Zeekr 8X Yaoying Sets Fastest Time on Everest's Legendary 108-Turn Ascent

Tuesday, 28 April 2026 at 08:29

Most automotive performance records happen on closed circuits or salt flats. The Zeekr 8X Yaoying chose somewhere considerably more dramatic. On April 27, Zeekr Automobile officially announced that the 8X Yaoying had set the fastest recorded ascent time on the Jiawula Mountain 108 Turns — the final and most treacherous approach road to Mount Everest Base Camp — completing the run in 13 minutes and 22 seconds.

Summary

13 minutes and 22 seconds: The official record time set by the Zeekr 8X Yaoying on the Jiawula Mountain 108 Turns, announced by Zeekr on April 27, 2026.
The route: 19.1km of continuous mountain road with 134 consecutive bends, altitude peaking at 5,210 meters, oxygen at just 50% of sea level, and a vertical rise of nearly 1,000 meters — considered one of the most extreme driving challenges in China.
The machine: 1,030kW (1,400PS) tri-motor PHEV powertrain, 0–100 km/h in 2.96 seconds, built on Zeekr's 900V Haohan-S hybrid architecture.
Context: The 8X Yaoying launched just 10 days earlier on April 17, priced from 473,800 yuan (~$68,700) after launch benefits.
Significance: The record validates the Yaoying's high-altitude performance credentials at an elevation where most combustion engines lose significant power output.

The Route: What "108 Turns" Actually Means

The name is colloquial — there are actually 134 consecutive bends on this stretch of road, but "108 Turns" is how it's known across China's automotive and travel communities. The Jiawula Mountain section is the last major obstacle before reaching Everest Base Camp, and it exists at conditions that most performance vehicles aren't engineered to handle. At 5,210 meters above sea level, available oxygen sits at just 50% of sea-level concentration — a figure that typically devastates internal combustion engine output by 40–50%. Hairpin bends account for more than 90% of the corners. The vertical rise approaches 1,000 meters across 19.1km. It's frankly a hostile environment for any vehicle trying to maintain meaningful performance.

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That context is what makes the 13:22 time genuinely notable rather than a marketing stunt. A turbocharged engine at altitude loses power rapidly as air density drops. The Yaoying's tri-motor electric drive system doesn't suffer the same penalty — electric motors produce consistent torque regardless of altitude, and the 70kWh battery provides on-demand power throughout the climb without the lean fuel mixture issues that plague petrol engines at elevation.

The Hardware Behind the Record

The Zeekr 8X Yaoying runs Zeekr's 2.0T hybrid-specific petrol engine producing 275hp, paired with three electric motors in Zeekr's megawatt electric drive configuration — a first for the hybrid SUV segment. Combined peak output reaches 1,030kW, with 0–100 km/h dispatched in 2.96 seconds. The 900V Haohan-S architecture supports 6C ultra-fast charging on the 70kWh battery, going from 20% to 80% in nine minutes under standard conditions. The same 43-sensor G-ASD 4.0 ADAS suite — including five LiDAR units — that handles motorway driving was presumably available but not required for the record attempt.

At a kerb weight considerably above 2.5 tonnes, the Yaoying is not a lightweight machine. Getting a vehicle of this mass up a 90%-hairpin mountain road at altitude in under 14 minutes is a different kind of performance achievement than a drag strip time — one that arguably says more about sustained power delivery and chassis management under stress than a standing start sprint.

The Timing: Ten Days After Launch

The record was set and announced within 10 days of the 8X's official April 17 launch. That's a deliberate marketing cadence — the launch establishes the product, the record validates the Yaoying trim's performance positioning. I suppose it's also a direct answer to the sceptics who questioned whether a 2.5-tonne family SUV could justify its 1,381hp headline figure in any real-world context beyond a drag strip. A 5,210-meter altitude run does that job efficiently.

The Zeekr 8X lineup recorded 10,000 orders within 38 minutes of opening pre-sales on March 16, and surpassed 30,000 orders within 48 hours of launch. The Yaoying variant accounted for roughly 30% of early orders — a significant share for the top-tier trim at 473,800 yuan (~$68,700).