Flying high: Watch driverless BYD U9 supercar jump over 6-metre road crater
U9 performs autonomous jump, covering 6 meters at high speed.
Image: Supplied
BYD is flying high - literally.
Not only has it overtaken Tesla to become the world's best-selling manufacturer of electric vehicles (EVs), but its U9 electric supercar has also achieved a remarkable technological feat by jumping over a giant road crater at speed.
In the clip, the Yangwang U9 supercar accelerates to around 120 km/h and, with no one behind the wheel, leaps over a series of obstacles, covering about 6 metres in the air on its own. The impressive sequence showcases the U9’s advanced active suspension and autonomous driving systems.
As a reminder, the U9 Xtreme recently set a new global production-car top-speed record of 496.22km/h at the ATP Automotive Testing Papenburg test track in Germany.
It dethroned the Bugatti Chiron Super Sport 300+, which held the record for the world's fastest production petrol-powered car, achieving a top speed of 490.484 km/h in 2019.
The Yangwang U9 Xtreme features four ultra-high-speed motors that operate at up to 30,000rpm and produce a total of more than 2237kW, smaller 20-inch track-level semi-slick tyres from Giti, and revised DiSus-X suspension with specific tuning to cope with the increased stresses of circuit driving.
BYD overtakes Tesla
Tesla reported on Friday that its fourth-quarter 2025 sales fell short of expectations, allowing BYD to overtake it as the world’s largest electric vehicle producer in annual sales.
The US company, led by Elon Musk, delivered 418,227 vehicles in the final quarter, bringing its total for the year to around 1.64 million EVs.
By contrast, BYD announced on Thursday that it sold 2.26 million EVs in 2025, setting a new global benchmark. Analysts had expected Tesla’s quarterly deliveries to slow only slightly, to about 449,000, according to a FactSet consensus.
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