Tuesday 22nd July 2008

Motor Show: Lightning

Electric GT can be charged in ten minutes

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The Lightning Car Company took the wraps off its vision of a British GT of the future at the British Motor Show. The company's new Lightning is an electric car with the equivalent of around 700bhp and orders are being taken for 2010 cars.

Managing director Chris Dell says that the car will be a viable alternative to a petrol sports car in two years and promises it will make it into production.

So how can an electric car be a grand tourer? The answer is in the NanoSafe battery pack which needs to only be charged for 10 minutes for around 200 miles of motoring, says Dell.

The company also says that driving a Lighting will result in £20,000+ savings on annual running costs against the equivalent petrol sports car. A bold claim and we shall have to see.

Thanks to huge torque from zero rpm the car will accelerate from 0-60mph in four seconds. There is an electric motor in each wheel as well as regenerative braking capacity.The body is made from a carbon fibre/kevlar composite and the car rides on 20" wheels.

The car will come with software that will allow the driver to make it sound like a petrol engined vehicle. At the touch of a button you can switch between the sound of a V6 or a V12.

 

 

[CAD Monkey]

That would be lovely with a V8.............

Seriously, it looks good, and i hope it works as claimed, it would a good direction for performance vs environmental motoring.

[Assmask]

Looks very nice, that. I love its rear.

Also, 10 mins charging for 200 miles? I wonder how that alters if you push it, or even if it does. Also, how wide would that power cable be? Would it be coming straight off the grid?

Time to start building some more nuclear power generators. No, really. We ought.

[New Scot]

Perhaps it can be connected directly to a homebase/b&q wind turbine???

And let's have a hot estate version please!

[durbster]

Sounds great, although have electric cars really come that far?

Good luck to them. The company that successfully nails this whole idea will really take off.

[hahithestevieboy]

Very significant car I reckon. The only problem is that is will probably be ridiculously expensive until the major manufacturers start making the same thing. Ofcourse there will be no infrastructure to charge it in 10min yet.

However, if people really did start using these things tomorrow, then the economy would be in serious trouble in more ways than one. Even though this car uses pretty much the latest technology and solves virtually all of the technical problems with electric cars, we will not see them in numbers until the govt (gives the go-ahead and) finds a way to (politically and technically) tax their useage to a higher degree and put in place the infrastructure to power them (ie nuclear power and charging stations akin to petrol stations)

[cliff123]

if they really do make it, and it really is green, i'm liking it.

[New Scot]

Looking at the photos more closely - it looks just like an updated Marcos - is there a connection (excuse the bad electric pun)?

[hahithestevieboy]

PS there is already a californian off roader thing that is almost the same as this but more conventional in other ways. Guess what, its pretty much only being sold to their equivilent of councils and other fleet operators???? Poenix I think it's called.

[jonlwright]

I sniff a bunch of deposits being taken and the car never making it to production.

However, it shows the tech is getting there.

[Trixman]

If I remember rightly this is around the 200k figure. The '10 minute' charge is from a phase 1 connection, but still 6-8hrs from a normal phase 3 (house socket).

i love this car, if they get this into production and start producing more affordable electric cars off the back of its success, all the better!

i just wouldnt want the bill to replace all the battery packs at the end of their cycle. The ones in the Tesla only last something like 5 years or less, and there's 30 odd of 'em.

Edited: cause im an idiot

Edited by Trixman on Tuesday 22 July 15:24

[Trixman]

FYI http://www.lightningcarcompany.co.uk/

[ZesPak]

Trixman said:

If I remember rightly this is around the 200k figure. The '10 second' charge is from a phase 1 connection, but still 6-8hrs from a normal phase 3 (house socket).

This is getting faster by the minute!

[hahithestevieboy]

New Scot said:

Looking at the photos more closely - it looks just like an updated Marcos - is there a connection (excuse the bad electric pun)?

No it's not really that "green". At the end of the day, it will be powered by coal fired power stations (mostly). On the other hand, if there were enough of them (which there wont be for a long time) it would use that energy that would have otherwise been wasted at night. If there was alot of these and alot of nuclear power, then rather than wasted energy they would use up wasted capacity and capital cost of the stations at night, hence evening out the differential between base load and peak demand thus making the case for nuclear more economically and environmentally viable...

[OJ]

PML hub motors and no friction brakes... oh dear

Ambitious to say the least

[tomTVR]

Gutting they wont put a proper engine in it and sell it for less than 50k. Who is going to want a 200k (or whatever bit will cost) car that makes no noise.

Also do they realise that that the electricity has to come from somewhere so its hardly green.

[hahithestevieboy]

jonlwright said:

I sniff a bunch of deposits being taken and the car never making it to production.

However, it shows the tech is getting there.

Not getting there. Its there already. Simple volume and cost now...oh and infrastructure and govt permission...vested interests....etc

[Trixman]

quoted here (a guesstimate) at $300,000: http://blog.wired.com/cars/2008/03/all-electric-li...

[Frimley111R]

If a tiny company like this can make a car that take 10 mins to charge for 200 miles the major manufacturers must be about to launch something pretty spectacular??? Or it this car just wishful thinking???

[dazsmith69]

surely ur electric bills would soar! and the rising cost of electricity would cripple you, i think it would cost more than a petrol car having that thing charging up most nights

looks good though and the perfroamnce looks great too

[hahithestevieboy]

Trixman said:

If I remember rightly this is around the 200k figure. The '10 minute' charge is from a phase 1 connection, but still 6-8hrs from a normal phase 3 (house socket).

i love this car, if they get this into production and start producing more affordable electric cars off the back of its success, all the better!

i just wouldnt want the bill to replace all the battery packs at the end of their cycle. The ones in the Tesla only last something like 5 years or less, and there's 30 odd of 'em.

Edited: cause im an idiot

Edited by Trixman on Tuesday 22 July 15:24

The nanosafe batteries are not the same chemistry as the ones in the tesla. Aparently the life is very much longer according to their claims. All to do with the anode apparently. Also it is the ability to discharge at a very high rate that both increases battery life and decreases the charge time and also allows really powerful motors to be used for regenerative breaking.

If they can handle the power, yes you could charge the batteries in 10 seconds without a foot thick wire. You just need to up the voltage which gets dangerous.

By the way, single phase is your house. 3 phase is commercial 400v plus