World's Fastest Electric Car is Now Also the Fastest Self-Driving Car

The NIO EP9 has recorded the fastest autonomous lap at the Circuit of the Americas race track in Austin, Texas.

Announced late last year, the NIO EP9 comes from Chinese automaker NextEV and it has already set a Nurburgring lap record for electric vehicles with a 7:05.12 lap time. Delivering the equivalent of 1,341 horsepower while weighing 3,825 pounds, the NIO EP9 is also one of the best-looking electric cars we’ve ever seen.

The car has just set another record to demonstrate its self-driving capabilities, turning in a lap time of 2:40.33 at Circuit of the Americas without a driver. On its way to its record-setting lap, it also hit a top speed of 160 mph. If that wasn’t impressive enough, a human driver also climbed behind the wheel and beat the fastest lap time for a production car with a driver at Circuit of the Americas with a time of 2:11.30 while reaching a top speed of 170 mph.

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The company claims the technology and software was developed from start to finish in just four months at NIO U.S., headquartered in Silicon Valley.

NIO says it will host a U.S. launch event in Texas on March 10 to 12 at Coppertank Event Center with the autonomous NIO EP9 on display.

“At NIO, we are all about raising the bar for the entire automotive industry. Breaking records with the NIO EP9 demonstrates our automotive and technology expertise to be a leader in the global market,” said NIO U.S. CEO Padmasree Warrior. “Our Silicon Valley team brings together the best talent from automotive and software domains, which helped us achieve this remarkable result in an incredibly short time. Our goal is to be the best next-generation car company, by delivering autonomous vehicles with amazing experiences for people all over the world. We look forward to sharing our vision for the car of the future in Austin, Texas at SXSW in March.”

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