Swiss students created a car. Ok, not exactly a car, but a vehicle looking much like an overhyped go-kart and they put it to a test. There it set up a new record – it became the fastest accelerating electric vehicle in the world. Wow, what!
Called the Grimsel, brainchild of students from Swiss universities ETH Zurich and Hochschule Luzern, the new go-kart-like machine is build using carbon fiber and composite materials. The weight had to be as low as possible and engineers succeeded in crafting a machine which is big enough to accept a driver and not much more. Featuring four wheel hub motors with each providing the power of 50 hp, the small car is rather extreme in its own way. 200hp and 1,250 lbs pushing 370 pounds mean that power to weight ratio is at 1,190 hp and 7,400 lb-ft (10,000 Nm) per ton. Beat this. That is better than what almost any other car can do.
Grimsel is created to take on this German electric car which set a record up a few months ago. Obviously, the Swiss did succeed in breaking it in an epic acceleration test from 0-60 mph. With a clever all-wheel drive system which adjusts power delivery in every millisecond, the Grimsel is able to use all of its potential and catapults from a standing start to 60 mph in eye-watering 1.513 seconds. The last record was at 1.779 seconds meaning that the Swiss really did improve quite a bit over the German held record.
European students fighting for fame in engineering endeavours do not come as a surprise. This is only one example showing how clever young people can be. These projects are what drives our future and what will provide us with EV’s worth having and driving.
