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Automotive

Schluckspecht EV travels a world record 1,000 miles+ on a single charge

By Darren Quick
August 16, 2011
Schluckspecht EV travels a world record 1,000 miles+ on a single charge
The world record-breaking Schluckspecht E electric vehicle at the Bosch test track
The world record-breaking Schluckspecht E electric vehicle at the Bosch test track
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The Schluckspecht E at the Bosch test track
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The Schluckspecht E at the Bosch test track
The Schluckspecht team with their world record-breaking EV
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The Schluckspecht team with their world record-breaking EV
The world record-breaking Schluckspecht E electric vehicle at the Bosch test track
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The world record-breaking Schluckspecht E electric vehicle at the Bosch test track
The Schluckspecht E electric vehicle at the Bosch test track
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The Schluckspecht E electric vehicle at the Bosch test track
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The "Schluckspecht E" electric vehicle built by a team at the University of Applied Sciences in Offenberg, Germany has broken the world record for the longest distance traveled on a single charge. The world record attempt was made at the Bosch test track in Boxberg with the vehicle traveling a total distance of 1631.5 km (1,013.76 miles), breaking the previous record of 1,003 km (623 miles) set by the Japan Electric Vehicle Club last year.

While the Schluckspecht E beat the previous record by more than 600 km (373 miles), what's even more impressive is that the feat was accomplished using existing rechargeable battery technology. The impressive range of the vehicle is due to the fact that it was designed from the ground up using lightweight materials in an aerodynamic shape. The 320 kg (705 lb) single-seat vehicle is driven by two wheel hub motors integrated into the wheels that are powered by 14 lithium-ion battery packs.

The aerodynamic and weight efficiencies of the vehicle are highlighted by the fact that the battery capacity of the Schluckspecht E was just 23 kWh, compared to the previous record holder's 50 kWh. Additionally, the Schluckspecht E achieved an average speed of 45 km/h (28 mph), while the Japan Electric Vehicle Club's Mira EV averaged 40 km/h (25 mph).

The Schluckspecht team with their world record-breaking EV
The Schluckspecht team with their world record-breaking EV

The total time of the record breaking journey was 36 hours and 12 minutes, with the vehicle's drivers having to contend with sometimes-rainy conditions. This latest achievement builds on the Schluckspecht team's previous success in completing the South African Solar Challenge 2010, when the vehicle traveled 626.6 km (389 miles) on a single charge.

We're not sure if the use of the name Schluckspecht, which is apparently colloquial German for "heavy drinker," refers to a characteristic of the team members or to the original Schluckspecht I, which the team introduced in 1998 and ran on a gasoline engine. Either way, the Schluckspecht team has no doubt been toasting their success in claiming their world record.

Source: Oekonews via Gas 2.0

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AutomotiveElectric VehiclesDistanceRecord-breakingRange
21 comments
Darren Quick
Darren Quick
Darren's love of technology started in primary school with a Nintendo Game & Watch Donkey Kong (still functioning) and a Commodore VIC 20 computer (not still functioning). In high school he upgraded to a 286 PC, and he's been following Moore's law ever since. This love of technology continues as Managing Editor of New Atlas.

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21 comments
vblancer
I do not want to see how far I can go at 28 mph. I understand this is a record attempt for a specific goal but electric vehicles will never be practical until they can go something like 500 miles at highway speeds.

Commuter cars can get away with maybe a 75 -90 mile range at highway speeds but is everyone going to have to own several cars so they can fit the car to the trip on hand? Electric cars are far from being practical as an all round car for the average family or even single driver.

Also there is the bigger question of where does that electricity come from. The people that push electric here seem to forget where that power comes from. Coal and oil fired power plants? Hydro electric will have more and more problems as the lakes behind the dams silt up. Nuclear has it\'s own issues. So far wind/solar are not even close to practical on huge scales. Even when you consider line loss you can see that power is best taken advantage of when it is produced at the source/use end. Because of this the internal or external combustion engines will still be with us 100 years from now.

It may not be burning oil products. It may be used as a generator form hybrid propulsion but it WILL be part of the mix. Do we REALLY see 747 sized airliners running on electricity?

