NextEV's crazy electric supercar just went 258 km/h without a driver

The manufacturer says the EP9 is the fastest electric car in the world, with a 7:05.12 Nürburgring Nordschleife lap and a 1:52.78 Circuit Paul Ricard lap under its belt. And just days ago, the EP9 left the Circuit of the Americas track in Austin with some new records to frame on the office wall.

On February 23, the EP9 set a COTA production car lap record with a 2.11.30 time. Or, 'production car' is what NextEV calls it. In actuality, there have been six units made, each costing $1.2 million and all of them sold only to NextEV investors. Perhaps stretching the limits of what constitutes a production car is what the company wants to do, in addition of breaking lap records.

In any case, the COTA lap in the hands of a driver wasn't enough, as the supercar also completed a very quick lap autonomously, "without any intervention". The autonomous lap was timed at two minutes and 40.33 seconds, so a good driver is still half a minute quicker than the EP9 let loose on its own.

The megawatt-producing, 1,342-horsepower EP9 accelerates to 274 km/h in 7.1 seconds and it can go all the way to 194 mph. Its COTA top speeds were 170 mph with a driver and 258 km/h autonomously. The manufacturer will introduce the supercar for the United States market next month in Austin.