And they say electric cars don’t go fast. A group of BYU engineering students have built an electric streamliner that peaked at speeds of 282km/h. With that quiet electric motor I’ll bet the “whoosh” it makes is gorgeous.
It took seven years and the work of more than 130 students to make it happen. The car, called Electric Blue, barrelled down the Bonneville Salt Flats for two runs, averaging 250km/h and peaking at 282km/h (they got it up to 290km/h last year but rolled the car in the process, so it didn’t count). Students custom built the body out of carbon fibre after intensive modelling in a virtual wind tunnel. Fuelled by a trunk full of lithium-ion phosphate batteries, this sucker officially broke the world land speed record for electric cars under 500kg.
Batteries that are powerful enough to accomplish such a feat are extremely heavy, and before this no one had been able to get enough juice in while keeping it under weight. While, obviously, this type of car is in no way street-legal, it’s another important step in showing what battery-powered cars are capable of.
Big congrats to everyone involved in the project, now can you please make something I can take down the Pacific Hwy? Preferably with a sunroof? Thanks. [PhysOrg]