World tire manufacturer Nokian Tyres announced that driver Janne Laitnen reached the fastest speed ever on ice with an electric vehicle earlier this spring.
Out on the frozen waters of Lake Ukonjärvi in Inari, Finland, Laitnen hit 156.64 mph using an electric vehicle built from the ground up by the Helsinki Metropolia University of Applied Sciences.
Called the E-RA, which stands for Electric RaceAbout, the vehicle is equipped with a 280-kilowatt electric motor system and fitted with Nokian Hakkapeliitta 7 studded tires. The direct, four-wheel-drive car has four electric motors in total and a lithium-titanate 32-kilowatt-hour battery system, propelling the E-RA from zero to 60 mph in six seconds.
Watch it:
The E-RA boasts a carbon-fiber monocoque frame and weighs just over 3,700 pounds, with roughly 1,200 pounds coming from the battery alone. According to the website dedicated to the car, students and researchers started building the top-shelf electric vehicle in 2009 with the help of several different business partners.
Electric cars can have trouble operating in cold temperatures, so the fact that the vehicle was able to reach such high speeds on ice is pretty impressive. Plus, the team says the vehicle has a fuel-use equivalent of less than half a gallon of gasoline per 60 miles.
