accelerate this quickly, and also reach those top speeds.

    In particular, there is no point in buying any car that can't go around 'The Ring' in under 8 minutes.

  9. not powered by explosions, burn! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Gasoline engines are not powered by explosions, it's a very precise fuel burn. Explosions (or detonation) are actually detrimental to the engine.