Wired for Speed - The Age of Electric Supercars Page 2

By Paul Stabin

Paul Stabin

Contributor

LATEST ARTICLE
Wired for Speed - The Age of Electric Supercars
Sure, think golf cart if you can't resist the dig. Or those things going up and down the grocery... Read More

• N/ALEADERBOARD RANK
• 39ARTICLES CONTRIBUTED
• 0COMMENTS POSTED

2,648 views Oct 26, 2009

2012 Tesla Model S

I can hear it now. If electrics are so great, why not build a real race car? Apparently Swiss company Green GT heard you. They have announced that their Twenty-4 vehicle, still in development, uses two 100-kw electric engines to generate almost 400 horsepower, allowing it to reach a top speed of 171 mph. Oh yes, and a 0-60 time of about four seconds. Clearly, the body, which is carbon-fiber on top of a monocoque chassis, helps.

While most of the other cars mentioned here can match the Twenty-4 in acceleration, the top end speed is something else again. An engineer - which I am not - would explain to you that extended high speeds cause a disproportionate drain on batteries, one reason why few manufacturers of electric cars have top speeds north of 150.  This may well wind up being Swiss Green GTs 2011 LeMans prototype, or a road car, or both if were lucky.   

Speaking of the stratosphere, EV Innovations offers up the Liv Inizio. A top speed of 150mph and a five second zero to sixty time, combined with a 200 hundred mile range are clearly targeting, if falling just short, of the Tesla Roadster. The Tesla wins on acceleration and range, but the top end of the Liv Inizio earns it some bragging rights.

Yes, the Liv Inizio, along with many of its fellow whiz kids, is a prototype - but so was everything you see on the road at one time.  That quiet blur that just shot past you? That was the future.