The Lightning GT
Prospective buyers of high-performance electric sports cars have yet another exciting prospect to look forward to, in the shape of the British Lightning GT (notice the right-hand drive… you could drive one of these on SA roads). Due for initial delivery in 2008, the Lightning GT will feature a number of technological differences to its more famous competitor, the Tesla Roadster.
The GT will sport four 120kW, 750Nm PML Flightlink electric motors - one motor housed in each wheel. This offers some significant benefits over a single central/front/rear engine mounting position in that it eliminates the need for tranmission and drivetrain assemblies such as gearboxes and differentials, thereby reducing mechanical complexity and power losses. Each motor is relatively lightweight (25kg), so it’s positioning inside the wheel, combined with the use of very lightweight forged rims keeps unpsrung weight down. Additionally, power can be apportioned to each wheel independantly of the others to maximise traction.
Unlike the Tesla, which uses thousands of small Lithium-ion batteries in its battery pack, the Lightning GT uses a battery pack the consists of only 30 large-format Altairnano NanoSafe batteries. These batteries are more themally stable than traditional Lithium-ion batteries. They require no cooling when charged, and no heating when cold.
The GT features Formula One-style kevlar/carbon fibre honeycomb body construction in order to keep its mass down, while remaining safe for occupants.
The car’s range will be approximately 400km (250 miles) and, depending on the model, will reach a top speed of betwnn 208km/h and 240km/h. It will accelerate from 0-100km/h in 4 seconds.
It will be available in three specifications - the standard GT, a performance enhanced GTS model and the range-topping GTSE model which features improved performance and range.
The top-of-the-line GTSE is expected to retail at about $300 000.
Source: Green Car Congress
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Cool, but I hate the headlights, looks like a kit car where the builder ran out of cash.
I had a quick look at the PML Flightlink website and they don’t mention the continuous power output, only the peak - I guess its about 40KW.
Again it makes no sense to compare the peak power of an electric motor to that of an internal combustion engine without specifying the duty cycle. It is more accurate to say that the Lightning has engine power equivalent to a total of about 120KW instead of 480 Kw.