“Stop Busying Yourself Pointlessly — Horsepower Isn’t Valuable Anymore”

The claim

It has been reported that Lotus (莲花汽车) CEO Feng Qingfeng (冯擎峰) used a March 9, 2026 “For Me” technology event to challenge the industry’s horsepower obsession: bigger numbers do not automatically mean better cars. The remark lands in an era when automakers loudly trade specs — horsepower, compute and range — as though more is always better. But is it?

From Darracq to three‑thousand horses

Horsepower worship has deep roots. In 1904 a Darracq racer hit what was then a record 104.5 mph, seeding a century of pursuit. Progress accelerated: Bugatti’s 2005 Veyron marked roughly 1,001 hp in a production car, and within two decades makers such as Lotus with the Evija and China’s BYD (比亚迪) with the Yangwang U9 Ultra pushed headline figures into the thousands — BYD reportedly advertising up to 3,000 hp for its top spec. Electric motors and larger battery packs make huge torque and headline numbers easy to achieve; mainstream models now offer power once reserved for hypercars. But do those numbers translate into usable, everyday performance?

Diminishing returns and real‑world limits

The problem, critics say, is diminishing returns. Speed limits, traffic and safety rules mean most owners never use the top end, while taming extreme power requires heavier brakes, wider tires and complex traction systems that balloon curb weight and dilute the power‑to‑weight gains. Examples cited include ultra‑powerful models whose kerb weights rival large pickups — the Yangwang U9’s top variants have been reported near 5,460 lbs, and the Rimac Nevera above 5,100 lbs — and even premium hybrids whose increased mass neutralizes additional horsepower. Porsche has been accused, reportedly, of gaming curb‑weight figures by making rear seats optional to present lighter official weights.

What changes next?

The takeaway, as Lotus framed it, is strategic: manufacturers should rethink what “performance” means — handling, efficiency, weight, software and day‑to‑day usability may matter more than raw numbers on a spec sheet. That matters globally, too: as governments tighten emissions and safety rules and as geopolitics affects supply chains for chips and batteries, the era of simple numeric one‑upmanship may be ending. The industry’s next competitive battleground? Smarter engineering, not just bigger horsepower.