​Reigning European rally champion Miko Marczyk has just set a new Guinness world record for the furthest distance travelled in an EV on a single charge with the Audi A6 e-tron. 

The A6 travelled a total of 831 miles (1,338km) on a route along the Vistula river in Poland.

That’s far beyond the A6 e-tron’s WLTP-rated range of 482 miles (777km) – in fact 72% more. 

Based on the A6’s 94.9kWh usable battery capacity, it got an efficiency rating of some 8.7 miles/kWh during the record setting run.

The route following the Vistula would have meant that the route was predominantly downhill to begin with, but upon reaching the Baltic sea, Marczyk turned around and followed the same route back inland, offsetting most of that initial downhill advantage.

The real caveat for the record, impressive as it may be, is that the 831-mile journey took a whopping 45 hours. Such big numbers may not sound like much out of context, but doing the maths shows that the average speed for the record-setting journey was a mere 18.5mph. But that's assuming that Miko didn't stop off at a roadside Ibis Budget for a quick snooze. 

It’s a well known fact that EVs are most efficient at urban speeds with a bit of regen happening, and so running the route at the lowest possible speed makes travelling further easier, if much more tedious. 

It’s unlikely an A6 e-tron would be able to travel such a distance at anything close to motorway speeds.

There is still more credit to be given to Audi and Marczyk though, as another factor affecting EV range is temperature, and the conditions for this record attempt were far from ideal, averaging around 15°C and dropping as low as 7°C at times. Trying not to use the aircon can't have been fun...

So regardless of how you cut it, travelling 831 miles in an EV on a single charge, in 45 hours, is an impressive feat of engineering and human endurance. This may be a record to leave to the professionals though, unless you’ve got copious amounts of spare time and safe roads to do it on.

Either way, it raises the question: how long will it take another manufacturer to beat Audi’s record with a longer range car in more ideal conditions? Longer than 45 hours, we think.