Sunswift, a solar car racing team from the University of New South Wales, has today broken an electric car world record that has stood since 1988. The record, overseen by the Federation Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA), measures the average speed of an electric vehicle over a 500km distance on a single charge.
The record breaking vehicle is Sunswift's fifth car, the Sunswift eVe. The vehicle previously ran in the 2013 World Solar Challenge, a 3,000km solar car race in Australia that runs from Darwin to Adelaide. The car has a top speed of 140kph with an electric-only range of approximately 500km, or up to 800km when its solar cells are also active - all while using about as much power as a kitchen toaster when travelling at freeway speeds. The solar system was turned off to adhere to the electric car specific record attempt.
Sunswift smashed the existing record of 73 kilometres per hour, achieving a final new record of over 100kph with a final official result awaiting confirmation with the FIA.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 24 2014, @03:07AM
The gayest car in the world! Expect planeloads of gay niggers to fly to Australia immediately, all of them demanding immigration reform and gay nigger marriage.
(Score: 2) by Tork on Thursday July 24 2014, @04:03AM
🏳️🌈 Proud Ally 🏳️🌈
(Score: 2) by fishybell on Thursday July 24 2014, @04:05AM
I have never been so amused by a comment on SN. Thank you.
(Score: 3, Funny) by NoMaster on Thursday July 24 2014, @03:54AM
Exactly how much power does an electric toaster use when travelling at freeway speeds?
Live free or fuck off and take your naïve Libertarian fantasies with you...
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Thursday July 24 2014, @04:32AM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Thursday July 24 2014, @05:18AM
Depends on whether you start with a burnout.
(Score: 2) by aristarchus on Thursday July 24 2014, @07:21AM
or Australian Team Smashes 26-year-old Electric Car World Record [holder] ? [a person?]
or Australian Team Smashes 26-year-old Electric Car, World Record [holder]? [the car, itself]
or Australian Team Smashes 26-year-old Electric Car World, [a] Record ? [audio recording record?]
or Australian Team Smashes ! [Something about a] 26-year-old Electric Car World Record. ? [my first impression]
or Australian Team Smashes 26-year-old Electric-Car World-Record. [See how the hyphens actually show what belongs together, grammatically speaking? I think I get it now!]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 24 2014, @09:43AM
My misunderstanding on first read, didn't begin until it said the solar system had been turned off - f*#k magnetic pole shift - this is going to start a whole new meme.
(Score: 2) by Foobar Bazbot on Thursday July 24 2014, @12:46PM
Australian Hulk Smash Puny Parser
(Score: 1) by etranger on Thursday July 24 2014, @03:14PM
The solar system was turned off.
All the planets stopped and nobody noticed.