Streamer IShowSpeed tried to buy a car that can physically jump off the ground — and even with roughly $250,000 in hand, U.S. law won’t let him drive it home.

The vehicle is BYD’s Yangwang U9, an electric supercar built by BYD’s ultra-luxury sub-brand. IShowSpeed documented his own test drive and purchase attempt on his own Instagram account during a livestreamed trip through China, showing the car’s party trick in action: lifting itself on one side, rocking, and hopping in place using its suspension alone.

Key Points

• BYD’s own pricing announcement lists the U9 starting at 1.68 million RMB — roughly $230,000 to $250,000 depending on exchange rate and trim, which lines up with the price IShowSpeed cited for the unit he tested.
• The jumping ability comes from BYD’s DiSus-X intelligent body control system, which BYD says delivers up to 75mm of adjustable suspension travel per wheel with a peak lifting speed of 500mm/s — fast enough to generate over a ton of instantaneous lifting force at a single corner of the car.
• BYD’s own materials list the U9 at up to 1,300 horsepower and a top speed above 309 km/h (192 mph), with a 0-100 km/h time of 2.36 seconds.
• Despite the money changing hands on camera, the car cannot legally be imported and titled for road use in the United States.

The block isn’t a technicality specific to BYD — it’s two separate federal barriers stacked on top of each other. First, NHTSA’s own vehicle importation guidelines require any vehicle less than 25 years old to be certified as meeting all applicable Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards before it can be permanently imported — and BYD does not sell or crash-certify the U9 in the U.S. market at all. Second, even a certified Chinese-built EV would face a steep cost barrier: the U.S. Trade Representative’s own Section 301 tariff determination set a 100% tariff on Chinese-made electric vehicles, effective September 27, 2024 — on top of the purchase price.

Why It Matters

The U9 is a real engineering flex, not just a stunt car: DiSus-X is the same active-suspension family BYD uses to let its vehicles level themselves on uneven ground and, in demonstrations, drive short distances on three wheels after a blowout. That’s genuine suspension technology with a safety rationale — the jumping demo is simply the most shareable way to show it off. But the FMVSS certification requirement and the 100% tariff both exist independently of any single buyer’s fame or bank account, which is why a purchase that happens on camera in Shenzhen still can’t turn into a car parked in an American driveway. For now, the U9 stays a China-market machine, and American interest in it stays limited to watching someone else’s stream.