The Mercedes-Benz Vision EQXX concept was designed from the ground up to be the “most efficient Mercedes-Benz ever built,” and a little over a year ago, it managed to drive nearly 750 miles on a single charge. That’s the kind of range that puts pretty much every other electric vehicle to shame, but a team of German engineering students just drove an EV they built more than twice as far on a single charge. That’s an accomplishment they claim makes it the longest-range electric car in the world.
Students at the Technical University of Munich who are part of the TUfast Eco team had been working on a vehicle they call the “muc022″ to make it even more efficient than it already was. But instead of adding a big battery, they went for lightness. Without a driver, the car weighs a mere 374 pounds and has a 15.5-kWh battery. The motor, on the other hand, makes a mere 400 watts, which works out to about 0.5 hp. But with a drag coefficient of 0.159 and so little weight, it doesn’t need much power to get moving.
So, obviously, the muc022 isn’t competing with road cars like the Vision EQXX, and it never pretended to. The test took place in an empty airplane hanger at the Munich airport, which allowed them to keep driving even if the weather got bad. After four days of driving, the team beat the previous record holder’s distance of just under 1,000 miles on a charge. But it still took another two days to finally run out of juice, stopping after 2,573.79 kilometers, which converts to slightly more than 1,599 miles.
The release didn’t say how fast they were driving, but since it took a claimed 99 hours to go that far, that works out to slightly more than 16 mph. That’s not exactly fast, but at the same time, it’s still a huge accomplishment. They built a vehicle with enough range to theoretically drive (very slowly) from Atlanta to Bangor, Maine without having to recharge. You certainly wouldn’t want to do that, but it’s crazy to think that it might actually be possible.
H/T: InsideEVs