Skip to content
FastestThings

Elevators

Shanghai Tower elevator

Mitsubishi prints 1,230 m/min, which it also writes as 20.5 m/s and 73.8 km/h, for one observation-deck elevator. CNN prints 20.5 m/s.

Also known as Shanghai Tower lift
Post on X (opens in a new tab)

Top speed

Published as 20.5 m/sPublished as 20.5 m/sPublished as 20.5 m/s

One observation-deck elevator, Shanghai Tower, Mitsubishi Electric. 20.5 m/s is 1,230 m/min and 73.8 km/h. The December 2016 date is the Guinness certificate announcement.

OfficialMitsubishi Electric (opens source in a new tab)

In context

  • 2.0× Usain Bolt's 100 m world-record paceSourced · Usain Bolt, 100 m in 9.58 s. World Athletics, Berlin 2009. Averaged over the race
  • 71% of a cheetah's timed top speedSourced · Cheetah, 29 m/s. Sharp 1997, mean of three timed runs over 201.2 m
  • A football field in 4.5 sConstant · American football field, 100 yd (91.44 m)

Worked out from the sourced figure above, which stays the ranked number.

This list

Why it's so fast

A fast elevator is a motor, a rope or a guide, and a shaft long enough to reach the speed without hurting the people inside. Acceleration, not the peak, is what riders feel.

  1. Room to get there

    A short building cannot spend long at top speed. The record cars are in very tall towers, with a run measured in dozens of floors.

  2. People set the acceleration

    Ears and balance limit how hard the car may speed up and slow down. A roller coaster can be rougher. An elevator that carries visitors cannot.

One of them is the Shanghai Tower elevator.

This is how the category works. A note written for this entry appears here once it is in the database.

Provenance

Every measurement

Claimed, measured and official figures side by side, each with its source. The ranked figure is marked.

  1. 73.8km/h45.9mph20.5m/s39.8knRanked figure

    One observation-deck elevator, Shanghai Tower, Mitsubishi Electric. 20.5 m/s is 1,230 m/min and 73.8 km/h. The December 2016 date is the Guinness certificate announcement.

    The December release prints 1,230 meters per minute, or 73.8 kilometers per hour, and says Guinness certified that elevator. CNN prints 20.5 meters per second. Those are one figure.

    Official
    Mitsubishi Electric (opens source in a new tab)

Reference

Specs

Building
Shanghai Tower
Manufacturer
Mitsubishi Electric
Speed
20.5 m/s
Run
Basement 2 to floor 119

Context

Background

Mitsubishi's May 2016 release says the Shanghai Tower elevator technology reached 1,230 metres per minute, or 20.5 metres per second. The December 2016 release says Guinness certified one unit at 1,230 metres per minute, or 73.8 kilometres per hour, from the second basement to the 119th-floor observation deck. 20.5 m/s times 3.6 is 73.8 km/h, and 1,230 divided by 60 is 20.5, so the three writings are one speed. The ranked unit is metres per second.

CNN's report prints 20.5 metres per second for the Mitsubishi Electric elevator in the tower. Two of the three accounts are Mitsubishi. CNN is the independent one. Guangzhou CTF's later certified car is a separate row, at Hitachi's 21 m/s.

Head to head

Compare Shanghai Tower elevator

Open the speed race

Spot a wrong number?

Every report is read by a person, and corrections are dated on the page.