Mercedes-Benz Electric Car Sets Nurburgring Record

I don’t know about you, but when I think of electric cars, I think of weaksauce hybrid electric autos such as the Toyota Prius, or the ridiculously expensive Battery Electric Vehicle (BEV) Tesla Roadster ($109,000 back in 2010). You could say that electric cars, even ones with sporty pretensions like the Tesla Roadster, fell far short of the mark when it comes to electrifying me as a car enthusiast.

So when I heard about Mercedes-Benz, through its AMG subsidiary, setting a new record for electric-powered vehicles at the legendary Nurburgring Nordschleife, you can bet it sent a surge of excitement through me.

The SLS AMG Electric Drive set a time of 7:56.234. To set this lap time into some kind of context, the Nordschleife (affectionately called the “Green Hell”) is the very same race track where F1 legend Niki Lauda almost died in a fiery crash in 1976. The Green Hell is all of 12.8 miles (20.8 km) long, features an official count of 73 corners (though many people claim a count of around 170!), and an F1 record lap time of 6:58.6 set in 1975 by Lauda himself. For a road car to be slower than a pukka F1 car – albeit one from the mid-1970s, which is still faster than what any non-modified road car has ever lapped the ‘Ring – by just under a minute is hugely impressive.

And to think the electric-powered AMG gullwing was limited to a maximum speed of 250 KMH (155 MPH).

Just imagine if AMG had disabled the speed governor and allowed the car and its driver to go balls out down that long final straight that comprises almost 2/3 of the final minute of its lap time…

The SLS AMG Electric Drive features hugely impressive stats and specs, including a power system that develops a maximum of 552 kW (~751 bhp), 1000 Nm (738 lb/ft) of torque, and 0-100 kmh acceleration of 3.9s.

Here is a link of the SLS AMG Electric Drive on its glorious lap. 

Alas, the electric supercar will not be sold in the USA. If you can find one somewhere, though, this most electrifying electric-powered automobile would drain your bank account’s reserves to the tune of around $550,000.