EV Sets New Record for Longest Trip on a Single Charge - 749 Miles (newatlas.com) 61
Lucid Motors set a Guinness World Record for the longest journey by an electric car on a single charge, covering a distance of 749 miles (about 1,205 km), reports New Atlas. "In doing so, Lucid broke the 1,045-km (649-mile) record previously achieved by the Mercedes-Benz EQS450+ in June 2025 by the Japanese car website www.webcg.net/articles/-/52268webCG."
The electric vehicle covered this journey between St. Moritz, Switzerland, and Munich, Germany, traveling through highways, secondary roads, and alpine roads — all without a single halt for charging. Given that the vehicle has a 960-km (596-mile) WLTP range, my guess is that the test team must have made good use of favorable road and weather conditions to make the feat possible. With a net elevation decrease of just over 1,310 m (about 4,300 ft) throughout the drive, the EV most certainly benefited from regenerative braking, a rather useful feature that turns downhill momentum back into battery power. Lucid has yet to release official data like average speed or total drive time, but what is apparent is that this was not a high-speed dash but rather a well-planned route to achieve one impressive result...
The Air Grand Touring has two all-wheel drive electric motors with a combined system output of 611 kW (819 horsepower) and 1,200 Nm (885 lb.ft) of torque. Power is provided by an NMC battery, which has a gross energy capacity of 117 kWh (112 kWh usable). Best of all, it can go from 0-60 mph in just three seconds flat... For reference, the almost half-priced BMW i4 and jazzy Porsche Taycan offer less than half the WLTP range of the Lucid Air GT. So, it's not like there's a head-to-head competition out there. Lucid is miles ahead in its class (pun intended!)
Starting at US$112,650, the Air Grand Touring is among the most luxurious sedans on the market right now. But as you can see, it comes at a price. Still, knowing that there is technology to conquer range anxiety is comforting. It might take a while, but there's no reason why we can't expect such range figures from reasonably priced EVs in the near future.
The Air Grand Touring has two all-wheel drive electric motors with a combined system output of 611 kW (819 horsepower) and 1,200 Nm (885 lb.ft) of torque. Power is provided by an NMC battery, which has a gross energy capacity of 117 kWh (112 kWh usable). Best of all, it can go from 0-60 mph in just three seconds flat... For reference, the almost half-priced BMW i4 and jazzy Porsche Taycan offer less than half the WLTP range of the Lucid Air GT. So, it's not like there's a head-to-head competition out there. Lucid is miles ahead in its class (pun intended!)
Starting at US$112,650, the Air Grand Touring is among the most luxurious sedans on the market right now. But as you can see, it comes at a price. Still, knowing that there is technology to conquer range anxiety is comforting. It might take a while, but there's no reason why we can't expect such range figures from reasonably priced EVs in the near future.
getting back? (Score:3)
Trip was downhill for 1,300 meters (Score:1)
St Moritz elevation 1800 meters - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
Munich, Germany elevation 520 meters - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
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With a net elevation decrease of just over 1,310 m
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And how many charging stops to drive it back the other way up the mountain?
I was thinking much the same once I read that this was a downhill drive. I mean my shitty Ford got 25 miles per gallon, down hill, with the wind at my back. That's hardly a fair measure of the MPG I could expect in normal driving.
Wasn't there a big electric mining dump truck that never needed to plug in for a charge because it could use the weight of the ore it hauled down a mountain to have enough charge to get back to the top? That's an ingenious use of an electric vehicle, and I can guess that whatev
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Wasn't there a big electric mining dump truck that never needed to plug in for a charge because it could use the weight of the ore it hauled down a mountain to have enough charge to get back to the top?
