Electric cars, the future to a greener and cooler planet, but did you know? Electric cars are actually a blast from the past. Electric cars made way for the petrol cars, the reason according to sceptics why electric cars failed, is the oil industry. Perhaps they are right especially when you consider that the first vehicle to go over 100 km/h (62 mph) was an electric vehicle.

La Jamais Contente, that means the Never Satisfied, had a light alloy torpedo shaped body and estableshed the land speed record in 1899 at Achères, Yvelines near Paris, France. But since then electric cars have kindof faded out until their recent return, lets take a look at some of the Electric cars that have come back with a bang.

Today’s technology allows us to have electric super cars, some faster than Porches and Ferraris, lets take a look at these Green Wheels that like to burn rubber.

The Tesla Roadster

The Tesla Roadster can travel 393 km (244 miles) on a single charge and accelerates from 0–97 km/h (0–60 mph) in 3.9 seconds. It has a modified Lotus Elise body made out of carbon fibre to keep it light, its powered by Lithium Ion batteries similar to those in a laptop, just many more. Watch the video to learn more about the car.

The Venturi Fétish

Venturi Fetish is the first electric sportscar that hit the production line, but only 25 of them are going to be sold by the manufacturer. The car has approximately 250 horsepower (180 kW) and goes to 0-100 km/h (0-60 mph) in under 5 seconds, but it has a low top speed of 160 km/h (100 mph).

AC Propulsion’s Tzero

The hand-made electric sports car by AC Propulsion was launched in January 1997. The original version of the T0 that gets it name from the starting point of time, runs on Lead Acid batteries which produce 200 hp that rockets the 1040 kg car from 0 to 60 mph in 4.07 seconds and has a max speed of 145 km/h (90 mph).

The newer version with lightweight lithium-ion cells have a 480 km (300 mile) range, go from 0-60 mph in 3.6 seconds and touch a maximum of 140 mph (225 km/h).

Eliica

The Eliica was designed by a team at Keio University in Tokyo, it runs on a lithium-ion battery and accelerates from 0–100 km/h (62 mph) in four seconds. The Eliica goes upto 370 km/h (230 mph) that’s faster than a formula 1 car.

The Eliica has eight wheels and each one of them have an independent motor, the first four wheels are used to steer this electric super car than can house four people.

The Eliica has two models at the moment a Speed model that has a top speed of 370 km/h (230 mph) with a range of 200 km (120 mi) and an Acceleration model that has a top speed of 190 km/h (120 mph) with a range of 320 km (200 mi).

Lightning GT

The Lightning GT is a British car that has four separate 120 kW motors for each wheel, the total output is a whooping 700 bhp. The body is made out of carbon fiber and Kevlar. It accelerates from 0 to 100 km per hour in less than 4 seconds and the top speed is somewhere between 130 mph (209 km/h) and 150 mph (241 km/h).

The most amazing feature of the Lightning GT is the NanoSafe Lithium-titanate battery pack that takes about 10 minutes to recharge, to give the vehicle a range of about 250 miles.

Wrightspeed X1

The Wrightspeed X1 is a modified Ariel Atom sports car, that boasts of an efficient design and its light weight. The X1′s electric motor and inverter are sourced from AC Propulsion that made the TZero. The batteries are lithium ion provided from A123 Systems, the transmission is a Honda unit that comes with the Atom but its stripped of its shifting mechanism.

It only has the the second gear fitted into it that takes it from 0-100 km/h (0-62 mph) in approx 3.0 seconds, its electronically limited to 180 km/h (112mph) because of the design and has a range of 160 km (100 miles).

The X1 created a stir when it bested several super cars in a drag race, including a Carrera GT. Heres a video of the X1 racing against a Lamborghini Gallardo.

Vectrix

The Vectrix is the first commercially available high performance Maxi electric scooter. Capable of over 60 mph (97 km/h) and 50 mph (80 km/h) is reached in a little under 7 seconds and has a range of up to 65 miles (105 km) at 25 mph (40 km/h).

But whats more interesting is the Vectrix electric super bike concept that is able to reach sppeds of 125 mph (201 km/h).

The price of these super electric cars have not been considered in this post they are cheaper than the petrol super cars, except the Venturi Fétish which is a limited edition car. But this definitely changes the concept of electric cars being slow, a major technology shift is underway in the automobile section.

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Tags: Electric Cars, Super Cars