The previous world record for the longest distance traveled in an electric vehicle on a single charge was 345 miles. The new record destroys that at a whopping 623 miles. Both were set by the Japan Electric Vehicle Club, and they do it using laptop batteries. Lots and lots of laptop batteries.
How many lithium-ion batteries? 8,320 of them. That doesn't sound like it leaves room in the car for much else, which is already a small Daihatsu Mira modified to run on all those batt's. It took 17 different drivers running on shifts just over 27 hours to keep the electric car going until it ran out of juice — it took so long because the modded Mira topped out at 25 mph.
To put things in perspective, upcoming electric vehicles such as the Nissan Leaf and Chevy Volt get anywhere from 40 miles to somewhere over 100 on a single charge, depending on how much strain is put on the batteries.
You can check out video of the Club's 600-mile journey here.