What is the difference between a hypercar and a supercar?

There is no legal definition, only a working one. On the figures in this collection the hypercars average 1,081 hp against 718 hp for the supercars — roughly 1.5 times the power. Production volume matters as much: supercars are built in thousands, hypercars in hundreds or fewer.

Is there an official horsepower cutoff?

No. Nobody sets one, and any number you see quoted is somebody’s opinion. The useful test is a combination of power-to-weight, production volume and price, not one figure.

Is a Ferrari a supercar or a hypercar?

Both, depending on the model. Ferrari builds supercars in volume and hypercars in strictly limited runs — the same marque produces cars on either side of the line.

Where do electric cars fit?

Awkwardly, which is why they are counted separately here. The quickest cars to 60 mph in this collection are electric, but they are also the heaviest, and weight is exactly what the hypercar idea was built to fight.

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Home › Hypercar vs supercar

Hypercar vs supercar

There is no legal definition and no governing body, so anyone telling you there is a horsepower cutoff is guessing. What there is, is a measurable gap — and since every car here is classified and sourced, it can simply be counted.

Measured, not asserted

What the gap actually is

	Hypercar (85)	Supercar (6)
Average power	1,081 hp	718 hp
Average top speed	234 mph	206 mph
Average 0–60	2.78 s	2.98 s

On these figures a hypercar averages roughly 1.5 times the power of a supercar. But power alone is a poor test, because it has inflated across both categories for twenty years: a supercar today makes what a hypercar made in 2005.

The distinctions that hold up better are volume and intent. A supercar is built in the thousands and is meant to be usable; a hypercar is built in the hundreds or fewer, often sold out before it is shown, and exists to move a number — top speed, lap time, power-to-weight — rather than to be sensible. That is why a track-only car costing more than a house is a hypercar even when something cheaper would out-accelerate it.

The honest answer is that the line moves, and this site draws it where the industry currently draws it rather than pretending it is fixed.

The hypercars

All 85 of them, ranked by power.

See the class →

The supercars

All 6 of them, ranked by power.

See the class →