AMZ showcases new e-racing cars

The electric racing car known as eiger weighs just 170 kilograms but has a 200cc horsepower engine, announced AMZ – an association formed by 65 students of the Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich (ETH) and Lucerne University.

For 12 years, AMZ has been participating in the world’s biggest competition for engineers – Formula Student – that sees more than 600 teams go up against each other in racing cars of their own designs.

Since 2010, races have also featured electric vehicles, and the eiger is now set to race in four international events this summer in the Netherlands, Austria, Germany and Hungary. But it is not AMZ’s only new development, with the association also showcasing its gotthard driverless electric racing car this season.

The gotthard driverless is completely autonomous, thanks to a student-designed camera system that observes the race track and transmits relevant data to a smart algorithm that then gives commands to the vehicle within fractions of a second. Its skills will soon be on show at the autonomous Formula Student races at Hockenheimring and in Italy.

Both new electric vehicles were unveiled earlier this week at the headquarters of AMZ sponsor EKZ, the energy provider for the canton of Zurich, in Dietikon, where last season’s successful model, pilatus, also showcased its prowess.