DMC-FX7
ƒ/2.8
5.8 mm
1/160
80

Last year, I noted the beauty of the Volta and the emerging need for downloadable Engine Ring Tones for otherwise silent electric cars…. 😉

Well, a lot has happened in a year. I just posted a video of my ride in this electric supercar on Revver. With the wind noise, it’s hard to hear my discussion with Ian Wright, the founder and builder of the car. Here are some interesting tidbits about the movie:

• 0-60 in 3 seconds (faster than a supercar (shown in this race)).
• 1/3 the energy consumption of a hybrid (170 Miles Per Gallon equivalent).
• Everything you see is in first gear.
• The fast stops are regenerative braking (returning energy to the batteries).

Hopefully cars like this from Wrightspeed and Tesla will add a bit of consumer cachet to the electric car category… and accelerate the industry to the future.

23 responses to “Wrightspeed Electric Supercar”

  1. dangerous voice Avatar
    dangerous voice

    Hmmm…I don’t know much about cars, but this one looks funky.

    Reply
  2. quebon2 Avatar
    quebon2

    But does it have cup holders? 😉

    Reply
  3. jurvetson Avatar
    jurvetson

    heh… it doesn’t even have doors or any sheet metal along the sides.

    It does have a nifty gauge that tells you how many g’s you’re pulling…

    Reply
  4. AndrewNZ Avatar
    AndrewNZ

    Steve, that looks like incredible fun. I especially like the bit in your description above about the whole thing just being in first gear! More seriously, what is the best estimate for how long it will take for technology like this to trickle down into more ordinary consumer vehicles?

    Reply
  5. boring fact Avatar
    boring fact

    The video is a must see …so quiet, quick to stop..wow Envy you the ride:) correction, trip! oh, one more thing..Go USA Go!

    Reply
  6. Jef Poskanzer Avatar
    Jef Poskanzer

    I think all electric cars should make the same sound as the Jetsons car.

    Reply
  7. Chris Radcliff Avatar
    Chris Radcliff

    So sayeth the prophet Sterling: "a properly designed Viridian hot-rod would blow these relics off the road silently, at super-high speed, using canned lightning and emitting only water."

    And lo, in just a few short years it came to pass…

    Reply
  8. artwitness Avatar
    artwitness

    Simply beautiful. I wonder if, after mass production, the material costs would eat up any savings either economical or ecological? That’s the wiley world of composites for ya.

    Reply
  9. angry shock Avatar
    angry shock

    Well, artwit, you know that "material costs" are almost always so draw up that the best Dali painting looks more believable than them.

    Material Costs will surely eat up savings on other costs as long as the intention is to keep selling unaffordable cars… to people who want to pay for the status of having an unaffordable car.

    You know that the Price, the price stamped on a good is part of the value of such good. In art is very common to see that. Or fashion… tell me if paying 2000 dollars for a Louis Vuitton purse isn´t it part of the ‘cool thing’ about it? To say "I paid 2000 for this [complete here with noun of preference]"…

    I have read today, total casuality, that companies who build hydrogen cars are now begining to "admit" that the emissions and waste to produce Hydrogen can equal or surpass the toxicity we get today with fossil fuels. So there would be no saving at all. Is this the small print of the contract some may to me, right? In my planet that is simply called "deceit" which is a form of "evil". And it is very serious.

    Correct me someone if I am mistaken in the info. This is just my humble point of view. =)

    Sorry, I didn´t mean to detour the conversation on the ride. It´s a help to perceive the speed you were driving at -in the video- for how fast you pass the cars. They seem to be stopped.

    Reply
  10. sbove Avatar
    sbove

    I looked at a start-up in Basalt CO founded by Amory Lovins and backed by various luminaries including Bill Joy called Hyper-Car about 4 years ago.

    I told them: I have a Honda Insight. I try to get 20MPG by hammering it. I drive it at 105+ mph whenever I can. Its way faster than they let on. You should see people when I blast past them. The marketing people have it all wrong. Electric is about the future. It’s about SPEED and PERFORMANCE — unheard of zip and stopping power. Why not use your know how to build a stealthy electric super-car. The physics say you can do it now…with batteries (not PEM’s) bike frame technology, carbon fiber body panels, and variable reluctance electric motors — safer, faster (accelerating and stopping), quieter. Put a really nice interior in it. Achieve 0-60 in 3 seconds….top speed of 200 mph. 100+ mpg equivalent. 150 mile range is enough. Sell ’em with two batterypacks and a quick change dolly for 2 minute turn around at home. Sell ’em for a crazy price: $1M a pop including 100,000 shares of preferred stock. Sell 10 or 20 in your first year to some high profile tech-millionaires and you’ll do more to advance the cause of e-cars than any other start-up (and have nice revenue).

