Tesla competitor

[unixronin]

UK-based Lightning Cars has revealed a competitor to the Tesla Roadster electric sports car.

The Lightning GT has very similar performance to the Tesla Roadster, but can recharge its batteries in ten minutes if 3-phase power is available.  Battery life is claimed to be 12 years, with 85% of charge capacity retained after 15,000 charge cycles.  In shades of Car Wars tech, the Lightning GT uses individual 120kW motors in each wheel for a total of around 700HP.

Better start saving those nickels though.  It's priced at £120,000-£150,000 with £15,000 down.  But don't rush out to the bank, it's not available in the US yet.

Sorta looks very reminiscent of an Aston Martin or a TVR, doesn't it?

Comments

[metahacker.livejournal.com]

Sorta looks very reminiscent of an Aston Martin or a TVR, doesn't it?

Indeed -- an overpriced car that essentially no one gets to drive, and probably has a terrible reliability record. *Very* much like a TVR in fact. ;)

More seriously, I'm glad someone is doing an exclusive battery-power car; it'll drive development for cars that I might actually buy...

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

Indeed -- an overpriced car that essentially no one gets to drive, and probably has a terrible reliability record. *Very* much like a TVR in fact. ;)

Heh. Point. ;)

Volvo has announced a "plug-in hybrid" with similar architecture. No idea what the pricing is going to be like, though.

[wyrdling.livejournal.com]

...and don't even think about pricing that in dollars :P

i want a cheap battery powered solar car i can plug in the ten days a year we don't get 28 hours of sunlight here....

maybe i should set my sights on a two-wheeler. but i'm not sure where the solar panels would go... i'm sure someone could come up with something.

[ilcylic.livejournal.com]

Hunh, that's funny. I've been designing a car with that powerplant myself, these last few weeks.

I'm hoping to spend rather less building mine, though.

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

What are you planning to use for batteries? And do you have regenerative braking planned?

[ilcylic.livejournal.com]

I figured I'd look into golf-cart batteries to start, see if they could handle the sort of load I want without getting too heavy. I'd like regenerative braking, but I'm not sure of the sort of electrical loads that generates.

My plan is actually a train style hybrid, with a generator running a purely electrical drivetrain. I'm thinking that sticking solar cells all over it might not be too bad of an idea, but I don't know how heavy that would get.

[blackcoat.livejournal.com]

As long as you're doing that, remember that straight turbines have much better efficiency then piston-driven. They have no rapid torque, sure, but you don't care about that...

Also, regen braking is, apparently, pretty Deep Magic.

Talking with the guys who did the conversion for ElecBlue, even doing it on the rear wheel would have added 3000usd to the price for them, and a month of extra time.

[ilcylic.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I've been looking at helicopter GPUs for the genny. Plus, that gives me an absolutely awesome multifuel capacity.

Gonna be loud as hell, though.

[blackcoat.livejournal.com]

Well, remember, you don't need something that big.

There was a project somewhere, with someone taking a big turbo, and turning it inside out, which gives you a turbine engine. it was like, 35hp or something, which isn't much, but if it's running pretty constant, can leverage into some pretty awesome mileage.

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

There are aircraft APUs in that range.

[cymrullewes.livejournal.com]

You know, we could introduce you to Crash from Junkyard Wars.... But you'll have to come visit us. :-)

[ithildae.livejournal.com]

It looks like the old Corvettes to me. It is obviously competing with the Tesla Motors Roadster, so the price seems to be a problem. The only advantage that I can see is that it lacks the speed governor at 125 MPH. That is largely artificial in the Roadster anyway. (I can't think of anywhere I would go, under 200 miles away, where I would go that fast anyway.)

I am looking past the Roadster to the sedan that Tesla Motors is planning for next year (or so.) The sedan will have a gasoline generator option that will give you range to make is useful. It will also have more seating capacity (I equate that with comfort.) The price will also be easier to consider.

[blackcoat.livejournal.com]

*FINALLY* someone does that. I've been considering building one of those for *years*.

[micheinnz.livejournal.com]

Phwoar, that thing is _gorgeous_. Hope it's more robust than an Aston or TVR!