After capturing the electric car lap record at Germany's Nurburgring last fall, the Nio EP9 has come to the US and added two records to its list of accomplishments.
Last week, the EP9 completed the quickest autonomous lap of the Circuit of the Americas (COTA) in Austin, Texas with a time of 2 minutes and 40.33 seconds. Without a driver, the electric supercar reached a top speed of 160 mph.
The autonomous record at COTA is the result of work done by three Nio engineers stationed at the company's US headquarters in California. Nio says the project took just 4 months to complete.
If that wasn't enough, the EP9 also claimed the fastest production car lap record at COTA with a driver when it laid down a blistering 2 minute and 11.30 second time with a top speed of 170 mph. Piloting the car for the record was Nio driving dynamics manager Aaron Bailey.
With a carbon fiber monocoque chassis as a foundation, the EP9 features four electric motors and four gearboxes to deliver a net system output of 1,342 horsepower. All that muscle enables the all-wheel-drive electric bullet to hit 60 mph in 2.8 seconds, blitz the quarter-mile in 10.1 seconds and reach a top speed of 194 mph.
The EP9's dual lithium ion batteries can be charged in 45 minutes according to Nio for a driving range of up to 265 miles.
Helping to corral all that power is active suspension system, and lots and lots of downforce that Nio says is twice the amount of a modern Formula One race car enabling the EP9 to pull 2.53 g in corners.
Nio will hold the US launch of the EP9 on March 10 also in Austin during the South by Southwest Festival.