“Supersonic” is how Nicki Shields, presenter of CNN’s Supercharged show, describes the feeling of traveling in one of the world’s fastest electric cars.
The NIO EP9 set a new lap record holder at the Nürburgring earlier this month, but back in January, Shields got first-hand experience of the supercar’s power during testing at the UK’s Bruntingthorpe Airfield.
“The acceleration from 0-100 mph is completely bonkers,” Shields told CNN Sport. “I’ve been in a lot of fast cars before but the EP9 is definitely the fastest.”
From a standing start, the EP9 can accelerate to 124 mph (200 kph) in 7.1 seconds and has a top speed of 194 mph (312 kph).
“The handling was amazing,” added Shields. “You can carry a lot of speed into corners and the acceleration out of them — it just feels supersonic.”
The EP9 set a time of six minutes 45.90 seconds at the 12.9-mile (20.7-kilometer) Nürburgring circuit, breaking the previous record set by a road-legal car — the Radical SR8LM — in 2009.
The all-time lap record — set by a Porsche 956 — has stood for more than three decades.
Built for the FIA World Sportscar Championship, the Porsche — piloted by Stefan Bellof — clocked a time of six minutes 11.13 seconds during the 1983 “1000 km of Nürburgring” endurance race.