An electric Caterham 7...

Apparently, Caterham is set to begin research into the engineering required to build an electric or hybrid sports car. They may decide to go with a battery-powered 7, or a battery-gasoline "Prius-type" hybrid. With their cars being so light, I can't imagine it would take much in the way of a battery pack to power these cars.

The impetus is said to be the Asian market.

Westfield is working on hybrid as well. There have been a few electric Locosts over the years, but they've all been one-offs.

They are light, but the horrible aerodynamics aren't helping their pack size depending on what you're doing with it. There's also not a heck of a lot of space to begin with, which makes packaging interesting. There are probably lots of them out there, but here's one I read up on once upon a time:

http://www.electric7.com/

Bryce

Nashco wrote: There are probably lots of them out there, but here's one I read up on once upon a time: http://www.electric7.com/

WOW! That's awesome. I bet 'Locost' isn't any way to describe that build, but it is amazing.

The Lotus 7 was a design intended to reduce a sports car to it's most basic essence. IMO once you've added in the electrical element, you've changed the playing field sufficiently that the sevenesque package is no longer the most efficient.

Take a look at the Tango (and try to forget that it's butt ugly):

http://www.gizmag.com/go/3069/

It's seemingly high CG is an illusion, because all the heavy compenents are just above the road. It's extremely efficient because of it's reduced footprint and low frontal area. It could be better executed in certain ways, but that's the general direction that makes sense to me. Perhaps if you could take the upper 2/3 of the Aptera design and paste it to the Tango botttom (photoshop anyone?)

http://www.inhabitat.com/wp-content/uploads/aptera1.jpg

I looked at the Tango at the Detroit auto show. Ugly is an understatement. That little puppy weighs 3000 lbs, most of it well down in the chassis. So who's going to do a GRM version? All you have to do is slice the middle 2 feet out of a Festiva and put in a golf cart drive train and voila, cheapo Tango. You could save alot of money over the Tango's $108,000 price tag.

In reply to DeadSkunk: Well he's got something like 250 more volts than your average golf cart, but I definitely like the idea. I'm thinking with the new open-source controller that's out there, one could make a 144 volt, 1400 lb. version for not too much $$ Which, while not a rocket ship would still be pretty respectable performance wise. Two things that I also like about that packaging is the taller profile makes you more visible to soccer moms, and the thing should be able to park almost anywhere. In a congested urban area, these are significant plusses.

http://dpcars.net/dp1e/info.htm

Not exactly street legal, but no reason it couldn't be with a little work :)

DeadSkunk wrote: I looked at the Tango at the Detroit auto show. Ugly is an understatement. That little puppy weighs 3000 lbs, most of it well down in the chassis. So who's going to do a GRM version? All you have to do is slice the middle 2 feet out of a Festiva and put in a golf cart drive train and voila, cheapo Tango. You could save alot of money over the Tango's $108,000 price tag.

Yeah, but did you ride in it? little f'r is quick

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r0biSmCktVY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uzai1atza0E&feature=related

Or lookie here for a FWD electric locost (May want to mute the schmaltzy music): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DoFzOdqyBew&feature=related