Dutch Students Break Electric Car 0 to 60 MPH Record - VIDEO

In the bid to build a better electric car, most automakers are chasing range anxiety over anything else, but there are more exciting aspects of EVs than their low-emissions. Just ask the engineering students of Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands, which just shattered the 0 to 60 mph record for electric vehicles, making the sprint in just 2.15 seconds.

The 320 pound DUT12 go-kart (of which 95 pounds is the lithium-ion battery pack) uses four 33-horsepower electric motors, one at each wheel, to deliver instantaneous acceleration. In the time it takes to read half of this sentence, the DUT12 could flat-out accelerate from a stop to highway speeds, beating the previous electric car acceleration record of 2.68 seconds. Heck, it’s even faster than Formula E’s own electric race cars.

padding: 0px;"> It’s even faster than the 500-horsepower Ariel Atom, the world’s fastest-accelerating production car, which makes the 0 to 60 mph sprint in just 2.3 seconds. As you can see from the video, it’s quite capable of crazy-fast donuts and zipping in and out of the cones like a pro-level kart. Sure, it’s far from being a road-legal vehicle, but it’s just more proof of the performance potential of electric vehicles.

Now the race is on to be the first electric car to accelerate from 0 to 60 mph in less than 2 seconds. Who will be the first?

Source: Wired