This Mad Little Electric Car Just Clocked A Record-Breaking 1.7sec 0-62mph Time

What you’re looking at here is the Grimsel, a tiny ball of electric fury built by students at AMZ Racing, an academic motorsport club set up by students from the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences. Designed to race in the International Formula Student championship, the machine has just set a world record for the fastest electric car to go from 0-100km/h (0-62mph). Just how quickly did it dispatch the benchmark sprint? 1.785 seconds, smashing the previous record of 2.134 seconds. Cripes.

Once you find out a little more about this car, that time is less surprising. For a start, the whole thing weighs just 168kg. That’s not a lot of bulk to throw down a runway, particularly when you consider each wheel has its own 49bhp hub motor, each one made by AMZ.

The torque is the most impressive thing, though, as the Grimsel is able to lob out 1200lb ft. Clever traction control and torque vectoring systems ensure all that electric madness is transmitted to the road efficiently.

Impressed? You should be.