MUNICH: A young university team from Munich's Technical University (TUM) has set a world record of 2,573.79km for the maximum distance covered by an electric car between charges.
The soberly-named muc022 smashed the old record which stood at 1,608.54km and the feat has been recognised as an official world record in the Guinness Book of Records category "Greatest distance by electric vehicle, single charge (non-solar)".
The record-breaking car is not a production model and the teardrop-shaped machine was developed and built especially for such record drives.
The bodywork has an ultra-slippery aerodynamic cd value of 0.159 and weighs only 170kg with no one at the wheel. The young technicians used a battery rated at just 15.5 kilowatt hours and a permanent synchronous motor with 400 watts (0.54 hp).
The drive package might seem weak on paper, but it pegs energy consumption at a frugal 0.6 kilowatt hours per 100km, the university said in September announcing the record. By comparison, even extremely efficient electric cars only manage 12 to 13 kWh/100.
The battery took 99 hours or just over 4 days to run down while the single-seater muc022 rolled through an empty hangar at Munich Airport at the same time as the IAA car show in the city.
The entire test lasted six days, during which the team slept on cots in an aeroplane hangar.
"With the world record, our students are not only demonstrating sporting ambition," Bavarian Science Minister Markus Blume said. "They want to shape the future of mobility in a sustainable way."
Not content to rest on their laurels, the team at TUM have already fettled a successor. The muc023 weighs even less and boasts significantly reduced air resistance.