    HyperCar sadly could not get their head around this: Lovin’s RMI/nega-watt bias??.

    Wrightspeed has the right idea: people who buy high end Porches, Ferraris, Koenigsegg’s (http://www.koenigsegg.com/thecars/design.asp?design=2), McLarens or Lambos drive them <4,000 miles per year and rarely more than 200 miles on a trip. They want the fastest coolest recreational car at any price – not a practical commuter vehicle. The pre-chasm market for all-electric drive is about racing-car exotics. Pistons are so 20th century. Nice to see evidence of a team finally going in this direction.

    Reply
  11. angry shock Avatar
    angry shock

    sbove, I love your comment for I am a car lover too. I think you are right on how you depict things. =)

    Allow me, tho, to express this -completely unproper from a lady alien-… thought that popped inside with yer final words:

    Yeah! Pistons as so 20th century but they are damn cool and sound like crazy! Yehaaa! Rrrrrrrr! Feeling an engine purr is ultimate glory!

    Driving any electric car at 150mph can be fun. However, is like making love, but with latex. So 21st century, ya know, yet so… so.

    =D

    Ah… I feel better now. Thanks. ;;;;)

    Reply
  12. svur Avatar
    svur

    a nice mix visually and technically

    Reply
  13. Hans ten Hagen Avatar
    Hans ten Hagen

    Impressive. In terms of PR – if this car can beat the trackrecord on the German Nurburg ring it will be very very impressive!

    Reply
  14. joeastacy Avatar
    joeastacy

    Really fast electric cars are sweet!

    Joe: Aren’t we just burning more coal at the ecectricity plant.

    Mr. Wright: PAY NO ATTENTION TO THE MAN BEHIND THE CURTAIN!!!

    Reply
  15. mdork Avatar
    mdork

    Great use of the Atom but does Ian realize his rear tires are mounted backwards?

    Reply
  16. jurvetson Avatar
    jurvetson

    I’ll ask him. The car’s acceleration is traction-limited. So he’s been thinking about how to get the most grip from the rear tires.

    Joe: Yup, gotta feed it with solar; otherwise it just pushes the problem elsewhere.

    Alieness: right on! Hence the market need for good downloadable engine ring tones. Why stop at pistons… Imagine a Huey helicopter or Saturn V booster.

    sbove: right you are about the target market. Just look at the average mileage on a supercar….

    Speaking of Amory and carbon fiber…
    Car Lovin’ Tools

    Reply
  17. the other Martin Taylor Avatar
    the other Martin Taylor

    Probably not as interesting to you but I wish the petrol version was street legal in the US and the that the dollar was stronger. Here’s my fave English motoring show reviewing the gas atom: Top Gear reviews the Ariel Atom

    Reply
  18. Monster boy Avatar
    Monster boy

    jurvetson: Wouldn’t count on too much from solar too soon, and this car seems very much about the "right now". Nuclear, though is getting a following now even among environmentalists, and geothermal is the better bet for those who still say "No nukes".

    Damn this car is cool. I will never own one, will probably never sit in or even see one, but it’s cool.

    Reply
  19. spooky adjustment Avatar
    spooky adjustment

    You can’t beat the laws of physics…no matter how neat the car looks.

    It will never be economic. As far as energy is concerned there is no ‘free lunch’.

    Reply
  20. audreyjm529 Avatar
    audreyjm529

    Hi, I’m an admin for a group called Muscle Car Vs Supercar, and we’d love to have your photo added to the group.

    Reply
  21. BenODen Avatar
    BenODen

    Ooooh, yeah, it does look like an atom. I wonder when the electric car racing leagues are going to come. You have this, the volta, and the tesla soon…

    Reply
  22. Hooch1666 Avatar
    Hooch1666

    ‘Pushing the pollution elsewhere’ is just the whining of the oil companies. An electric car is 85% efficient where a gasoline car is at least 85% wasteful. If every car in the world suddenly became electric tomorrow and we charged them using coal-fired generators they would still produce less emissions than the filthy combustion engined cars we drive now. Plus they would mostly be charged at night when power demand is low. That would help smooth out the demand on power stations and actually help them run more efficiently. These cars have to hit the streets now!

    Reply
  23. JJ San Avatar
    JJ San

    15 years later, thinking of your ringtone post as I watch this: http://www.instagram.com/p/CJum49DJoua/?igshid=1gq0yqp2vzqde

    Reply

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