China Proposes New Rule To Slow Down Ultra-Fast Electric Cars

Supercar-level acceleration used to be something only Ferraris and Lamborghinis could brag about. These days, even regular family sedans and crossovers can take off like rockets. But China looks ready to slow that down a bit—literally.

A new draft regulation would require every passenger car sold in the country to start in a “default” mode, meaning it would need at least five seconds to hit 100 km/h (62 mph). If you want to get faster, you will need to manually switch into a sportier mode each time you get the car started.

It’s part of a larger safety initiative known as the “Technical Specifications for Power-Driven Vehicles Operating on Roads.” It supplants an older set of standards and encourages calmer, safer driving—especially as EVs become ridiculously fast. In real life, that can feel a little like putting every car in Eco mode.

You still can switch to an even faster setup, but it may not stay in that state when all is shut down. This rule covers all passenger cars, so it obviously is meant for the new wave of ultra-quick EVs such as the Xiaomi SU7 Ultra, Zeekr 001 FR, Tesla Model S Plaid, and BYD Yangwang U9—all of which can do 0-100 km/h in about two seconds. A second proposed rule concerns longer vehicles.

Any car longer than six meters (like stretched limos or oversized vans) would need an overspeed alarm that flashes or beeps once it goes over 100 km/h. So no, China isn’t out to ban performance cars. It just wants to make sure you don’t floor it the moment you press the start button.