World's Fastest-Accelerating EV Does 0–62 MPH in Less Than a Second

A Formula 1 car needs about two seconds to do this. The Tesla Model S Plaid does it in 1.99 seconds. Right now, the fastest accelerating road-legal car in the world is the Rimac Nevera, which does 0 to 100 kph in 1.85 seconds. The vehicle was developed by a group of students and alumni of the Swiss universities ETH Zurich and HSLU, with resources provided by AMZ Racing.

You might think that’s the quickest out there of all cars, motorsports included. But you haven’t met Mythen yet. This car hits 100 kph (62 mph) in under a second. It is the world record holder, with no perspective of getting surpassed any time soon. On September 1, 2023, it was homologated as the world’s fastest accelerating EV with 0.956 seconds for a distance of 12.3 meters (40.4 feet).

In order to keep the car stuck to the tarmac during acceleration, the team came up with some innovative solutions. They needed the vehicle to be able to put enough force into the ground in a very short amount of time, considering that grip reaches its limits at 1.5 seconds approximately.

So, they developed a system that they call the Power Ground Effect. It sucks the air out from underneath the car, a move which pulls it to the ground to make it accelerate faster. Two fans power up shortly after launch, designed to create the necessary pressure. These guys surely have not skipped any Physics classics.

The car is powered by a new generation of motors that have approximately double amount of torque but the same amount of power as a hatchback.

At the start, the driver has to activate the Power Ground Effect and press the accelerator. How does it feel? Like being catapulted off an aircraft carrier, says Tom Scott, the blogger who tested the world’s fastest accelerating EV.

"That was the longest second of my life," he explains, still finding it hard to believe he went from 0 to 100 so fast. His one and only attempt was covered in 1.4 seconds, which is still extremely fast.

During acceleration, the driver feels a G-force of 3.5G during launch. The only other place on Earth where people can experience such force was the Do-Donapa roller coaster at the Fuji-Q Highland amusement park in Japan. The attraction was permanently closed down after reports of riders ending up with broken bones.

The car shuts down after it hits 100 kph (62 mph), and braking can be applied. An emergency button turns off the car. The driver has to be able to exit in under 5.0 seconds in case a fire starts.