German students break the world record for fastest accelerating electric car — again

Before you can say "One Mississippi, two Mississippi," the world's newly minted fastest-accelerating electric vehicle will be long gone.

The electric racing car, built by 20 University of Stuttgart students known as the GreenTeam, can go from 0 to a little over 62 miles per hour in just 1.461 seconds. The school's website says that its peak acceleration is "roughly equivalent to the force experienced by astronauts when a rocket re-enters the Earth's atmosphere."

This isn't the first time the GreenTeam has broken the record, according to the university. It held the record in 2012 with a time of 2.681 seconds. Then, the title went to the Netherlands and Switzerland, until the German team took it back in 2015 at 1.779 seconds. A Swiss crew broke that record in 2016 with 1.513 seconds, which remained unbeaten until now.

It was the GreenTeam's second attempt at the record this year after preparing for nearly a year. The team had to cancel their first try, which was scheduled for early September, because of technical issues.

Guinness World Records said the record was verified at a test track in Renningen, Germany, on Sept. 23.

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