Giti Tire has earned a Guinness World Records title for "Highest Speed Achieved by Electric Vehicle Tyres" after specially engineered GitiSport e.GTR2 Pro tires recorded 503.17 km/h (312.65 mph), the company said.
German racing driver Marc Basseng drove a YANGWANG U9 Xtreme, from BYD's YANGWANG brand, to that speed on Nov. 1, 2026, on a secured section of Sheikh Khalifa Bin Zayed International Road (E11) in Abu Dhabi's Al Dhafra Region. The run surpassed a previous benchmark of 496.22 km/h set at ATP Papenburg, Germany, in September 2025.
The official certificate was presented on Nov. 6, 2026, in Dubai to Dr Enki Tan, executive chairman of Giti Tire Group, at a "Celebration of Speed" event at Burj Khalifa.
Giti said the GitiSport e.GTR2 Pro is the result of more than three years of joint development and was engineered for an electric hypercar producing more than 3,000 PS. The bespoke tire uses high-strength aramid fiber reinforcement and a specialized racing profile, and was further optimized for the Abu Dhabi highway. Giti said the tire was specifically developed for extreme-speed applications; the company did not describe it as a consumer product.
"This will be marked as a true milestone in automotive history, going beyond 500km/h in an electric vehicle is an industry game changer. Giti and YANGWANG have together pushed beyond the limits of technology to attain the 'Highest Speed Achieved by Electric Vehicle tyres'," Tan said. "This achievement is a testament to innovation, dedication and the relentless pursuit of excellence demonstrated by our global research and development teams. We engineer tyres that perform under the most extreme conditions."
"When you're pushing the limits of speed, confidence is everything. Having worked closely with Giti's engineers throughout this journey, I've developed tremendous trust in their expertise, dedication and attention to detail," Basseng said.
Giti Tire has 75 years of tire manufacturing experience and a presence in more than 130 countries. The company also operates a passenger and light truck manufacturing plant in Richburg, S.C., according to giti.com.
