Automotive

Sunswift's eVe officially world's fastest EV over 500 km

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Members of the Sunswift team and the eVe after it's record-breaking run (Photo: Sunswift / Daniel Chen)
Members of the Sunswift team and the eVe after it's record-breaking run (Photo: Sunswift / Daniel Chen)
The Sunswift team's eVe now officially holds the world speed record for an electric vehicle (Photo: Sunswift / Daniel Chen)

The world record for the fastest electric vehicle over a distance of 500 km (311 mi) claimed by a group of engineering students from the University of New South Wales (UNSW) earlier this year has now been officially homologated by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA).

The world record, which was set on a 4.2-km (2.6-mi) track at the Australian Automotive Research Centre in Victoria, saw the Sunswift team's eVe travel 500 km on a single charge at an average speed of 106.966 km/h (66.465 mph), smashing the previous record of 73 km/h (45 mph) that had stood for 26 years.

The Sunswift team's eVe now officially holds the world speed record for an electric vehicle (Photo: Sunswift / Daniel Chen)

"It's not often you can confidently say you made history before you even graduated,” said Sunswift’s project director and third-year engineering student Hayden Smith.

The record-breaking eVe is the fifth vehicle built and raced by the Sunswift team since its founding in 1996 and joins the Sunswift IVy in the record books. Having achieved the world record, the team will now begin modifying the eVe to meet Australian road registration requirements, with a chance it will be registered and on city streets within a year.

Source: UNSW

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4 comments
zevulon
these efforts are nice, but there is ONLY ONE meaningful obstacle to the true 'explotion' in electric cars and trucks---
fast charging batteries that don't get destroyed or suffer from accelerated capacity loss.
jerryd
A stock Tesla's can likely beat that as 70 mph is their sweet spot and the Roadster with the new battery pack does 400 mile range. And The Solectria Sunrise did it in the 90's with 377 mile range.
warren52nz
@zevulon G8 chemistry Lithium Polymer batteries have been out for about 2 years and they can be charged to 90% in less than 10 minutes. I've got a G6 battery (older technology) about the size of a banana with a capacity of 7.7 Amp-Hours and I can charge it at almost 60 amps if I had a supply that could deliver that. I can only manage 40 and it doesn't even get the slightest bit warm although the "monster cable" I use to connect it gets almost too hot to touch. And we're hearing a lot about new techniques that make them last longer too. So we're not far off long life, fast charging batteries if we're not already there. I think the real challenge will be upgrading the power grid to handle the demand as these things get more popular. We're going to have to decentralize the grid I suspect.
Don Duncan
Take a stock Tesla Roadster, seal the under carriage and wheel wells, coat it with the new slippery substance, add low friction tires, and bingo, new world record.