| Wrightspeed X1 - EV Power and Efficiency | |
| by Megawatt Motorworks (1/27/2006) | |
 One thousand one... one thousand two... one thousand three... that's how quick this electric car accelerates from 0 to 60 mph. Before you finish this sentence the car has topped 100 mph! Ian Wright sees a market for electric vehicles that outperform petrol cars. The X1 was built to prove his theory as he works to attract funding for his startup company, Wrightspeed Inc. Ian's banking on the fact that power and efficiency are the hallmarks of today's electric vehicles. It's unlikely that any gas car can trump the X1, which sips just 200 Whr of electricy per mile-- or the gas equivalent of 170 miles per gallon. In other words, try to find any gas car that gets 170-mpg and still accelerates with the same gusto! How does this acceleration compare to other cars? Will Nordby of KRON news in San Francisco reported, "Wright competed in a race with $170,000 Ferrari and a $400,000 Porsche. Wright's X-1 cost $150,000 and beat the other two, reaching 112 mph in just 11.1 seconds." Darell Dickey has archived the race video at the PluginAmerica website. Ian posted a correction to the news story his site: "Just a little correction to the news story: the X1 has a top speed of 112mph, reached well before the 1/4 mile mark. Estimated 0-100 time is around 7 seconds, and the 1/4 mile time recorded on a damp dragstrip was 11.95 seconds."  Recently, Steve Jurvetson enjoyed a ride in the X1 and he took his video camera along to document the experience. Click here or on Steve's photo to watch his video at REVVER.com The car is based on the Ariel Atom chassis and uses Lithium-Ion batteries and an AC Propulsion drive system. It has a reported range of 120 miles. The last we heard, Ian was planning to display his X1 prototype at to the CleanTech Investor Conference in Palm Springs, Feb 1-2. | |
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