Gordon Murray Design has announced the specification and performance targets for the T.27 City Car, a pure electric drive vehicle.
The announcement marks an exciting leap forward in efficiency for electric vehicles and working closely with their powertrain partner, Zytek Automotive, a brand new, innovative, lightweight and fully integrated electric motor, control system and battery will be designed to ensure that maximum efficiency is achieved.
Projected emissions, using a UK energy mix, are 48g/km CO2 for the combined cycle and 28g/km CO2 for the urban cycle alone, with zero emissions at the point of use. Full lifecycle CO2 damage will be 42% less than the average UK car.
Performance Targets
Top Speed: 105kph
0-100kph: Less than 15 seconds
Range: 80 – 100 miles
The T.27 vehicle concept closely follows the layout and geometry of Gordon Murray Design’s innovative T.25 city car, an MPV with 6 possible internal layouts.
The efficiency in cost, weight and performance comes in part from the ‘clean sheet of paper’ approach, part from the full integration of the powertrain and also from the low energy manufacturing system developed by Gordon Murray Design called iStream®.
iStream® massively reduces the capital investment required to produce the vehicle and also the energy required for manufacture plus the flexibility of the iStream® process would also allow the petrol powered T.25 and the T.27 to be manufactured at the same plant.
The 16 month programme started in November 2009 with a running prototype scheduled for completion in April 2011 and is supported with a 50% investment from the Technology Strategy Board. The next phase in the programme will include a push to secure partners and funding for UK manufacture. A UK partner or consortium to produce the city cars in the UK would keep the technology at home and could create 6,000 jobs.
“The Technology Strategy Board have been incredibly supportive of the T.27 programme and together we are working to keep this in the United Kingdom,” said Professor Gordon Murray, CEO of Gordon Murray Design. “It is a great opportunity to work with Zytek Automotive and our other partners on this very exciting programme. We always strive to lead the way in automotive design and our current goal is to maximise efficiency of electric vehicles.”
