Charged with Electric Vehicle News and Views
Ex-Australian Touring Car driver and multiple Australian Motorsport Champion John Bowe took to Sydney Motorsport Park to set an EV (Electric Vehicle) lap record in the ELMOFO (Electronic Motor Force) Radical SR8 - the first of it's kind.
Bowe set a 1m 37.5s lap which stands as the EV lap record at the 3.9km circuit.
Following a 12 month build process the Electric Radical SR8 built by Newcastle based ELMOFO will be doing laps at Sydney Motorsport Park (Eastern Creek) tomorrow (14th July) at 9:50am piloted by multiple time Australian Motorsport Champion John Bowe.
The past week has been spent ironing out some minor bugs identified during last weeks test session. The car has been back on the dyno and can now boast an ideal torque/power curve and a new top speed setting.
John Bowe will be out to set an Electric track record for Eastern Creek, but the Electro Motive Force Racing Teams objective is to better some other existing lap records. EV News has been invited to witness the record attempt so will post updates on Twitter as the records tumble.
BMW i8 Prototype spotted on the Nürburgring Nordschleife including distinct 3 cylinder sound track.
Nissan is working on an innovative urban electric vehicle that it says improves on the Twizy produced by alliance partner Renault.
Etienne Henry, Nissan's head of product strategy and planning said the new car will combine the compactness and agility of a motorcycle with the weather protection and protective shell of a conventional car.
"The Twizy is also trying to combine these, but we think there are optimizations possible with this kind of vehicle," said Henry, who declined to say when the car might be added to Nissan's lineup.
Renault sees the Twizy as an alternative to scooters in Europe's crowded cities. The Twizy, which debuted last year, is powered by a choice of two electric motors, a 4kW/5-hp version with its top speed capped at 45kph that can be driven in most countries in Europe without a driver's license and a version with a top speed of 80kph. It has maximum driving range of 100 km.
In 2008, Nissan showed the narrow, two-seat Land Glider concept that leaned into corners like a motorcycle but still came with the security of four wheels and an enclosed cabin. In a statement at the time, Nissan said it "should not be regarded as a mere design study."
"That was a very interesting concept with very challenging and meaningful technology," said Henry, who declined to say whether any of the Land Glider's features would make it into its future EV.
Henry, who previously was product manager for the first-generation Qashqai compact crossover, said the new EV would successfully mix the motorcycle and car genres in the same way the Qashqai blended the strengths of a compact hatchback with the styling of an SUV.
One aim of the new EV is to help address congestion in fast-growing cities. "It's clear we need to offer an efficiency in terms of compactness, of space usage. Probably this will have an answer to this question," he said.
At this year's Geneva auto show, Toyota showed an electric urban mobility concept with the same capability to lean into corners as the Nissan Land Glider. The three-wheel i-Road is scheduled for limited production and will join the lineup of EVs in Toyota's car-sharing program in the French city of Grenoble next year.
Nobuhiro 'Monster' Tajima returns to the 90th running of the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb, assembling a new electric vehicle in hopes of breaking the world record time he set in 2011 while raising 'climate change' awareness.
Compared with the Porsche 918 and the hybridized Ferrari F70/Enzo replacement, The Jaguar C-X75 takes a smaller-engined, subtly different approach to being a “supercar with an environmental edge.”
The still-born Hypercar has a lightweight 1.6 litre supercharged and turbocharged four-cylinder engine producing 500 hp and reving to 10,000 rpm. While the original concept was for the C-X75 to be a series hybrid with four 195bhp (145kW) electric motors – one for each wheel - produce 778bhp and a total torque output of 1,180lb ft (1,600Nm), the car tested here has only 390 hp (285 kW) of electric power giving a total output of 890 hp (654 kW) when combined with the ICE.
