A group of engineering students in Switzerland has broken the world record for the fastest ground acceleration by a battery powered vehicle. Built by 30 students from ETH Zurich and the Lucerne University of Applied Science and Arts, the Formula Student Grimsel electric racing vehicle accelerated from stationary to 100 kilometres per hour in 1.513 seconds, covering less than 30 metres of the Dubendorf Airfield near Zurich, Switzerland.
At acceleration of 66.09 m/s2, the present record overhauls the previous world record for the fastest accelerating electric vehicle, which accelerated at 56.02 m/s2 and reached 0-100kph in 1.785 seconds. Both the records come under Academic Motorsports Club Zurich (AMZ), and stands testimony to advancements made in the field of electric vehicle driving technology and lightweight framework of vehicles. The Grimsel weighs just 168 grams, and has a carbon fibre chassis. It has four, specially constructed wheel hub motors that give four-wheel drive capabilities to it and generate 200HP power and 1700Nm Torque. The car is also equipped with a sophisticated traction control system to harness and maneuver the performance output from each wheel, thereby allowing acceleration to be increased considerably.
To put things into perspective, the Bugatti Chiron, one of the fastest production cars in the world, takes a little less than 2.5 seconds for the same acceleration. No commercially available car can reach even close to this rate of acceleration. The previous world record of the fastest acceleration in the world was held by the experimental electric vehicle developed by a team of students from University of Stuttgart, Germany. Check out the world record being set in the video here below: