Electric vehicles are famous for their breathtaking acceleration values. Because unlike combustion engines, with e-drives all the power is immediately available. For example, a Tesla Model S Plaid does it from 0 to 100 km/h in 2.1 seconds, the new Tesla Roadster is said to do it in 1.9 seconds and the fastest electric car in the world, the Rimac Navara, sprints in 1, 86 seconds to 100.
Students at the University of Stuttgart are officially leaving all of this behind. Because they managed to set the world record for the fastest accelerating electric vehicle with an electric vehicle they had built themselves. The small one-man speedster, which the so-called “Green Team” of the University of Stuttgart drove to top performance on the Bosch site in Renningen, managed to go from a standstill to 100 kilometers per hour in 1.461 seconds.
The students report that the preparations for the record took about a year. The car was handcrafted on the university campus. The carbon racing car weighs 145 kilograms and draws power from four motors, each driving one wheel. The maximum output is 180 kilowatts. For comparison: The Tesla Model S Plaid has 750 kilowatts available.
But: Due to the low weight of the university car, the power-to-weight ratio is 1750 hp per ton – the Tesla has 470 hp. This leads to a peak acceleration of 2.5g, which, according to the University of Stuttgart, is comparable to the re-entry of a rocket into the earth’s atmosphere.
The record drive was not the first attempt to get an entry in the Guinness Book of Records, it is said. At the end of July, the vehicle swerved during a test drive and was badly damaged. Shortly after the repair, a technical defect threw a spanner in the works for the students.
Most recently, a Swiss team held the record with 1.513 seconds – and was able to keep the best time since 2016. At least until next spring, the people from Stuttgart are on the safe side – because in cold temperatures it is very difficult for the competition to call up the necessary performance of an electric car.
Those: Uni Stuttgart
