And it's BRITISH!!!!!

http://www.lightningcarcompany.com/

Looks pretty cool, but I can't help but wonder what the range would be with a 700hp electric motor

LOL, programable external sound generator lol, v8 today......v12 tommorow lol,

I always said I'd buy an electric car once they were ridiculously powerful and could go 1000km (the distance between my place in Melbourne and all my friends and family in Adelaide with enough left over to go to my mate's beach house down south) without a recharge. Halfway there chaps, keep at it

0-60 in under 4 secs for the fast version,blimey its a rocket.

wow, looks like an TVR if u ask me

Quote from Hankstar :

I always said I'd buy an electric car once they were ridiculously powerful and could go 1000km (the distance between my place in Melbourne and all my friends and family in Adelaide with enough left over to go to my mate's beach house down south) without a recharge. Halfway there chaps, keep at it

With an assumed recharge time of 10 mins, it could even be possible, I mean heck, it takes nearly 10 mins to stop at a petrol station and refuel sometimes..........

What is the range with one recharge in normal drive then? Can't seem to find anything about it.

And yeah, it does look like a TVR & Jaguar merged together.

What is it's weight? I couldn't see any info about weight.

By the way would it affect 0-100 acceleration if electric windows opening at the same time?

Quote from Blackout :

What is the range with one recharge in normal drive then? Can't seem to find anything about it.

And yeah, it does look like a TVR & Jaguar merged together.

Thats something they fail to mention...............

Top speed 130 mph (208 kph) :snail:

I really wonder how much this thing is going to cost, although it has no emissions and tax exceptions and crap like that, it will still cost a fortune and probably be in the price range of expensive BMWs or Porsches

One thing bugs me a lot though. 700hp and it still takes FIVE BLOODY SECONDS to get to 60mph? For a car that looks like a sporty coupe? Either the 700hp is a joke or the car weighs at least 2.5 tonnes, or the TC (if any) is so crap that it completely fails to control power output effectively to generate optimal forward acceleration or the tires were a joke or...

In short, something's fishy here. Last time I checked the latest Porsche Cayenne Turbo goes from 0-60mph in 5.1 seconds with a 171mph top speed. All this form an approximately 2.5 tonne vehicle with aerodynamics just slightly better than a brick. So, with 700 hp and assuming typical coupe aero, that car should top out at say 380km/h?!?

i dont believe those 700 hp ... if it had that much you could put the batteries in the dust bin after each drive

If I were to guess, the motor is direct drive (no gears), so to go from 0 to 130 mph in one gear is probably stretching the rpm range of the motor.

Quote from Shotglass :

i dont believe those 700 hp ... if it had that much you could put the batteries in the dust bin after each drive

Very true. 522.2kW?!? Maybe that's just maximum instantaneous energy output rate for say a few seconds like Porsche's chrono pack overboost feature on steroids?

The Tesla was actually a good electric car. Even though top speed was "only" about 130mph but its acceleration no worse than this "lightning" and it was based off the lotus Elise chassis too, so it had excellent handling potential.

Electric motors are nothing like a gasoline engine. With an electric motor, the torque curve is completely flat.

700hp but it's probably still a rolling chicane with that top speed. It's also dangerous as it is so quiet.

700bhp electric car? Sounds right if it only takes a few seconds, electric cars can outrun fuel cars anytime on a short distance, they don't have to wind up like fuel engines do, they just have to discharge electricity and its out of there. Like that guy said on that future cars thing that Discovery Channel did, "By the time the light turns green I'm down the road while everyone else starts moving." It is no lie, electric engines don't have to "spool up" like fuel engines.

Oh and if you're curious about its mileage, it apparently takes 10 minutes to charge it up, and it has a 250 mile range.
Which is 50 miles more than my car on 10 gallons.

Oh by the way jamexking, 0-60 time is only 4 seconds.

Also uses regenerative braking so each time you stop for the light your batteries get a little charge.

Quote from XCNuse :

700bhp electric car? Sounds right if it only takes a few seconds, electric cars can outrun fuel cars anytime on a short distance, they don't have to wind up like fuel engines do, they just have to discharge electricity and its out of there. Like that guy said on that future cars thing that Discovery Channel did, "By the time the light turns green I'm down the road while everyone else starts moving." It is no lie, electric engines don't have to "spool up" like fuel engines.

uh back to the physics books for you
yes electric motors have a very flat torque curve and yes if theyre designes properly their starting torque can be even higher than that but thats torque _not_ power ... off the line an electric engine will outperform any petrol one but it still has 0 power at that point

and to get to 520kW at ~200A (which is about the absolute max you can get from a single battery these days which includes having to put it in the dust bin afterwards) youd need 2600V ... and that is with 100% efficiency ... no way it makes theses performance figures

A couple of things that nobody's mentioned yet:

1) They apparently haven't built one yet.
2) They certainly haven't a cat in hell's chance of selling one even if they do build one.
3) The likelihood of seeing any return on the research and development: Zero.

I hope for their sake that it's some other chump's money that is paying them to potter around in the shed with their little toy car.

What do you mean they haven't built one yet?
You mean they haven't sold one?
There are pictures all over the net of this thing.
Got my info from the number one source of photos and stats.
http://www.seriouswheels.com/cars/top-2008-Lightning-GT.htm

Also, just FYI guys, the Tesla Roadster produces well over 100lbs of foot torque. I don't know what you guys are going off about there not being any curve.

Quote from XCNuse :

Also, just FYI guys, the Tesla Roadster produces well over 100lbs of foot torque. I don't know what you guys are going off about there not being any curve.

torque != power

Power and torque are two totally different things?

Quote from XCNuse :

Power and torque are two totally different things?

in many ways yes ... and talking about power when in comes to acceleration from standstill especially with an single gear ratio motor shows a complete nonunderstanding of what torque and power is

Quote from XCNuse :

What do you mean they haven't built one yet?
You mean they haven't sold one?
There are pictures all over the net of this thing.

And it's a petrol-engined "prototype", apparently for testing the chassis.

Read the blurb on their website - all talk of performance for the electric model is in the future tense.

Quote from XCNuse :

Got my info from the number one source of photos and stats.
http://www.seriouswheels.com/cars/top-2008-Lightning-GT.htm

Look a bit closer; your number-one-source is just publishing the company's own press release.

Quote :

"the electric Lightning will be a difficult proposition to beat." ... "this energy-efficient car will use clean technology" ... "now available to pre-order" ...