Thursday 12th May 2011

Delta E-4 Electric Coupe Revealed

200 miles on a charge, and (or...) 0-60mph in under 5secs

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Delta Motorsport, a UK engineering consultancy based at Silverstone, has launched a new battery-electric coupe which it designed and built from the ground-up. They say the Delta E-4 Coupe's focus on light weight and high-efficiency systems gives it a range of 200 miles on a single charge, but it can also accelerate from zero to 60mph in fewer than five seconds.

The car is built around a carbon composite chassis weighing just 85kg - 2/3rds the weight of a comparable steel structure, despite being designed to pass EU crash tests.

High performance direct-drive electric motors were designed in partnership with Oxford University and produce over 600Nm/120hp each while only weighing 23kg, while a low, sporty seating position with the batteries mounted under the floor means that the car handles superbly (they also say!) with low aerodynamic drag.

Development of the car was supported by a grant for research and development by the Regional Development Agency for the East Midlands area, EMDA. Five vehicles have been produced for the Technology Strategy Board Ultra Low Carbon Vehicle Demonstrator Program (Yawn... Ed.), and the vehicles are part of the EEMS Accelerate consortium which aims to showcase high performance electric vehicles with cutting edge British design and engineering. So you can't buy one.

If you want to see it anyway, the Delta E-4 Coupe will be taking part in the RAC Future Car Challenge on Saturday 5th November 2011, one day before the London to Brighton Veteran Car Run.

[_Al_]

What a downbeat, cynical article! Surely a leading edge, not to mention technically interesting, product by a UK company should be treated a bit better than this?

[Chris71]

You can't buy one. Yet.

They're hoping to sell the project I believe.

And the claims aren't wrong, it does handle very nicely.

[SR06]

Why dont they just carve slots in the road like Scalextric and plumb in the National Grid? It would eliminate understeer and mean unlimited mileage...plus I used to alway get the back end of my mk1 escort and Martini 911 hanging out with some chalk on the 90 left!

[Chris-R]

_Al_ said:

What a downbeat, cynical article! Surely a leading edge, not to mention technically interesting, product by a UK company should be treated a bit better than this?

Eh? All I did was yawn during the boring part...

[jake15919]

SR06 said:

Why dont they just carve slots in the road like Scalextric and plumb in the National Grid? It would eliminate understeer and mean unlimited mileage...plus I used to alway get the back end of my mk1 escort and Martini 911 hanging out with some chalk on the 90 left!

Talcum powder on the corners and Pledge on the tyres for me. It was like Tokyo Drift Club.

[Chris71]

The Crack Fox said:

I'm all for students making interesting stuff, and I wish them luck, but not at my expense please.

To be fair the people involved in this project are very much professionals and their day job involves designing top-level competition cars. Nick was responsible for the work that introduced the fins to LMP cars, for example. It's not bob-a-job week.

[JohnoVR6]

The Crack Fox said:

I'm all for students making interesting stuff, and I wish them luck, but not at my expense please.

Except this isn't a student project though...

And I agree with Chris71, this thing does handle brilliantly.

[SR06]

jake15919 said:

Talcum powder on the corners and Pledge on the tyres for me. It was like Tokyo Drift Club.

My mum hid the talcum!

[ZeeTacoe]

Chris71 said:

The Crack Fox said:

I'm all for students making interesting stuff, and I wish them luck, but not at my expense please.

To be fair the people involved in this project are very much professionals and their day job involves designing top-level competition cars. Nick was responsible for the work that introduced the fins to LMP cars, for example. It's not bob-a-job week.

That was the FIA.

The elecy car looks ok from the side but pants from the front.

[_Al_]

Chris-R said:

Eh? All I did was yawn during the boring part...

I read "so they say" as "but it's probably B.S" and "but you can't buy one" as "so it's all pointless".

Probably says more about my frame of mind today than it does about your writing

[gforceg]

The Crack Fox said:

"Development of the car was supported by a grant for research and development by the Regional Development Agency for the East Midlands area, EMDA. "

Shall we add this to the list of 'eco projects' the Government has spunked OUR tax money on that never reach fruition ?


/grumpy bleeder.

Which Government? This one has (or is) abolishing the RDAs. I think we can blame Teflon Tony for most of these spunk fests.

[Chris71]

ZeeTacoe said:

Chris71 said:

The Crack Fox said:

I'm all for students making interesting stuff, and I wish them luck, but not at my expense please.

To be fair the people involved in this project are very much professionals and their day job involves designing top-level competition cars. Nick was responsible for the work that introduced the fins to LMP cars, for example. It's not bob-a-job week.

That was the FIA.

The FIA paid the bills, many of the constructors contributed research, but it was Delta Motorsport that did the study.

[Terminator X]

Seems like electric is the future. How long before our petrol cars become worthless do you think? Don't want to get lumbered with something that cost me x thousand only for it to be worth x pence

TX.

[SR06]

Terminator X said:

Seems like electric is the future. How long before our petrol cars become worthless do you think? Don't want to get lumbered with something that cost me x thousand only for it to be worth x pence

TX.

A loooooooooong time

[scubadude]

Nice CRX look in profile, good luck to 'em but I think the forseable future is hybrids (gradually getting more electric and less IC till its just a generator)

[renrut]

Bit meaningless quoting the chassis weight when its generally less than 20% of the weight of a car and usually only around 10-15%.

Similarly quoting the motor weight without drive electronics weight is like only quoting the weight of an engine minus gearbox. Can't really complain I guess though because a lot of companies do that.

Going from how the Honda CRZ suffered with a few fast laps on 5th gear* I'd be interested to see how something like this will fare bearing in mind that was a petrol/electric hybrid whereas this will be a full hybrid and so even more prone to running low.

However it looks nice and I hope it can deliver on the claims.

• yes I'm aware 5th gear aren't a scientific journal but it was a good real world example by a show that is normally quite keen on the green.

[Chris71]

It's definitely one of those cars that works better in the flesh. A few different angles here:





Just noticed Steve Cropley's verdict on it and he said he'd invest his own money given the funds. High praise from someone who's driven more cars than I (or most here) have had hot dinners.

The real test would be running one day-to-day, but it comes away very favourably from a brief circuit-bound encounter.

[GroundEffect]

YOu can tell they've specifically chosen the shape of the car by the aerodynamic requirements rather than making something pretty then 'fixing it'. The rear half of the car is pure drag reduction.

[KIG1971]

Why does it look like a Tesla Estate?

[smash]

Chris71 said "It's definitely one of those cars that works better in the flesh..." and then posted some pics that didn't actually help


Yeah, it'd bloody well have to!

"And in other news a Honda CRX has managed to rump a Fiat Coupe this week..."

Edited by smash on Thursday 12th May 15:22