Bespoke electric race car, designed and constructed by Greenteam, achieved 0-100km/h in just 1.461sec.
A group of 20 students from the University of Stuttgart in Germany has set a new Guinness World Record for the world’s fastest-accelerating electric vehicle.
The self-built prototype, designed and constructed by Greenteam, achieved 0-100km/h in a staggering 1.461sec, beating the previous record of 1.513sec, which was set by a team in Switzerland in 2016.
That’s 0.5sec faster than the Pininfarina Battista, 0.6sec faster than the Ariel Hipercar and 0.9sec faster than the Tesla Model S Plaid. It’s also nearly a full second faster than the 2.4sec achieved by the Bugatti Chiron.
Weighing in at less than 145kg, the Greenteam racer broke the record on a track at Bosch’s site in Renningen. It produces 182kW from dual electric motors, with four-wheel drive and a bespoke battery pack.
The University of Stuttgart says it produces around 1269kW per tonne, with a peak acceleration of 2g – around the same amount of force felt by astronauts re-entering the earth’s atmosphere.
The record has been a year in the making for the team of 20, who study a range of subjects at the university. The car was originally due to attempt its record-breaking run last month, but the team was forced to cancel due to technical problems.
It’s the third time Greenteam has held the record, having first achieved a 0-100km/h time of 2.681sec in 2012. Teams in the Netherlands and Switzerland later broke the record, most recently in 2016.
Greenteam suffered a major setback with the attempt earlier this year, when the car lost control at high speed and crashed into a tyre stack that was in place as a track barrier.
On breaking the record, team chairman Pavel Povolni he was “delighted” to bring the record back to Germany.
“We suffered a bitter setback at the end of July,” said Povolni. “Fortunately, the driver was unharmed, but the vehicle suffered enormous damage.”
“It was exhausting but a unique experience, and it was definitely worth the hard work,” said Diogo Silva, who drove the car to achieve the record.
Jack Warrick