Yes. Electric Dump Truck Produces More Energy Than It Uses [slashdot.org]. But wait, there's more, with a picture [hackaday.com]
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1. Yes, there’s a huge electric dump truck that does what you say: https://www.greencarreports.co... [greencarreports.com]
2. The Lucid descended 1310 metres over a distance of 1,200 *kilometres*. That’s an average descent grade of 0.1%. It’s essentially flat
3. The gravitational potential energy gained from a descent of 1310 metres is worth a grand total of 8.4kWh (assuming it can all be perfectly recovered). In reality, the best you could hope for is 60 to 80% efficiency in recovery, and as the Air has a 118kWh
Re:getting back? (Score:4, Informative)
And how many charging stops to drive it back the other way up the mountain?
One.
The dry weight of a Lucid Air Grand Touring is 2,360 kg. Add a couple of occupants at 80kg each then you're lifting 2,520kg up 1,300 meters. Gravitational potential energy e = ghm = 9.81 * 1300 * 2520 which comes out to just over 32.15 megajoules and very close to 9KWh. This is the baseline energy that is gained coming down hill and used going up hill. If we assume that the efficiency of the regeneration and the utilisation are about the same then you're going to gain less than this going down and use more than this going up, but the net difference is still going to be about 18KWh.
The nominal battery capacity of the Air Grand Touring is 112KWh, with the usable capacity probably several percent less, so you'll need about a 20% to 25% charge en route going back up the hill. Even if it's twice that, I don't think you're going to need to stop more than once.
Cheating (Score:3)
Do it on flat terrain.
South to North in the middle of USA (Score:2)
Set the distance record by going for a more than 750 miles north to south in the center of the USA or a loop around the flat parts of Australia, etc.
Re: Cheating (Score:2)
...and at motorway speeds.
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Can no-one do maths any more? It was a 1km descent over *1000* km. That *is* flat, basically. 0.11% angle of descent, on average.
Re: Cheating (Score:2)
It sounds flat but I go through the Appalachian mountains for most of the trip. Despite having a net elevation drop, I do not see the range of my battery increase.
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No, but since Nikola's truck escapades, we treat this kind of news with extreme skepticism. And, like has been said above, do it on flat ground, or now turn around and drive back to St. Moritz.
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Anti gas car people tends to overestimate technological progress because they grew up witnessing advances in LCD display and semiconductor devices.
In reality, batteries aren't advancing at such a dramatic rate for chemical limitation.
There's a physical limitation on the amount of electrical energy that can be feasibly packed into an electro-chemical battery, and that limit is an order of magnitude or two distant from what can be packed into a tank full of hydrocarbons to power a moderately efficient heat engine.
Once the battery capacity reaches something similar to what people expect in range on a tank of gasoline the problem isn't the energy density of the batteries, the miles per charge become irrelevant as issues like the biological
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Once the battery capacity reaches something similar to what people expect in range on a tank of gasoline the problem isn't the energy density of the batteries, the miles per charge become irrelevant as issues like the biological needs of the driver start to be the limiting factor on drive time. At that point the issue is recharge time, and there's some very real limits on that which are just as difficult to overcome as battery energy density because of physics.
1. At least in the UK, we are already comfortably past the point at which the car can go further than the people driving it. I drove from London to Durham several times this year, as my son’s at university there. It’s 250 miles. My car has a range of 330, and even in winter, it can make the journey on a single charge. It takes four to five hours to drive from London to Durham on UK motorways. That’s well past the max 2 hours after which the Highway Code says one should take a rest break, a
Re: Don't be overconfidence battery tech progressi (Score:2)
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"Messing around with your car"
How long do you think it takes to plug in?
If I need to plug in when I get home, it literally takes under 30 seconds. I had someone else time it as well as counting myself on more than one occasion. 30 seconds to: open the charge door, remove the plastic cover on the port, walk over to the EVSE (around the corner of the house), grab the charger, unwrap one loop of cable, walk back over to the car, and plug it in. And I can do all that one-handed while carrying something else.
The
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What matters is what consumers can reasonably buy.
My first EV, a Renault Zoe, in 2015 had a range of 90 miles
My second, a second gen Zoe, in 2018 had a range of 180 miles
My third, a third gen Zoe, in 2020 had a range of 245 miles
My fourth, a Mercedes EQA, in 2024 had a range of 330 miles
Feels like excellent progress to me.
