Swiss students just set a mind-bending EV acceleration record

Last year, a team of German students set a world record for the fastest-accelerating electric car, pulling 2.5Gs while reaching 62 mph (100km/h) in a staggering 1.461 seconds. Now, that record has been shattered by another team of students from Switzerland, whose car just crossed the one-second threshold.

The AMZ team’s car, named Mythen, made the 0-62 mph (0-to-100 kph) run in just 0.956 seconds, knocking more than half a second off the previous team’s record – a lifetime in any sort of timed automotive event. Research team members from ETH Zurich and the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Art built the car, which took just 12.3 meters to break the acceleration record.

Built by hand, the stubby-looking car weighs just 140 kg (around 309 pounds) and is powered by a custom 321-horsepower engine. AMZ’s head of aerodynamics, Dario Messerli, said, “Power isn’t the only thing that matters when it comes to setting an acceleration record; effectively transferring that power to the ground is also key.” He went on to describe the way Formula 1 cars use downforce to achieve that power transfer and said that the team developed a vacuum system to effectively suction the car to the ground.

That’s an approach McMurtry Automotive took with its mind-bending Speirling EV, which is now for sale with a more than $1 million price tag. The track-only (for now) car can hit 60 mph in 1.4 seconds and run the quarter mile in 7.97 seconds. The company credits its aerodynamic design over its purported 1,000 horsepower as the driving force behind its performance.

The Speirling has two turbines behind its cockpit that suck the air from underneath the car, allowing it to outrun cars like the Rimac Nevera. However, all of that still doesn’t match the effort put in by the Swiss team, but at least the Speirling has a roof.