Last Friday, upstart electric carmaker Nio (formerly known as NextEV) dropped a bombshell on the automotive world just as it was preparing to head home for the weekend: the all-electric, 1,342-horsepower EP9 supercar had just run a hot lap of the famed Nurburgring Nordschleife in six minutes and 45.9 seconds, beating out the Lamborghini Huracan Performante by more than six seconds.
Of course, anyone can claim to have set a record Nurburgring lap. For example:
I once lapped the Nordschleife in 6:12 on a Huffy.
Will Sabel Courtney
The only way to prove a ‘Ring lap time, really, is to release a video of it. Ideally, a single take from a single camera showing the road ahead and the interior of the car, complete with a superimposed map and a timer to minimize the chances of editing tomfoolery.
So luckily for us, Nio has released just that sort of video for the EP9’s latest ‘Ring run.
Now, as many astute readers and commenters on sites like Reddit have pointed out, Nio never explicitly said the EP9 set a new production car lap record. The company’s press release, like the title of the video below, simply says the car “Breaks the Nurburgring Nordschleife Lap Record.” It’s a bit of public relations jujitsu that seems designed to further stir up controversy as to where this car lies in the list of ‘Ring contenders. Technically speaking, it could be referring to the electric car lap record—though that already belonged to the car. The Wikipedia page on Nurburgring lap times places the car as the fastest car in the “non-series/non-road-legal vehicles” category, a rather nebulous section that excludes road-ready cars and race cars alike. It seems likely that the controversy over the EP9’s categorization will go on for
One thing none of us can argue with, though: This electric supercar is fast as hell.
(One note: At the end of the video, Nio quotes the “previous lap record” as 6:48.00. It’s not quite clear to what Nio is referring—the closest lap to that on the Wikipedia page is the non-street-legal Pagani Zonda R’s 6:47.50, but given the company’s apparent dedication to hundredths of a decimal, you’d think they’d be more precise if that were the case.)