Lightning Looking to Zap Tesla
by Matthew Sparkes, London, UK on 06.15.07
The Tesla Roadster is impressive; it's one of the first electric cars to be desirable to TreeHuggers and petrol-heads alike. However, a bit of competition never hurt anyone, and is great for us consumers. That's one reason that the Lightning electric car is good news. The other is that it has 700 bhp and does 0-60mph in 4 seconds.
The company is taking orders on their three different models now, with production planned to start in 2008. There's a luxury model, a lightweight sporty model and an extended range model with a range of 250 miles. The company are using Altairnano's Nanosafe batteries and Hi-Pa Drive wheel motors from PML Flightlink.
Arthur Wolstenholme, Technical Director at Lightning explains, "Ten, or perhaps even five years ago, electric power was dismissed as a poor substitute for petrol, diesel or LPG. But the world has moved on significantly – from military and aerospace applications, electric motor and battery technologies have been developed that will enable the Lightning to demonstrate 700 plus bhp performance over a range that exceeds some of today's petrol performance cars. What's more, the Lightning is intended to compete with premium market sport cars, but our electric power should outstrip the response rates, torque characteristics and driveability of most exotic performance super cars. Electric power has truly arrived in the performance market."
Although Tesla is an American company, the cars are produced at the Lotus factory in the UK. With the emergence of the Lightning, perhaps it's time that the US stepped up and brought some competition? Maybe a world-wide electric car racing league should be started, with that kind of rivalry we'd all be driving 200mph in solar cars by the end of the decade. :: Auto Blog Green :: Lightning Car Company
See also :: Tesla Electric Roadster Test Ride: Review at Slate :: The Tesla Roadster: Electric Sports Car
>we'd all be driving 200mph in solar cars by the end of the decade.
Great! Then we'd also reduce our carbon footprint by cutting down on average lifespan. Life in the fast lane is green! James Dean's lifetime CO2 burden is far lower than Marlon Brando's.
I wish there was more competition !
You can't even buy a Tesla today, why do we need a competing product with the exact same specs? It's like choosing Coke or Pepsi.
forget these crazy supercars, I want a GM Volt
http://www.gm-volt.com
I am with the person who wants a VOLT.
There is no reason why they couldn't have made the SCION into a hybrid either....
I get great gas mileage with mine...36 mpg. Does anyone have any ideas how to incease this??
I like the zap electric car better look at zaps!!
Ugly! You think just because you make in england you think it is cool. Look at the 2009 Chevy Camallo and then see who is cool!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Q: How do you improve the economy of a Scion?
A: http://www.acpropulsion.com/ebox/
$55K over the price of a used xB 5-speed
you've got a TESLA allready, getting a VOLY the ZAP way isn't far.. watch out
zapworld.com
This list of 'green' cars is useless. Half the cars on the list are not available.
Why not make a more sensible list of economical green cars?