"Grimsel" smashes world record for EV acceleration

The former record was held by an electric racecar of the University of Stuttgart with a time of 1.779 seconds. The new record was set at the military airfield in Dübendorf. The team started the day with marking off a 120m-long track, which grimsel used throughout the day to accelerate from a standstill. The car needed just 30m to accelerate to its target speed.

Several experts from academia and industry monitored the record attempts to ensure rules compliance with the official Guinness regulations. In order to eliminate the influence of a potential slope of the track, the acceleration times were calculated as mean values of two consecutive runs in opposite directions.

The old record was already beaten in the first attempt of the day. After further fine-tuning of the traction control system and with optimum track and tire temperatures, the fastest time was set during the afternoon.

In order to achieve this record, the team has invested a lot of time into performance tests since winter, which resulted in an improved usage of the motor controllers and an enhanced traction control software. The outcome of this progression has led to today’s success story and to an acceleration unparalleled by any production car in the world.