In all this Tesla vs. Taycan business that's been making headlines lately, it's easy to forget who is actually making the world's fastest production electric street car.
Well, when we say making, they're promising to make it, with deliveries "scheduled in early 2020." We speak, of course, of Maryland's Genovation and its GXE – effectively an all-'murican ZR1 Corvette that's been gutted and converted into an 800-horsepower, 718 lb-ft (973 Nm) electric beast with a theoretical top speed of 220 mph (354 km/h).
And now it's been proven to do at least 210.2 mph (338.3 km/h). In an "aerodynamics test" supervised by the International Mile Racing Association, driver Johnny Bohmer broke Genovation's own existing record to solidify its claim as the fastest electric car going around. It didn't appear to be a proper two-way speed run, so that'll no doubt leave conversations to be had on web forums.
The Genovation's top speed supremacy may be partially to do with the team's interesting choice of leaving the gearbox in. The GXE can be specified with a dual-clutch 8-speed paddle-shift transmission, or even a 7-speed manual, which makes it a rarity in the electric world.
It's a car for a good time, not for a long time, with a 175-mile (281 km) range that pales in comparison to what Porsche and Tesla are doing, and one might indeed question the "production" credentials of something that will only sell a maximum of 75 bespoke units.
But it's out there, and it's gone faster than any of the others, and this may well remain the case until Mate Rimac harnesses all 1,914 horsepower of his C_Two "megacar" and points them down a runway of his own.
There's a video of the speed record below, if you like watching quiet vehicles go in a straight line.
Source: Genovation
