The BMW i3 has proved its incredible efficiency in eye-catching style by driving 5887km from a headland on the northern tip of Norway to Spain’s southernmost point with a total charging time of just two hours and 46 minutes.

The Neue Klasse vehicle was tackling the Paneuropana, an EV endurance challenge created by electric car pioneer Rafael de Mestre. What BMW calls the “ultimate” test of efficiency and charging speed began on the Nordkapp, an island in the Arctic Ocean and the northernmost point of Europe that’s accessible by car. 

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Specified checkpoints along the route were chosen in order to ensure the focus was not on outright speed on the road, but on cutting down on charging. The BMW’s charging time beat the old record by more than seven hours.

The i3 50 xDrive consumed an average of 12.5kWh per 100km while travelling at an average speed of 79.7km/h. That comfortably beat the model’s official WLTP consumption figure of 13.4 to 18kWh/100km. When it used DC fast chargers, the car could take in enough power to cover 423km in 10 minutes.

Average charging power for the eight-country journey was 275kW, and the BMW could only use publicly available charge facilities. There were no passengers on the journey, and the record-setting car was accompanied by two other i3s acting as support vehicles. 

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Total travel time was three days, two hours and 41 minutes, and the manufacturer insists the record-setting vehicle was not modified in any way. The stock-standard model supports fast charging at up to 400kW with its 800-volt electrical architecture and sixth-generation drive technology.

The i3 50 xDrive has one e-motor on each axle, delivering a total of 345kW and 645Nm, with a 0-100km/h time of 4.7 seconds. Its 108.7kWh battery uses lithium-ion cylindrical cells, claimed maximum range is 912km on the WLTP cycle, and the top speed is 200km/h.