1,546 miles: Guinness World Record for distance traveled by a hydrogen car on a single tank
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A team of students at the Delft University of Technology (TU Delft) in the Netherlands has set a Guinness World Record by driving 1,546 miles (2,488 km) on a single tank of hydrogen fuel. The record was achieved in the Eco Runner, a concept car that has been in the works by student teams since 2005.
Range anxiety is not a term that you hear quite often these days. Electric vehicle (EV) manufacturers have ensured that their cars are now adept at traveling long distances on a single charge. However, charging times still need to catch up and offer a quicker way to get back on the road again.
Hydrogen fuel cells offer a quicker alternative to refueling and generate enough power for heavy transport. Companies have been working on incorporating hydrogen as a vehicle fuel. Still, a student team has set a record for the longest distance a vehicle powered by hydrogen has run.
EcoRunner: The record breaker
The EcoRunner has a legacy of breaking records, and students at TU Delft have designed multiple iterations of the car in the past to deliver some amazing results. In 2005, the first version of the vehicle, a three-wheeled Eco1, was unveiled and set a record of driving 346 miles (557 km) on a quarter of a gallon (one liter) of petrol.
Soon, the student team switched the fuel source to hydrogen, and the subsequent EcoRunners have been modified to improve the vehicle to resemble more of an urban car than a student project.
It was only in 2020 that the first of these concepts emerged and set a record by traveling non-stop for 742 miles (1,195 km) in 36 hours on a single tank of hydrogen.
The Guinness World Record
Last year's EcoRunner bagged the first spot in Hydrogen Efficiency Challenge, but the team of students sets their targets much higher. They worked on delivering a lighter vehicle with a refined aerodynamic shape, and their efforts took the form of the EcoRunner XIII.
The team decided to use the Immendingen test track in Germany for their attempt at the record. On June 23, the team began its work at 4 am, but only five hours later, the EcoRunner began its first lap.
The car moved along the tracks at an average speed of 28 miles (45 km) an hour, which is twice the speed it achieved by its predecessor. The team was targeting to break its previous record of 1,277 miles (2,056 km) in this attempt, but after two days of driving and crossing this milestone, the car still had some hydrogen left in the tank.
After a short celebration, the team got back to the track to see how far the car could go, and finally, at 8:26 am, EcoRunner XIII came to a halt, having traveled more than 1,500 miles on two pounds (950 g) of hydrogen. This was a Guinness World Record for the greatest distance driven by a car on a full hydrogen fuel tank.
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