SWITZERLAND-ELECTRIC RACING Record-breaking students making electric cars cool

Record ID: 134901

  • Title: SWITZERLAND-ELECTRIC RACING Record-breaking students making electric cars cool
  • Date: 8th October 2015
  • Summary: ALPNACH MILITARY AIRFIELD, ALPNACH, SWITZERLAND (SEPTEMBER 22, 2015) (REUTERS) FLUELA DRIVES OFF VARIOUS OF FLUELA BEING TESTED ON AIRFIELD SENSOR ON TARMAC
  • Embargoed: 23rd October 2015 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Switzerland
  • Country: Switzerland
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVA4I9CVZ08S9UTQQ69IOA0T43S3
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: A group of Swiss students is at the forefront of attempts to make electric vehicles popular with fast-car lovers, creating a series of racing cars that can accelerate at breath-taking speed.
    Last November the Akademischer Motorsportverein Zurich (AMZ) team from ETH Zurich and Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts broke the world record for acceleration in electric cars. Their Grimsel vehicle accelerated from 0 to 100 kilometres per hour in 1.785 seconds in 26 metres.
    "Last year we set a world record with Grimsel, which is the car before Fluela, so this car accelerated from zero to 100 kilometres an hour in just 1.785 seconds in the space of 26 metres, so we are pretty proud of that," explained team leader Daniel Hentzen, a mechanical engineering student at ETH Zurich (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology).
    AMZ competes in Formula Student, the biggest engineering design competition for students, with at least 500 teams. Each year AMZ enters a new car that they have designed and built. Their new model, Fluela, topped the world rankings in this year's contest - the third year in a row that AMZ have finished first - although rule changes have made breaking their acceleration record more difficult.
    Hentzen says AMZ's electric motor is its key feature. "This motor we started developing five years ago and the motor weighs only 3.25 kilograms, so it's an electric motor and has a power of 37 kilowatts and that results in a power density of 11.4 kilowatts per kilogram," he said.
    Fluela driver Japhet Schmid said the car's four-wheel drive was also crucial. "Also the aerodynamic package is quite unique, and we have adaptive dampers here at the front and with these we have more mechanical grip than with traditional dampers," said Schmid.
    Made primarily of carbon fibre, Fluela weighs just 173 kilograms, and the AMZ team hopes that their innovations filter through to commercial manufacturers in the coming years. "We would even say that in some aspects we are superior to Formula E (electric car equivalent of Foruma One). For example, the motor, the electric motor has a power density of more than 42 percent (greater) than the Formula E motors," said Hentzen.
    The team's long-term aim is to push the boundaries even further and prove the unique appeal of electric vehicles to so-called 'petrol-heads', who traditionally dismiss electric cars as a gimmick and a slower alternative to oil-powered vehicles.
    "We think it's important to prove that an electric car can compete with combustion cars when it comes to handling and the fun that you get when you drive this car," said Hentzen. "So the acceleration that we have would be unthinkable in a combustion car, so that really sets us apart and would also be an emotional aspect for a customer that buys an electric car."
    Fluela produces about 200 horsepower (148 kW), while its four-wheel drive is implemented with four specially designed wheel hub motors that generate torque of 1630 newton metres (Nm) at the wheels. Traction control means that torque distribution is controlled individually for each wheel, maximising vehicle handling.
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