The “Fermi shuttle” acceleration of electrons in ion–atom collisions, i.e. multiple collision sequences of electrons bouncing off the projectile and target nuclei, can lead to the emission of very energetic electrons (i.e. with velocities higher than the binary encounter electrons). We performed measurements of the evolution of the Fermi shuttle electron yield with the induced perturbation and the target atomic number. The yield increases with the perturbation parameter (ratio of projectile charge and projectile velocity q/vP), which was varied from q/vP≈0.2 (weak perturbation) to q/vP≈2 (strong perturbation). We also introduce a more realistic scaling parameter, which accounts for the re-bouncing of the electrons on target and projectile, and show that the yields increase as a function of this parameter. For a given projectile, the Fermi shuttle electron yield increases with the target atomic number. Furthermore, we show that the velocity distribution of the high-energy electrons is exponentially decreasing N(v)∼exp(−nv) and exhibits the same evolution of the slope n with projectile velocity as in the case of Fermi accelerated deuterons.