We recently showcased what an "unlocked" version of our GEN3 race car is capable of, as it smashed the indoor land speed Guinness World Record.
GENBETA broke the record by more than 50 km/h reaching a top speed of 218.71km/h (135.9mph) inside a building in London.
This week, a team of student engineers from the Technical University of Munich set a new world record themselves with their muc22 streamliner.
It managed to set a new distance travelled record for an EV on a single charge, without solar charging aids, of 1,599 miles (2,574km) with a battery capacity of just 15.5kWh - smaller than many plug-in hybrids carry.
That pegs the car at 103 miles or 166km per kWh - 25 times more efficient than any consumer EV on sale today.
Optimised for range
The team assembled a car optimised to the max for squeezing every metre out of its relatively meagre battery capacity.
The streamlined shape is designed to help the car slip through the air, with a narrow leading edge and wheels tucked in underneath bodywork resulting in a drag coefficient of just 0.159.
The muc22 went from dual 440W motors to a single one for this run, with a permanent magnet design and a cutting edge gallium nitride (GaN) inverter. Top speed? Just 26mph (42km/h).
The team kept driving past the four day mark, with the previous record of 999 miles (1,609km) coming and going. Eventually, the car managed to travel 60 percent further than the prior benchmark - coming to a halt having reached an efficiency of 103.2 miles/kWh (0.6kWh/100km).
To put that in perspective, the Lucid Air - the car we saw back in Diriyah - is tied for the most efficient EV on sale to consumers today, with Hyundai's Ioniq 6 at 4.2 miles/kWh (14.8kWh/100km).
The record-breaking GENBETA
GENBETA featured a range of modifications to effectively ‘unlock’ the specifications of the GEN3 race car.
How GENBETA smashed a world record
The modifications to the GEN3 as part of the GENBETA project include:
- Enhanced battery power output of 400kW, up from 350kW in the GEN3, through the activation of the front powertrain kit in traction, delivering all-wheel drive for the first time in a Formula E car. The battery was charged by ABB, the title partner and official charging partner of the Championship.
- New, softer iON Race tyre compound allowing faster warm-up and better peak grip, developed by Hankook Tire, official tyre supplier of Formula E.
- 3D printed front wing endplates, wheel fins and a wind deflector with circular, more sustainable thermoplastic solutions developed by SABIC, principal partner of the ABB FIA Formula E World Championship, to optimise aerodynamics for enhanced straight line speed of the GENBETA.
In addition to technology innovations on the GENBETA car, Google Cloud provided generative artificial intelligence (AI) for analysis of the drivers’ runs.
Using their leading platform, Vertex AI, Hughes and di Grassi were able to interpret real-time telemetry data to generate speed, power and grip recommendations. This gave them the ability to interact and converse with an interface to help fine tune their approach across their three attempts.