Plus range is not the only thing that’s improving: charging speed, cost, BMSs and thus durability, etc
Re: Don't be overconfidence battery tech progressi (Score:2)
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I have been driving the same gas car with a 400+-mile range since 2018. (A stranger crashed into my previous vehicle while it was parked, totalling it -- otherwise I might still be driving my 2012 vehicle.) I am pretty sure your two additional vehicles in that period more than balance out environmental impacts from the respective power sources -- especially since I've only put 60,000 miles on my current car.
I guess some people find that throwing lots of money down a pit every few years feels like progress
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Within one year, from April 2023 to Jan 2024, market prices per kWh dropped 50%, from about $200/kWh to $95/kWh. And this is no fluke powered by one-time events. A lot of progress in the last few years was indeed technological and came not from new chemistry. The Cell-to-Pack and Cell-to-Blade processes, which allow very large but still stable cells made the LFP cell viable for automotive application and Sodium cells at least for stationary use. Doting the LFP with Maganese, creating LMF
Still not good enough! (Score:5, Funny)
I've been on ./ long enough to know this isn't going to cut it for the ICE loyalists because they drive 800 miles, uphill, in -200 F weather before driving 800 miles, uphill in 700 F weather to get home. EVs are clearly not up to the job! /s
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... closely coordinated with pressing a foot pedal. This both builds moral fiber and gives them an invaluable sense of superiority in internet forum discussions.
hmmm .. often 2 pedals and sometimes 3 .... (gotta heel toe to rev match on those downshifts into the turns)
also, let us pray:
You almost had me? You never had me - you never had your car... Granny shiftin' not double clutchin' like you should. You're lucky that hundred shot of NOS didn't blow the welds on the intake! You almost had me?
the word of the Dom
Re:Still not good enough! (Score:4, Insightful)
Don't forget they're always towing a 1/5 scale 18th century clipper ship.
That's ridiculous (Score:2)
Jokes aside if you're stuck in apartments, and pretty much anyone under 50 is, then there isn't really any advantage to an electric car. You don't get the cost advantage or the convenience of not having to stop for gas. You just get a more expensive vehicle, especially after September.
I know the Cyber truck is useless for towing of any kind. To a laughable degree. Not sure how well the F-150 holds up. I know it can absolutely do the towing unlike the cybert
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...if you're stuck in apartments, and pretty much anyone under 50 is, then there isn't really any advantage to an electric car.
Tell the Russians your astroturf is getting stale as fuck and you need some new lines. This is the stupidest and most easily disproven strawman argument ever. Public chargers are common enough in the urban sprawl that when you have to charge your car for a half hour or so every other week for your (gasp!) 7-mile commute you won't have any problems doing it, even if there's no way to [charge it overnight all night every night] as you profess to obsessively think would ever be even remotely necessary in any u
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Except it isn't a strawman astroturfing. It's a real sticking point that we need to solve. Many (US) apartment complexes/buildings don't have parking that has reasonable ability to charge an EV. And relying on public charging infrastructure - while absolutely doable today - negates one of the main "usability" and financial advantages of an EV - spending a few seconds plugging in when you get home and paying low home electricity rates, to start each day "with a full tank" inexpensively.
If you have to do the
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Couple weeks ago i walked a residential street in Oslo, the whole block's parking had, where you'd expect meters, a charger for each parking space.
Worth it.
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Jokes aside if you're stuck in apartments, and pretty much anyone under 50 is, then there isn't really any advantage to an electric car.
I keep my EV in my garage at my non-apartment house. I (with rare exception) never charge it there. I charge at public chargers near my work where it is cheaper. And not all apartments are street parking. Some have parking lots or parking structures that could easily accommodate public L2 chargers.
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Indeed. Electric cars are a solution to some of the problems with cars, but not many. The best solution is viable alternatives to driving. I suspect most people don't want to spend time behind the wheel because it's boring and often frustrating, unavailable to kids and many disabled people. Should be unavailable to many of the elderly and it's expensive and you can't drive after a beer.
