You can’t really talk about acceleration these days without mentioning the Tesla Model S Plaid. It’s insanely quick, running from 0 to 60 mph in about 2.0 seconds, even beating the insanely expensive 1500-horsepower Bugatti Chiron. But it’s not actually the quickest EV in the world. At least not anymore. For that, you have to look at Germany. Specifically, Stuttgart.
Autocar reports that a team of University of Stuttgart students have officially set a new world record for EV acceleration in a car they designed and built themselves. And boy, is it quick. Zero to 60 mph in 1.461 seconds. The previous record of 1.513 seconds had stood since 2016.
Check out that run here:
As you can imagine, this thing is light. Very light. It reportedly weighs less than 320 lbs. Which explains why toward the beginning of the video, the team just picks it up to take it off the truck.
What really may surprise you is how little power it makes. The quickest-accelerating EV on the planet has only about 240 hp. I guess you don’t need more when your all-wheel-drive racecar weighs less than some high school football players squat.
Peak acceleration is said to be 2.5g, which probably wouldn’t be enjoyable in a daily driver. But if you’re setting a world record, who cares? It’s a world record, and an interesting one, too. I mean, no offense to whoever holds the record for making the world’s biggest snickerdoodle, but did Guinness really need to hand out an award for that?
If you’d like a closer look at the car itself, GreenTeam released the below video over the summer. It’s in German, but it’s got English subtitles, so if you don’t speak German, you should be good.