Shelby SuperCars Ultimate Aero EV
Whenever you drop the word 'electric' in a conversation about cars, people immediately tend to think about those little battery powered milk floats which have a top speed of a few miles per hour.
There are however a few electric cars out there that completely shatter this idea, like the Tesla for instance, or the Fisker Karma. Or this SSC Ultimate Aero EV, which I discovered today.
Most Europeans don't know about Shelby SuperCars, an American based company, even though they build one of the fastest cars in the world at this moment! The Ultimate Aero (pictured below) has a top speed of 413 km/h, and serves as a base for the fastest electric car in the world - the Ultimate Aero EV, the newest project by SSC. The goal of this project is to show the world that these cars are not only able to keep up with their fuel-burning brothers, they can even beat them when it comes to performance.
With the 'All-Electric Scalable Powertrain' or AESP for short, SSC has developed an awesome powertrain which can be used for extreme sports cars as well as daily drivers and even vans and light trucks. Of course, words alone can't describe this technology, so let's put this all in figures. Through a double electric motor, the AESP in the Ultimate Aero EV is able to produce an astonishing 1.000 BHP and 1.085 Nm of torque. With such an enormous amount of torque, available directly from the start, this car will make the 0-100km/h sprint in a measly 2,5 seconds, topping out at a whopping 335 km/h. The transmission is a three-step automatic, able to switch gears at a speed of 24/100th of a second.
Compared to the Tesla Roadster, you'll see that the latter remains behind without a chance (even though I'd settle for a Tesla anyday). The Tesla, limited to 200km/h, can reach a speed of 100km/h in 4 seconds, which in itself is quite a feat. Prices for the Ultimate Aero EV are unknown at this moment, the Tesla can become yours for 99.000 euros.
On fully charged batteries, the Ultimate Aero EV has a rather limited range, somewhere between 240 and 320 kilometers. Equipped with the Shelby's 'Charge-on-the-run'-system, one should be able to charge the batteries in less than ten minutes on a 110 Volt connection. Here in Europe, however, we have a 220 Volt grid which should allow us to charge the car just that little bit faster.
Provided the system works, and works well, the AESP will be installed in other vehicles as well. Targets for power would be 200BHP for smaller cars, to 500BHP for larger (yet still light) trucks.
Even though prices for the SSC Ultimate Aero EV are not yet known, SSC has stated that they are willing to offer the AESP to other companies interested in producing electric cars. At a production of 10.000 units, the delivery price for the AESP would be around 4.600 euro, dropping in price as soon as production levels can increase.
Prior to this, SSC wants to convince the world of the Ultimate Aero EV. The first cars are expected to be available as soon as the third quarter of 2009, and customers can expect deliveries as soon as the end of the year. Until then, the Ultimate Aero EV will be shown to the public on the various high-speed tracks around the world, proving to the world the system works.
Anyway, if it drives the way it looks, I want one... although I fear that buying one has to be preceded by winning some kind of lottery...