The TUfast Eco Team car, with its driver lying down in the teardrop-shaped, three-wheel car makes its way around Audi’s test track in German.
A team of German graduate students has set a Guinness World Record for the most efficient electric vehicle.
The Eco Team from the Technical University in Munich and its teardrop-shaped, three-wheel car went around Audi's test track in Bavaria earlier this month achieving an efficiency rate of 1,232 kilometres per kilowatt hour. If it were a gas car, that would be the equivalent of 0.009 litres/100 km or 26,135 miles per gallon.
To compare, fuel economy of a Honda Civic during city driving is 7.6 litres/100 km and 4.4 for the Toyota Prius.
With that kind of efficiency, the car could set out with the equivalent energy of 3.8 litres (one gallon) of gas and drive all the way around the world at the equator and then still have enough battery life to drive from Toronto to Winnipeg.
The car was originally built for the 2014 Shell Eco-marathon, but has been improved since then. The team added new rims with low friction bearing, a more optimized motor and more aerodynamic top cover without solar cells.
The car is much different than the average SUV. It only fits one occupant, who is practically lying down and the car likely wouldn't fare well in a crash, but it shows what is possible.
The U.S. auto industry has a goal to have a fleetwide average of 4.3 litres/100 km by 2025. However, last week the U.S. Department of Transportation and the Environmental Protection Agency issued a report stating that because of demand for SUVs, auto makers are unlikely to meet those targets. In Canada, the transportation sector is the second largest source of greenhouse gas emissions, accounting for 23 per cent, according to Environment and Climate Change Canada. That number is up 32 per cent since 1990 and part of that reason is the demand for SUVs over sedans. About half of all emissions in the transportation sector are from passenger cars and light trucks.
The German students took the car to the European version of the Shell Eco-marathon in London earlier this month and posted this video.