In many areas the power grids are at or near capacity now. What happens when a million people plug in their electric cars? Right now and in the hear future electric cars will be no more than glorified golf carts.
Bryan Paschke
Cute but it brings to mind the question \"so what?\" So we have a car that will never be a production model that is running under conditions that are nothing like the real world (less than 30 mph????) that uses a fairly standard battery pack to crawl 1000 miles on a charge...as long as the driver hasn\'t eaten too much I assume. What new was learned? Any interesting technologies I\'m likely to see in my next vehicle? What was the point in the exercise?
BigGoofyGuy
I think this would help promote ev\'s if they could get the range to extend to (almost or nearly) that of gas powered vehicles; IMO.
Mr Stiffy
Yeah while the whiners whine - 1600K - while it's AVERAGE speed was like 40K or 28MPH, that is not that far below most street legal speeds, over most commutes, and with that kind of a range and a daily recharge etc., using a solar power car port etc.,
THIS IS PRACTICAL day to day people transport.
I really hate the attitude of people citing 1600K at 40K an hour = epic failure; without even having enough of a brain cell to see that 95% of all trips are 20K or under (or something like that) and so few, so very, very few of all people ever actually drive 1000K or 600 miles in one hit, on an annual basis - I'd estimate it to be like 0.5% or something - and then they rationalise it as THE ONE REASON why this whole achievement is worthless.
Bryan Paschke
@Mr. Stiffy: I suspect we\'re looking at a cultural divide here. In the US, a 30 mile each way commute is considered fairly light and 600 miles at a time is hardly an unusual weekend drive (I drive at least 600 miles at least 4 times a year, usually more often). Furthermore, you can\'t get ANYWHERE from the suburbs without being required to hit highway speeds (60mph ) at some point.
A practical car for the US WOULD need 60-80mph speeds and either a 1000 mile range or a 300-400 mile range with an 80% recharge time of less than 30 minutes. Without both of these requirements, at best two cars would be needed, one ICE based, one electric.
My average commute is 25 miles each way, most of it at highway (100kph) speeds. I average 100-200 miles for one day on weekends, and I travel 400 miles each way several times a year to visit relatives...and everything other than the daily commute often requires 100 lbs of gear and a couple passengers...so, yes, I have somewhat higher requirements than the average European driver. It comes with the larger country.
Adrian Akau
The design of the vehicle is good; the Cd must be low and the CdA must also be low. If the LEAF body could be converted to this style and the weight reduced by 500 Kg, I believe that it could attain about 200 miles per charge at normal highway speeds.

An agency in Honolulu is beginning to rent out LEAF vehicles. They are starting with 7 but expect to end up with about 20-25 after a year.
simon250
It makes me laugh when people say well the power comes from a dirty source it would be polluting there instead, the amount of pollution is a tiny fraction when sourced from some of the dirtiest supplies. Have a look at the KWH used for the distances above then work out the power in a gallon of petrol. How much do you use in a week? These cars are development tools already achieving great efficencys. I have to agree that a real world practical electric car needs to be sold one that means people don\'t have to have 2 cars and we aren\'t quite there yet, though getting closer all the time.
Facebook User
its\' good to know that when and if gasoline becomes 30 dollars a gallon, that you can choose to get around for almost no money if you are willing to travel 28 miles and hour instead of 60 miles an hour
voluntaryist
Bryan: The point is: A smaller battery with a more efficient platform (lighter, lower drag) will get much better range. This should be obvious to the engineers but it is not. Why? Only one EV gets it: Aptera. Why only one small start up company when all the big competition have 100 times the resources? My guess is that the EV department is being held back by upper management. Why? I don\'t know. Any ideas? And why did all the established companies go with the smallest step toward an EV possible? For example, they all chose to build an ICE with an electric assist (HEV). No plug in(PHEV). If you\'re going to put millions into development why not make the first step a plug in? And why use the old ICE platform? If Henry Ford used this approach he would have started with a house drawn carriage with an ICE assist. Am I missing something here? Are they stupid or dragging their feet?
Robbie Price
The real issue is that Electric vehcile should be runing on infrastructure that allows them to pick current as they go. Unfortunately that means building new infrastructure (and the associated safety issues with electricity). It is a bullet that once bitten removes on of the the major obstacle of complaint about these vehicles.

With a reserve charge range of 100km that mean the grid only needs to be along the major routes and not continuous through the cities where trips tend to be relatively short.

On the other hand, cummutes should be short journeys and should be done by bike or on foot. Cities and societies should not designed in such a way that people have to commute more than a few km to work. The \"American\" model of urban design is a sustainability failure. It is well past time to accept it and move on to those models that do work.
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