A racing car, developed by Swiss students, has broken the previous world record for electric cars, accelerating from 0 to 100 km/h in just 1.79 seconds.
The new acceleration record was set by students from ETH Zurich and Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts, who also designed and built the vehicle.
The 'grimsel' electric car smashed the previous world record when it accelerated from 0 to 100 km/h in just 1.785 seconds.
The previous record of 2.134 seconds was held by an electric car built by Delft University of Technology.
The new record was set at the military airfield in Dubendorf, where the vehicle reached a speed of 100 km per hour in less than 30 metres.
The new record-breaking vehicle is a Formula Student electric car that was developed and built in less than a year by 30 students.
The carbon fibre construction has a total weight of 168 kg and produces about 200 hp.
A four-wheel drive is implemented with four specially designed wheel hub motors, which generate a total torque of 1630 Nm at the wheels.
By means of traction control, torque distribution is controlled individually for each wheel to maximise vehicle acceleration.
