What’s even faster than “ludicrous?” Ask students at Germany’s University of Stuttgart, who have set a new world record for acceleration. With observers from the Guinness Book of World Records looking on, the Green Team Formula race car shot to 100 kilometers per hour in 1.779 seconds – faster than a Formula One racer, or the world’s fastest street-legal car, the Bugatti Veyron.

The lightweight vehicle has four motors and a 6.62 kWh battery pack.

It will be no surprise to Charged readers that EVs are leaving their gas-powered grandparents in the dust (both literally and figuratively). The Telegraph quoted John E. Waters, former battery-pack design leader of GM’s martyred EV1: “Electric cars have inherent advantages in efficiency and torque over gasoline-powered vehicles. Energy storage-to-torque on an EV platform is above 90 percent efficient, compared to less than 35 percent for internal combustion engines.”

The world’s fastest EVs have also been built by a student team. Ohio State’s Buckeye Bullet 1 holds the US speed record for battery electric vehicles (314.958 mph), while the Venturi Buckeye Bullet 2.5 holds the world record (307.666 mph).

Source: The Telegraph, The Skeptic’s Guide