Mercedes has set a new record for the longest distance travelled in an electric car in a single day. The monumental feat was achieved using the German company’s recently unveiled AMG GT XX concept – a four-door super-saloon prototype previewing what a Mercedes-Benz family car might look like in the not-too-distant future.
The world record attempt, which has been independently verified, was set at the Nardo test track in Italy, where the concept EV was driven for a total of 3,405 miles over a 24-hour period. It lapped the oval track at an average speed of 186mph, stopping only for five-minute breaks to allow for rapid charging at speeds up to 900kW.
And the distance covered in a single day isn’t the only record the GT XX concept laid down. It now has the highest achieved mileage over a 12, 48, 72, 96, 120, 144 and 168-hour period, with the vehicle enduring an eight-day test at the 7.8-mile ring. It too set record times to hit 2,000, 5,000, 10,000, 15,000, 20,000 and 25,000 miles.
Incredibly, the EV also completed a full circumference of the earth’s equator – a measured 24,901 miles – in a record time of seven days, 13 hours, 24 minutes and seven seconds. The 3,405-mile-a-day achievement surpasses the previous record, which was held by XPeng for less than a month.
Earlier in August, the Chinese brand’s P7 – which also features an oddball ‘Road Rage Reliever’ that allows users to throw virtual emojis at other motorists – was driven for 2,461 miles over a 24-hour period. The various records were set using two cars and a total of 17 professional drivers.
And they weren’t just any old Tom, Dick, and Harry. Instead, they were drawn from Mercedes-AMG’s GT3 motorsport programme – and also including British F1 star George Russell. Using five drivers per eight-hour stint, the group of pilots were split across a three-shift rotation to ensure the EVs could be driven continuously with minimal stops.
Including engineers and a full logistics crew, some 100 personnel from Mercedes-AMG’s Affalterbach headquarters in Germany were drafted in for the endurance test. The AMG GT XX was unveiled in June and features one of the most powerful electric drivetrains to ever make it into an EV – production or prototype.
At its beating heart is an oil‑cooled 114kWh cell‑to‑pack battery delivering energy to a trio of ‘axial-flux’ motors that are key to the EV’s incredible performance figures. Developed by British company YASA, they are around a third of the size of existing e-motors used in production EVs – yet they are three times as power dense.
In total, the three e-motors produce a staggering 1,341bhp. To put this into perspective, the £2.5million Bugatti Chiron hypercar’s 8.0-litre quad-turbo W16 petrol engine delivers 1,578bhp. Experts have likened the significance of axial-flux e-motor adoption for EVs to that of fuel injection of combustion engines in the late 1980s and early ’90s as the replacement for carburettors.
Two of these revolutionary e-motors drive the rear wheels, while a third provides power to the front-wheels, making this an all-wheel-drive model. But on demand. Under slower driving conditions, the third e-motor automatically decouples from the drivetrain to downgrade the Concept AMG GT XX to a rear-driven EV. This improves efficiency by reducing mechanical drag, meaning a little extra range from that massive battery.
Pedal to the floor, it is said to be able to go up to 224mph flat out. For how long this is achievable before the battery is drained entirely is not yet revealed. The battery can accept charging speeds of between 850kW and 900kW, which was crucial to smashing the various records, given the EVs only had to stop for a matter of minutes.
In fact, the Concept AMG GT XX can add around 250 miles in just a five-minute charging session. Commenting on the achievement, Michael Schiebe, chairman of the board of management of Mercedes‑AMG GmbH, said: ‘An AMG has always been defined by its drivetrain. In the electric world, too, our drive system must be convincing across the board.
‘That’s why we’re the first manufacturer to use axial flux motors and directly cooled batteries in fully electric models. ‘We have now impressively demonstrated how superior these technologies are. ‘Enormous performance and extremely fast charging were always available and made these records possible.
‘For customers of our future electric models, this means they will get a genuine AMG – no ifs; no buts.’ A production version of the Concept AMG GT XX will reportedly be unveiled in 2026, and an SUV using the same EV architecture is expected to follow a year later as a challenger to the forthcoming electric Porsche Cayenne.
There’s no word on when order books will open, or how much it will cost, so eager EV converts will have to wait for more details to be released in the coming months.
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