Auto X-Prize Runner Up Clocks Faster Time Than Mini E At Nürburgring (Video)

By Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield

Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield

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Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield is a self-confessed petrol head. She grew up in a carless family but was able at a very early age to name cars passing her on... More

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E-RA takes Nurburgring

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It’s almost a year since the Progressive Insurance Automotive X-Prize came to a conclusion, but we’ve heard relatively little from its various winners.

Until Now. 

Enter the Finnish team which came runners up in the Alternative (Side by Side) category with the conventionally-styled Electric Race About (E-RA). While driving south from Finland to attend the E-Miglia Rally in Munich, the team dropped by Nürburg, Germany, home to the famous Nordschleife racetrack.  

Naturally, the team had to find out just how good the E-RA was on the circuit, letting GT and American Le Mans driver Ralf Kelleners put the E-RA through its paces on the 12.9 mile course. 

And while it didn’t break the electric vehicle track record of 9 minutes and 1.338 seconds set earlier this year by the Peugeot EX1 EV Concept, the all-wheel drive E-RA put in a time of 9 minutes and 40 seconds.

That’s 12 seconds faster than the lap time set last year by a BMW Mini E Prototype. 

That’s not bad for a car developed on what we presume to be a tiny fraction of both Peugeot and BMW’s electric vehicle development funds. 

Interestingly, the E-RA isn’t as fast as the 2011 Tesla Roadster Sport 2.5, reaching 62 mph in 6 seconds. And at  3,747 lbs, it is also substantially heavier.

Nevertheless, Kelleners put in a lap very few of us could hope to replicate, although from the video below we think perhaps Kelleners wasn’t entirely comfortable behind the wheel of the E-RA, taking a few corners a little differently than we’d expect.

[Gas 2.0]