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Electric Supercar Blows Doors Off Tesla

http://news.discovery.com/autos/concept-one-electric-supercar-110928.html

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A group of gear heads from Croatia has produced a car designed to show that “electric vehicle” doesn’t have to mean “something my granola-eating neighbor drives.”

Rimac Automobil, named for its founder, Mate Rimac, unveiled the Concept_One at the International Auto Show in Frankfurt. Designed as a sleek sports car it is powered entirely by batteries, and can, the company says, hit 62 miles per hour in 2.8 seconds, and reach a limit of 190 mph. The batteries carry 92 kilowatt-hours, or enough to power an average American home for three days — or drive the car 372 miles, enough to get from New York to Pittsburgh. (The Tesla Roadster, also a very impressive electric hotrod, hits 60 mph in 3.7 seconds, has a top speed of 125 mph and has a battery range of 245 miles.)

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The engines put out the equivalent of 1,088 horsepower, enough to beat some internal combustion models. The motive force to the wheels is divided among four engines that can each be controlled independently. That allows the torque to each wheel to be adjusted as necessary. A computer subsystem controls each pair of wheels and, according to Rimac, can make adjustments thousands of times each second.

The body is light, made of carbon fiber, and the battery is placed near the center of the car for better weight distribution.

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This isn’t the only electric supercar out there: there’s the Tesla Roadster, which boasts a similar 0 to 60 acceleration and Audi rolled out a high-performance electric concept car, the e-tron, in 2009. But if nothing else it shows once again that newer body designs and advances in control technologies can build an electric car that is both powerful and environmentally friendly.

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