Nio EP9 electric supercar sets Nurburgring record

Step aside, Lamborghini. The Nio EP9 electric supercar now appears to be the King of the ‘Ring.

The Chinese car maker has sensationally claimed a new lap record for road-legal vehicles on the Nurburgring Nordschleife circuit in Germany over night.

According to Nio, the EP9 recently lapped the daunting 20.6km track in 6:45.9 minutes, smashing the previous 7:05.12 minute post it set in November last year to claim the circuit's fastest EV title. In wet conditions, mind you.

The new post sees the EP9 now eclipse the Lamborghini Huracan Performante (6:52:01) time set in March, and before that, the Porsche 918 Spyder.

Key to the LP9’s incredible turn of pace are four electric motors each with their own transmission. The total combined power output of 1000kW enables a claimed 0-200km/h time of 7.1 seconds and top speed of 313km/h.

The battery packs are also removable, and boast a total driving range of 427km – more than a few laps of the Nurburgring Nordschliefe.

Allowing the EP9 to scrape into the road-legal category is Nio’s plans to produce just six supercars, each priced just under $AUD2 million. It has just announced plans to produce a further 10 EP9s.

Nio isn’t stopping there, either. It has also revealed a Tesla Model X fighter known as the ES8.

The company already has more than 2000 employees and is backed by a group of internet entrepreneurs, along with Lenovo, Sequoia Capital, Temasek, Tencent and TPG. It won the inaugural Formula E driver’s title in 2015.