A new electric sports car has been designed and developed, by the creator of the legendary McLaren F1 hyper car. Gordon Murray design has designed, tooled and built a fully functioning prototype showcasing their advanced automotive materials. The result, dubbed Teewave AR1, isn’t the most performant electric sports car ever invented, but it may easily be the lightest. The design company has given a great deal of attention to the weight of the car, low centre of gravity and suspension geometry which has resulted in an excellent ride and handling balance.
The electric machine is a 2-seater sports car featuring a carbon monocoque and body components, and it weighs 850kg (including the 240kg battery), which is with about 400kg lighter than a Tesla.
Taking into consideration these details, we should expect this car to be very fast. Unfortunately, it isn’t, since it’s using Mitsubishi iMiEV’s electric powertrain with max output of 47kw and 180 Nm of torque, and it takes 11.4 seconds to get 0 to 60 mph and it has a top speed of 94 mph. The estimated range is 116 mile, and full recharge takes six hours, which means it has absolutely no chance compared with a Tesla.
Here are the quotes of the two copanies that collaborated in the creation of the tiny sports car:
Professor Gordon Murray of Gordon Murray Design said:
“It has been a pleasure to work with Toray Industries’ team on this challenging project. The resultant vehicle weight of just 850Kg achieved using Toray’s carbon fibre once again proves that performance through light weight is the most efficient and environmentally friendly way to achieve power to weight targets.”
Toray Industries said:
“Toray is happy to work with the Gordon Murray Design team to achieve Toray’s basic concept of an eco-friendly and highly efficient light weight electric concept vehicle, TEEWAVE. It should be viewed as a flagship for embodying our Green Innovation Project in the automotive field.”
Source: MotorWard
