Engineless, Electric Supercar Recharges in 10 Minutes

If this thing handles well too, Jeremy Clarkson might actually come back from the dark side - well, Lightning will need to add in artificial throttle sounds.

 

Jeez, while they are dissing the Prius, they could at least get the horsepower number right! How hard can it be?

From their site: Welcome to Lightning Car Company - The UK's Premier Electric Sports Car

Car 0-60mph Power
Jaguar 4.2 XKR convertible 5.0 Secs 420 bhp
Toyota Prius [Hybrid] 1.5 T4 10.9 Secs 76 bhp
Electric Lightning GT 4.0 Secs 700+ bhp

True net power is 110 hp. Toyota Prius - 2008 Performance & Specifications

 

I want one! Now they only have to reduce the price by an order of magnitude...

I wonder if it has VSC.

 

If the "titanate" in the battery means "titanium," I wonder how viable this will be on a large scale. Titanium is expensive (and do we have a large enough quantity to put one of these batteries in every car around the world?). Nevertheless, I give them an "A" for innovation if the battery really is all that they claim it to be.

Something that they mention, that will truly be the answer in the future:
"There are no gearboxes, differential, axle, drive shafts or propshafts to contend with," Lightning says. "All of the power is generated at the wheel, the point at which it's required, which eliminates mechanical complexity and power losses experienced in standard sports cars.

But I must wonder ... can you shift it into true neutral if you are driving over a patch of ice on the road? ...or, are the motors/generators always connected to the wheels? Can there be a clutch to withdraw the windings from the permanent magnets for a "true neutral," or would this be too cumbersome? I'm sure someone could come up with an efficient way to do this.
.

 

As a Jaguar owner, I hope the electrics on this car are of much higher quality and development than what was used on my car, especially the wiring harnesses and connectors.

 

Quarter of a million $US$. Right. Okay, Bond. Moving right along.

In reality this is a great thing - even if the Lightning never really happens. Talk has swirled for years about this mechanical layout - placing motors at each wheel.

Who cares which battery it is. Get the technology together - and like Honda is doing with its gorgeous fuel cell car.

Talk also swirls around an on-board recharging system, hopefully of the fuel cell variety, which would recharge the batteries while underway negating the need to pull over every 100 or 200 miles at some "unknown" distant recharging station that doesn't exist.

We "thought" we were in this advanced state of automotive design ? In fact we're in the Wild Wild West gun slinging period of automotive technological discovery.

Let's git'er done. I want me one. : )

 

Yikes! This almost sounds reminiscent of Nikola Tesla's inductive charging invention! Lol ! Pull into the recharging station (formerly a gas station), and electricity flows through the air and recharges your car.
"Warning: No Petrol engines! You will be in for the surprise of your life!"

 

You don't need to withdraw the windings or use a clutch. Simply removing the field excitation will do the job, and that is done by electronics, not mechanics. The only downside is the additional rotational mass of the rotors and the unsprung mass of the motors.

Tom

 

It's a gorgeous car. I wonder if that big hood (bonnet) is for the batteries.

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By the way, that blue glow in the wheels is Černkov radiation...

 

I was almost afraid to click on the links in the OP's post, as I didn't want (again) to be rickrolled.

The car looks like a Jag (which I like) but the big blue wheel disc has GOT to be repainted body color and put on some tires with slightly more sidewall height and tint all windows.
Better yet, make it with gull-wing doors.

ZC1