Guinesss World Records has confirmed that a hydrogen fuel cell car engineered at Duke University is the most fuel-efficient vehicle ever operated. The vehicle is powered by a hydrogen fuel cell that delivers the equivalent of 14,573 miles per gallon. Duke Electric Vehicles (DEV’s) record-breaking run took place during the summer of 2018 at Galot Motorsports in Benson, North Carolina. Guinness World Records has confirmed that the attempt to set a new record for fuel efficiency was successful. DEV bested the old record set by ETH Zurich, which stood for 13 years.
Designed by the Duke Electric Vehicles interdisciplinary initiative, the prototype Maxwell — a nod to James C. Maxwell’s equations describing electromagnetism — traveled 8.5 miles of track at Galot Motorsports in Benson, North Carolina, and consumed less than one gram of pure hydrogen.
The Duke Electric Vehicles Team and Maxwell.
Source: Duke University
The car is equipped with a bank of supercapacitors providing the driver with short bursts of energy when under climbing or acceleration conditions. A smaller, lighter fuel cell than those used by competitors was installed to charge the supercapacitor in a design that also earned the Duke team first place in the hydrogen category at the Shell Eco-marathon Americas in Sonoma, California, held in April 2018 of this year.
According to one electrical engineering graduate, the car can drive to any point on Earth using the energy in one gallon of gas.
The design team is gearing up to break the battery electric vehicle record in 2019.
DEV’s major funders in 2017-2018 included the Lord Foundation, GM Foundation, and NC Space Grant as well as the Duke Engineering Annual Fund.