Most world records when it comes to cars are set for what they do while driving forward, but we shouldn’t forget about the impressive feats of the reverse gear. Especially in something as large and unwieldy as a big rig.
Marco Hellgrewe, a record-holder in reverse driving, recently used an electric truck to literally back into the Guinness Book of World Records. He drove a Mercedes eActros 600 in reverse for 77.5 miles at an average speed of 12 mph on the Oschersleben racetrack in Germany. That’s 476 corners and an overall drive time of 6 hours and 22 minutes, setting a new world record for continuously driving backward in an articulated truck. The previous record, set in 2020, was 55.34 miles.
It was also the first time the record had been set using an electric vehicle. The eActros 600, which was named International Truck of the Year 2025, is fully electric at 621 kWh with a range of 311 miles. And this isn’t its first impressive feat — the truck has toured 9,321 miles across 22 countries and passed a 4,039-mile test in freezing Nordic conditions with flying colors.
