This record-breaking Mercedes EV just drove 3,400 miles in 24 hours

An electric Mercedes concept car called the AMG GT XX has just driven 3,405 miles in 24 hours, averaging 186 mph between battery charges.

This beats the previous record for distance covered by an EV in 24 hours by over 900 miles, and it means the Mercedes drove further in a single day than the winner of this year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans.

Helped by Mercedes-AMG Formula One driver George Russell – who joined a team of 17 drivers piloting two cars – the GT XX prototype broke 25 long-distance driving records at Nardo, a 7.8-mile circular test track in southern Italy. It set new records for distance covered in 12, 24, 48, 72, 96, 120, 144 and 168 hours, plus records for the shortest time to cover benchmarks between 2,000 and 25,000 miles.

The latter saw the Mercedes-AMG GT XX travel 24,907 miles – the circumference of the Earth – in seven days, 13 hours, giving Mercedes the claim of driving an EV ‘around the world in eight days’ – not the 80 days needed by Phileas Fogg.

Driving enormous distances at high speed is one thing – but when it comes to breaking endurance records in electric cars, charging quickly is equally important. Remarkably, Mercedes has developed an EV charging system that can fill batteries at between 850 and 900 kW – almost three times that of the quickest-charging EVs on sale today. It’s the sort of figure that makes you look twice, and Mercedes says it provides 249 miles of range in just five minutes.

Mercedces said that, while the car can go “significantly” faster, engineers calculated that 186 mph (300 km/h) “offered the optimal balance between track speed and charging stops, delivering the fastest overall time,” the car maker said. Mercedes had hoped to complete the 24,907 mile target in eight days, but beat its own target by over 10 hours.

Although not destined for production, the AMG GT XX gives a good indication of what we can expect from Mercedes EVs in the near future. A four-door saloon, the car is powered by a pair of axial-flux motors on the rear axle, plus a third motor at the front. The car runs on an 800-volt electrical architecture, is powered by a 114 kW battery pack, and has a total output of 1,341 horsepower. Production cars based on the GT XX are expected to arrive in 2026 and 2027.

F1 driver George Russell said of the concept car: “The axial flux motors respond as immediately and precisely as a Formula 1 drivetrain, but with an endurance that I have only ever experienced with combustion engines. This technology will revolutionise the driving experience – both on the racetrack and on the road.”