Former F1 designer Gordon Murray has won the Future Car Challenge with his mini-EV — a vehicle able to achieve the electric equivalent of 350 mpg! The feat puts it head and shoulders above the likes of the Nissan Leaf and BMW Active-E in a competition that challenged EVs to complete a 57 mile journey using the least amount of energy possible.
Gordon’s T.27 electric car, the latest version of his T.25 city car, consumed 7 kilowatt-hours of energy during a 57.13-mile journey (featuring 50 other cars) from Brighton to London allowing Murray to win his second consecutive victory at the Royal Automobile Club’s Future Car Challenge.
Speaking about his victory, Murray said in a statement: “This year’s success in combination with last year’s win with our petrol-powered T.25 proves absolutely that light weight is our most powerful tool for solving our energy problems. We look forward to working with a manufacturing partner to make the T.27 with its low running costs available to the motoring public.”
For those of you unfamiliar with Murray’s achievements, he pioneered the use of composites in Formula 1 with Brabham and McLaren, designed the McLaren F1 and Mercedes-McLaren SLR supercars AND a Batmobile. Today he believes in making smaller, more efficient cars to cut global fuel consumption.
“Weight is the enemy of range. If you halve the weight of the car, you can halve the size of the battery needed to power it.”
It is this motto that sees the T.27 at a mere 8 feet in length and 4 feet wide. You also need not worry about being crushed by SUVs as Murray’s cars feature a composite monocoque bonded to a tubular steel frame and plastic bodywork.
Powered by a 12.5 kilowatt-hour lithium ion battery and 25-kilowatt motor, the T.27 has an impressive range of 110 miles –though if other applications are running, this falls accordingly.
+ Gordon Murray Design
via Wired
Again, I feel the need to harp on the misleading nature of MPGe ratings. What good is to say 350 MPGe when the batteries die after 110 miles? Wouldn’t it be simpler and more honest to rate the care for max distance? Someone might read that 350 MPGe and think, “Great! I can commute to work all week without recharging!” and find themselves dead on the highway after day 2 of 5 day work week.