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Yes, and sadly that's not the reality of an EV.
If you have access to electricity where you park your car, you can probably go EV. The mentality of "I need to stop and fill up" doesn't exist for an EV - because if you can charge at home, why don't you?
Even a plain jane le
Re: Still not good enough! (Score:2)
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You only need to plug your car in daily if you are driving daily. Funnily enough if you plug it in and don't drive it stays plugged in. Otherwise you're already tending it every time you drive.
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Don't forget towing. They're towing LOTS of shit. So much it seems that there's no room left on their property so they can't charge.
Coasting (Score:3)
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Indeed, the most embarrassing part was they were beaten down the hill by a team of professional cyclists who only doped once at the start.
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What do you mean by "not all that" efficient? From the moment change to the charge in the battery regenerative breaking is 60-70% efficient which is frankly an amazingly efficient conversion of mechanical energy to chemical.
I'm not sure why you would be surprised that they used any battery at all. The potential energy of 4300 foot elevation change is very little compared to travelling 3,960,000 feet. There's still a lot of other resistances to overcome.
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The elevation change was about 0.1% of the total distance travelled horizontally. It certainly helped, but not much.
Most of the additional range over the WLTP rating will have been from driving very carefully and at the most efficient speed possible. They probably removed all unnecessary weight like charging cables, tyre repair kits, and so on. AC off, windows closed, daytime running to avoid using power for lights.
Still, an impressive feat. Probably not nearly as relevant as it once was, because BYD is now
$112,000 (Score:2)
$112,000. Plus tax. Plus luxury tax (in many areas).
I can think of many things one can buy with that kind of money. Virtually all of them are things I would buy before buying a car with that kind of money. Virtually none of them different from the depreciation that a car does too, especially an EV car.
In the meantime, my pesky ole 18 year old car has cost me nothing but maybe $500 in gas, so far this year.
Not all of us "live large" I guess.
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The GT is their most expensive trim. You can always buy used for 50% off. Their next car is purported to be a $50,000 sedan.
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Or I can drive what I have, for the cost of gas, repairs and maintenance, which adds up to under $2k/year.
Re: $112,000 (Score:2)
EPA range (Score:3)
It’s got a 512 mile EPA estimated range. Most EVs are at 300-400. It pretty much eliminates range anxiety even for road trips. The only problem is they have so few service centers and it’s very hard and expensive to get parts for repairs.
This guy had a different experience (Score:2)
"I tried circumnavigating the UK in an electric van — here’s why it was impossible"
https://www.thetimes.com/trave... [thetimes.com]
It's a really nice looking van but "It’s green, it’s eco-friendly and it can take up to six hours to charge, as Chris Haslam discovered. The road trip revolution is still a long way off"
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"a distance of some 4,800 miles "
And with some skimming, you can also see the caveat is that its only done by using supercharging at daytime.... which means no wall socket charge over night. And there goes my "bad faith journalism attempt".
All the article can do is ask: Is the VW ID Buzz a bad car?
So. This isn't the longest. (Score:2)
It may be the longest by a "stock production vehicle", but we don't even know that for certain. And it clearly used a major downhill amount to achieve it.
By contrast, a battery technology company put a prototype 200 kWh battery in an older Tesla Model S in 2022 and got 752 miles in one charge (4 miles more), on flat terrain: https://web.archive.org/web/20... [archive.org]
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Oh, and the Guinness record only specifies "electric vehicle" - you'd think the World Solar Challenge folks would have this handily, as they go 3000 km+ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
And yet again, it doesn't specify electric _GROUND_ vehicle. Solar Impulse 2's 4,819 nmi (8,924 km) stretch from Japan to Hawaii would be tops: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
Yeah, but it starts at 112k USD (Score:2)
Most people need a car that can do 400-500miles but the price starts at 5k.
Re: Yeah, but it starts at 112k USD (Score:2)
Public chargers are like getting faster internet.. (Score:2)