Andreas Mikkelsen and Xpeng have claimed the Guinness World Record for the world’s longest drift in an electric car. The World Rally Championship driver completed a 45.729-mile drift in Shanghai, beating the previous record by more than two miles.
The Norwegian, who has three WRC victories and two WRC2 titles, used an Xpeng P7 sports saloon with up to 586bhp for the record attempt.
Mikkelsen completed 216 laps around a closed roundabout in an anti-clockwise direction. The entire run took one hour and 33 minutes, with the road surface constantly sprayed with water to reduce friction.
The attempt was inspired by a Porsche Taycan’s previous world record of 42 kilometers for the longest drift.
“Next to Skoda I’m also doing some work with Xpeng in Norway, and they only have electric vehicles,” Mikkelsen told DirtFish. “So I thought: ‘Hmm, maybe it’s possible to try to beat this record because I think rally drivers, they know how to slide a car. They have a feeling for the car.”
Technical Challenges
Xpeng’s engineering team had to solve several technical problems before the attempt. The main concerns were battery survival and motor temperature management under continuous high friction conditions.
“The battery: can it survive? And not only the length of it, because you have so much friction from the tires,” Mikkelsen explained. “So first of all, [you have to consider] the temperature of the motor and the length [of the drift], and they saw quite quickly it was actually possible to beat this record.”
Testing confirmed the P7 could handle the sustained drift conditions.
The team connected Mikkelsen with Xpeng’s global operations after initial discussions in Norway.
Mental Focus Under Pressure
Maintaining concentration proved crucial during the 90-minute drift session.
“I just had to think that I’m going into this really, really, really long stage, and I just trued to keep the concentration as high as possible,” Mikkelsen said.
His heart rate averaged 150 beats per minute during test runs, with peaks reaching 170. He focused on breathing techniques to manage tension during the actual record attempt.
The strategy worked – his heart rate dropped 20-30 beats during the official run compared to testing.
“What was quite fun to see is when I passed the record, my heart rate dropped immediately,” he noted. “I was very much able to relax after that, which made it much easier.”
Battery Management
Mikkelsen finished the drift with just 5% battery remaining. The precise energy management highlighted both his driving efficiency and the P7’s battery capabilities under extreme conditions.
“That’s also a nice thing is that I really did my job well,” he said. “I was not, let’s say, the limiting factor here.”
The pressure was significant since Mikkelsen had proposed the record attempt to Xpeng.
“I brought the idea to Xpeng and they then set everything in motion to make this happen. If I messed it up and that would be really bad.”
The record demonstrates the performance potential of electric drivetrains in motorsport applications. Last year, Yangwang – BYD’s luxury subsidiary – set a Nürburgring lap record with its 2,959bhp U9 Xtreme hypercar.
Xpeng currently sells the G6 SUV in the UK, starting at £39,990 for the Standard Range model.
Mikkelsen balances his WRC2 program with Skoda alongside his consulting role with Xpeng in Norway.
