--- title: "New Electric Hypercar Can Leap Over Police Road Spikes With Cheetah-Like Powered Suspension" description: "  Chinese carmaker BYD recently unveiled the Yangwang U9, a fully-electric hypercar that has a crazy trick up its sleeve. As a promotional video shows off, the Yangwang U9 can bunny hop over small obstacles — including large potholes and even road spikes designed to slow speeding vehicles — thanks to an active suspension setup. BYD goes as far as to show the car hopping all by itself, clearing an eight-foot pothole at 75 mph, without a human behind the passenger seat. Whether the unusual feature will actually have some real-world applications — and not turn the hypercar into a […]" date: "2025-01-21" modified: "2025-01-21" authors: - name: "Victor Tangermann" job_title: "Senior Editor" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/victor" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/byd-yangwang-u9-car-leap-police-roadblocks" categories: - "Advanced Transport" tags: - "BYD" - "evs" - "hypercar" - "the digest" --- # New Electric Hypercar Can Leap Over Police Road Spikes With Cheetah-Like Powered Suspension ![Chinese carmaker BYD's Yangwang U9 hypercar can leap over giant potholes and even police road spikes, as a recent video shows.]() *\Image: BYD\* ## Hot Pursuit Chinese carmaker BYD [recently unveiled]() the Yangwang U9, a fully electric hypercar that has an absolutely wild trick up its sleeve. As a recent [promotional video]() demonstrates, the Yangwang U9 can leap over small obstacles — including large potholes and even road spikes deployed in a police roadblock — thanks to an active suspension setup. BYD goes as far as to show the car leaping like a cheetah, clearing an eight-foot pothole at 75 mph without a human behind the passenger seat. Whether the unusual feature will *actually* have any real-world applications — rather than rendering the hypercar an expensive death trap — remains to be seen. Losing traction to all four wheels while driving at faster-than-highway speeds seems incredibly unsafe, and that's besides the purported goal of evading law enforcement during a high-speed chase. But it's certainly an eyebrow-raising party trick that makes the Yangwang U9 stand out in an increasingly crowded high-performance EV segment. https://youtu.be/hW6lFowulFw ## Car Wars The Yangwang U9's specs don't disappoint. Thanks to its 1,287 horsepower drivetrain, it can accelerate from 0 to 60 mph in just 2.36 seconds, putting it in a simlar class to Tesla's Model S Plaid. The car also [recorded a blistering lap time]() at the Nürburgring Nordschleife lap in Germany in November. Besides being able to hop over obstacles, BYD has given its lineup of cars other unusual abilities. For instance, the Yangwang U9's much-larger SUV counterpart can float on water thanks to being [equipped with an "Emergency Floating Mode]()" that it says can stop it from sinking for half an hour. Unsurprisingly, the Yangwang U9 isn't cheap, with a price tag of a whopping $236,000. And in case you want to show off the vehicle's active suspension in public, make sure the cops aren't nearby to give you a ticket — as one owner [appears to have found out the hard way](). **More on hypercars:** *[Elon Musk Says He Wants Future Tesla Roadster to Hover]()* ## Author I've been at Futurism since 2017, where my role has evolved to encompass design, writing, and increasingly editing. I've always been fascinated by space exploration and advanced transportation, which I've leaned into by interviewing luminaries in those fields while closely following the dimensions of policy and regulation that allow next-generation projects to succeed -- or, sometimes, to fail. I'm also keenly interested in the effects of generative AI on society, policies, and democratic institutions, as well as clean energy, physics and biology, and the vagaries of tech leadership. My work for Futurism has been cited by publications including Ars Technica, Gizmodo, PC Magazine, Jalopnik, Fox News, and the New York Post. I spent my childhood living in locations including Manila, the Philippines, and Geneva, Switzerland, attended McGill University, and now live in Toronto, Canada. Before Futurism I worked at AskMen and a small photography studio. In my free time, I'm an avid gardener, foodie, and craft beer lover, as well as a maker of artisanal hot pepper sauces. I have a magnificent dog named Freida. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()