Recharge Wrap-up: Grimsel electric car breaks acceleration world record, electric Ford Raptor ATV debuts
Lexus takes a crack at the BMW i3 in a new video from Funny or Die. In the decidedly anti-EV film, a group of guys drives to Las Vegas for a “dad-chelor party” in a Lexus CT 200h and a BMW i3. The Lexus hybrid makes it to Sin City without any problems, while the BMW’s occupants need to make several lengthy stops to charge along the way, missing much of the fun. The video lampoons the inherent range limitations of the EV (the BMW group ends up driving slowly through the desert with no AC or radio to save energy), all in a well produced, if somewhat misguided, short comedy film. Perhaps they should have considered the i3 with a range extender? See the video below, or read more at Green Car Reports.
Students from ETH Zurich and Lucerne University have set a new EV acceleration world record. Their “Grimsel” racing car was able to zoom from 0-100 kph (0-62.137 mph) in just 1.785 seconds in less than 30 meters (98.425 feet), crushing the previous record of 2.134 seconds. Even more impressive is that the Grimsel was built by the students themselves, as part of the Formula Student team at the Academic Motorsports Club Zurich. The car weighs just 370 pounds and provides 200 horsepower and 1,202 pound feet of torque from the four hub motors. The Grimsel uses traction control to manage torque for maximum acceleration. See the record acceleration run in the videos below or read more at Gizmag, at Electric Autosport or in the press release from ETH Zurich below.
The ‘grimsel’ electric racing car today broke the previous world record for acceleration in electric cars. The vehicle accelerated from 0 to 100 km/h in 1.785 seconds in under 30 metres. The new record was set by students from ETH Zurich and Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts, who also designed and built the vehicle.
The Formula Student team at the Academic Motorsports Club Zurich (AMZ) finally did it: its ‘grimsel’ electric racing 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 Dübendorf, 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 at ETH Zurich and Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts. The ‘grimsel’ is the fifth AMZ electric car and the result of continuous development. The carbon fibre construction has a total weight of 168 kg and produces about 200 hp (147 kW). 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. No other production vehicle in the world has reached a similarly strong acceleration.
AMZ’s most successful car
The ‘grimsel’ celebrated numerous successes at the Formula Student international competition this summer. With more than 500 teams, Formula Student is the world’s biggest competition for engineers and is held annually at various locations around the globe. With three overall wins and an average of 920 points out of a possible 1,000, the ‘grimsel’ is AMZ’s most successful car. And with its victories in Austria and Spain, it achieved the two highest scores in the European history of Formula Student. These further strengthened AMZ’s standing at the top of the Formula Student world rankings and demonstrated the potential in electric drive concepts.
Academic Motorsports Club Zurich
The Academic Motorsports Club Zurich (AMZ) was founded in 2006 by ETH students and produces a prototype to compete in various Formula Student competitions in Europe every year. After building three cars powered by the combustion engine, AMZ turned towards the production of an all-electric racing car in 2010. The association is financially independent and supported by numerous financial, manufacturing and parts sponsors, as well as institutes at various Swiss universities. AMZ is the only Swiss team in Formula Student.
