Here's our very first look at the Ariel Hipercar, a 1180bhp carbon-bodied EV complete with a turbine range-extender - ArielMotorCo
’s plans to build ‘Hipercar’, an electric supercar. Maybe you missed it, or saw it and thought it a fanciful idea. After all, where does a tiny, Somerset-based brand producing around 100 cars per year find £14million to develop an EV supercar from scratch? Or, just as pointedly, where does it find the expertise? The answer to both of those questions is via government-funded bodies designed to propagate innovative technology that will help the UK’s ambition to get to Net Zero.
A compact road car, it will weigh from 1445kg, is powered by four 295bhp motors fitted to each wheel, will have an EV range of 150 miles and the option of a range-extender in the shape of a catalytic generator, a compact micro-turbine running on whatever fuel is appropriate/acceptable. Those inboard electric motors on each wheel will allow Ariel to offer the option of two- or four-wheel drive, and will feature torque vectoring.
‘There have been two projects: Hipercar 1, funded by Innovate UK, and Hipercar 2, funded by the Advanced Propulsion Centre,’ says Saunders. ‘They both fund R&D projects and competitions focused on zero emissions, taking ideas from concept to production-readiness. Part of that is lightweight efficiency and aerodynamics but also motors, batteries and associated technology.
‘We were part of another heavily funded R&D project called AMPLiFII, which was to design modular batteries for EVs. There were a lot of partners in it, from battery designers to people doing end-of-life stuff, and there were four OE manufacturers:, JCB, Alexander Dennis and us. It felt a bit like sitting at the teacher’s table.
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