The AMZ Team Mythen Broke The World’s Quickest EV Record

It is no secret that EVs are known for their blistering pace, capable of reaching its maximum top power and torque instantaneously, unlike many traditional ICEs. Its rapid acceleration quirk has granted many daredevils and engineers to conjure up some of the fastest-accelerating vehicles known to mankind.

A group of varsity students from Switzerland, known as the AMZ Team, just broke the world's quickest EV record today!

Recently, that record just got broken by a team of Swiss varsity students hailing from the ETH Zurich and Lucerne University of Applied Sciences. Part of the Academic Motorsport Club Zurich (AMZ), these varsity students hand-built an all-electric car, called the Mythen, which has set a new acceleration record for EVs, as it blasted from nought to 100 KM/H in a whopping 0.956 seconds – making it the first EV car to reach a sub-1-second century sprint time.

For context, the world’s fastest production EV in the world, the Rimac Nevera, only managed to finish the 0-100 KM/H sprint in a sub-2-second figure of 1.95 seconds, which is still a whole second slower than the Mythen.

The team also reported that the Guinness World Records team has just confirmed their astounding feat, which has shattered the previous record of 0-100 KM/H acceleration time of 1.461 seconds set by a group of students from Germany back in 2022.

The Mythen EV only weighs 140 KG, while boasting a total system output of 321 HP

The Mythen EV was built entirely by the AMZ Team for months, where they managed to cut down this EV prototype weight to only 140 KG, thanks to the liberal use of lightweight materials like carbon fibre and aluminium honeycomb. Powering the Mythen is a quad-motor setup that delivers a total system output of 321 HP (243 kW).

The Mythen EV was piloted by one of the students, Kate Maggetti during its record-smashing feat

Helping the team to achieve this astounding sub-1-second feat was Kate Maggetti – one of the students from the AMZ team who piloted the Mythen to break the previous record by almost a third, while covering a distance of only 12.3 metres.

While the output figure itself seemed very ‘civilian’ for EV standards, the Mythen’s ultra light-weight allows it to boast an astronomical power-to-weight ratio that even the world’s fastest hypercars can’t even compete with. Also helping the Mythen to achieve this momentous feat is its aerodynamic design, which includes a vacuum cleaner-like concoction that literally sucks the car down to the road surface, preventing it from flying up to the atmosphere.

“Power isn’t the only thing that matters when it comes to setting an acceleration record; effectively transferring that power to the ground is also key,” said Dario Messerli, AMZ's head of aerodynamics.. 

“Conventional Formula 1 cars solve this through aerodynamics: a rear or front wing pushes the car to the ground. However, this effect only comes into play when the car has reached a certain speed. To ensure strong traction right from the start, the AMZ team has developed a kind of vacuum cleaner that holds the vehicle down to the ground by suction.”

Prior to breaking this record, the AMZ team had previously broken the same record in two previous tries – once back in 2014, followed by another try later in 2016. After losing its record to the aforementioned Germany team last year, AMZ managed to reclaim this coveted title this year.