The Racing Green Endurance team comprises 11 students and staff from the Energy Futures Lab, Mechanical Engineering and Electronic Engineering departments of Imperial College London. The team have been designing and constructing an electric sportscar since August last year, and plan to take it on a 26,000km journey along the the Pan-American Highway in July.
Photo by Andy Carver
They’ve already been out and about on our roads in preparation. In May the car made a couple of laps around the M25, on a single charge – a distance of 400km – and still had 14% left in the tank. The team are meeting at 10am today at the London Eye to drive the car across to Paris, again on just one charge.
“Electric vehicles have the potential to realise a sustainable transport future, without depleting valuable resources for future generations. The RGE project aims to demonstrate this while pushing the boundaries of EV technology.”
Well known cameraman, Claudio Von Planta, who filmed much of the BBC Long Way Down and By Any Means Series is documenting the project. The mission is to get people interested in electric vehicles and engage a new generation of scientists and engineers through their outreach program.
The team designed, integrated and installed the different components into the electric super car, which can accelerate from zero to 100 km in seven seconds, reaching a top speed of 200 km per hour. The car has an average running cost of one penny per mile and a range of approximately 400 kilometres before the battery needs recharging. Charging the battery takes approximately six hours.
Source: This article was first published on GeoSavvy Development
Roll on the electric car …… the dawn of a new age
Absolutely. Great to see things like this happening.