Xiaomi YU7 GT Nürburgring SUV lap record – 7 mins 34.931 secs for 1,003 PS EV super-SUV, 705 km CLTC

Not content with stamping its name on the Nürburgring with the SU7 Ultra, Xiaomi has returned to the Green Hell with a new model, the YU7 GT. Why GT and not Ultra, you ask? Maybe this is the case of the Chinese conglomerate already reserving its nascent high-performance branding for its fastest cars, with the tall and heavy crossover presumably being at odds with this image.

Still, it’s not like the YU7 GT was in any way slow – in fact, it blitzed the SUV lap record on the fearsome 20.8 km Nordschleife circuit (the site of the 24 Hours of Nürburgring just this past weekend) with a time of 7 minutes 34.931 seconds.

This beats the previous record holder, the Audi RS Q8 Performance, by a scant 1.8 seconds. Impressively, the lap time was set by Xiaomi’s chief test driver and head of vehicle dynamics Ren Zhoucan, making him the first Chinese lap record holder according to the carmaker.

Xiaomi added that the test vehicle was fitted with a Track Package, although exactly what this said pack entails remains to be seen. We still haven’t seen much of anything about the YU7 GT’s technical specifications themselves, but we do know that the car will come with a monstrous 1,003 PS (738 kW) and offer a claimed range of 705 km on China’s lenient CLTC cycle (expect closer to 580 km on the WLTP cycle).

The eagle-eyed among you will realise that the GT offers a third less power than the SU7 Ultra, meaning that it likely loses out on that car’s triple-motor setup, relying instead on dual motors for all-wheel drive. It does at least offer proper supercar hardware, such as 295 mm wide rear tyres and Akebono carbon ceramic brakes with six-piston callipers at the front and four pistons at the rear.

The YU7’s handsome, slightly Ferrari Purosangue-esque design has been toughened up in GT form, with larger front air intakes, wider non-rifled wheel arch flares, a more prominent tailgate spoiler and a ginormous rear diffuser. The car also rides on 21-inch alloy wheels with spindly Y-shaped spokes.

Inside, the YU7’s slick interior – replete with a 16.1 inch infotainment touchscreen and a BMW iX3-aping full-width projection display – gains a carbon fibre steering wheel, heavier seat bolstering, red-and-black part-Alcantara upholstery and a smattering of GT badges. We’ll know more about the Xiaomi YU7 GT when it launches in China on May 21.

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