The news that a small company in Peterborough is about to produce a car featuring world-leading technology is good reason for scepticism. From this Cambridgeshire town you might expect advances in microchips or possibly food science - but cars? It's all too easy to assume that if a major automotive development were possible, a big manufacturer such as Toyota would have already achieved it. Remember, too, that the small but relatively successful TVR firm no longer exists partly because Audi, BMW and Porsche make the kind of cars that once came out of Blackpool, only rather more reliably.
The car is the electric Lightning and the world-leading technology is a combination of wheel-mounted electric motors and, more importantly, the Nano-Titanate batteries that power them. The former is British, the latter American, and far from being refugees from the George Lucas lexicon, each is proven technology. The car is also proven, albeit not yet with electric power. It is the brainchild of Arthur Wolstenholme, long-time maker of the Ronart series of upmarket Jaguar-powered specials, more recently creator of the 1950s Vanwall F1-inspired single-seat road and track car tested in these pages on August 13 2005.
The current Lightning is a Ford Mustang-powered supercar project that first appeared at the 1999 Earl's Court Motor Show, where it attracted 20 orders. The project was then put on hold, although seven pre-production cars were built, all of which still exist. Production restarted in 2006 and in January this year Wolstenholme and partner Iain Sanderson formed the Lightning Car Company with the intention of using the Lightning and all its jigs and tooling, but minus the 4.6-litre Ford V8 engine and transmission, as a vehicle for the new batteries and electric motors.
The electric car is not a recent phenomenon; it's a little-remembered fact that the first car to exceed the magic 100kph (62mph) - Camille Jenatzy's streamliner of 1899 - did so with an electric motor. Electric power has since become more familiar in invalid carriages, milk floats and forklift trucks, but in theory it should be an obvious answer to many more modern motoring problems; it's clean at the point of use, it's quiet, it can draw energy from renewable sources and it ought to be relatively cheap. In practice, however, the electric motor hasn't been able to compete with an internal combustion engine that releases large amounts of energy from a fuel source that is easily stored.
There are nevertheless plenty of electric-car projects, not least the Tesla Motors Roadster that is being produced in conjunction with Lotus Cars. Looking very much like a Lotus Elise and offering a claimed 130mph, 0-60mph in four seconds and a 250-mile range for about £60,000, this uses a conventional electric motor driving through a gearbox and driveshafts, and features lithium-ion batteries similar to those in your laptop computer (6,500 cells in total); it has the considerable advantages of existence and near readiness for delivery (see last month's Telegraph Magazine feature on its creator at
www.telegraph.co.uk/arts). Nevertheless, the Lightning does appear to offer some significant variations on the electric theme: the four wheel-mounted electric motors, made by PML Flightlink of Alton in Hampshire, and the Nano Titanate batteries from the nano-particle specialist Altair Nano of Nevada, USA.
We have written about wheel motors in these pages before. Although they appear to offer several vehicle-control advantages for little more than the cost of a line of computer code, the main reason they haven't succeeded is their weight, particularly for a car's steered wheels; even the highly advanced units proposed for Mitsubishi's i concept were dropped in favour of a single engine, transmission and driveshafts when it came to production. Nevertheless, PML claims its motor, for which there are a number of patents pending, offers a power-to-weight ratio 10 times better than anything before. PML's Martin Boughtwood expects people to be sceptical about such claims and while he wouldn't reveal exact details, he says the key is the motor's power-handling capability of 240Kw per wheel and the use of a 24-phase system instead of the usual three phases. Wolstenholme adds that PML's wheel motor and rim are only 2kg heavier than the Chevrolet Corvette wheel, bearings, brake disc and caliper assembly used on the Lightning thus far.
If the weight problems can indeed be overcome, the potential benefits of electric wheel motors are undeniably extensive. There is mechanical simplicity because the power source is within the wheel and has no mechanical link with the rest of the car; there is no engine under the bonnet, no exhaust under the floor, no gearbox, differential or driveshafts. This releases a lot of space; the batteries, which represent the largest additional mass, are relatively compact and can be situated where they have least impact on vehicle dynamics. There is multiple redundancy because each wheel can operate independently, offering extra layers of facility to electronic traction control and stability systems, plus infinitely variable all-wheel drive that is easier to control because there are no mechanical systems to be linked.
Boughtwood is most enthusiastic about the wheel's capacity to act as a generator when not driving the car. He says most current systems, such as those on the Toyota Prius and Lexus hybrids, make only a token gesture in gathering useful electrical energy from the braking function because the batteries cannot accommodate much of a charge in such a short time; if it takes several hours to charge a battery from the mains, it stands to reason that it will take a similar time to charge it via regenerative braking. The Lightning's Nano Titanate batteries, however, are capable of taking a large charge in a very short time. It is one of the technology's key attributes and, according to PML, it will allow regenerative braking to store 85 per cent of the electricity generated, rather than the 15 per cent or thereabouts offered by a conventional lithium-ion battery.
The electric motor's accelerative capability is another apparently extravagant claim and it is difficult to equate this with an internal combustion engine that requires a certain number of revs to deliver torque, and needs a transmission to convert it. The electric motor relies on a completely different principle and effectively delivers its maximum torque at zero rpm, rather like a steam engine. That said, PML's numbers are undeniably impressive; claimed torque is 550lb ft per wheel and, unlike a conventional piston engine, the curve is relatively flat thereafter. PML says the motors will accelerate a 1.5-ton vehicle to 60mph in about 4.5 seconds, a feat that is more easily repeatable without a skilled (and mechanically unsympathetic) driver because the traction control function is much more accurate.
PML Flightlink has an SVA-approved BMW MINI fitted with the wheel motors as proof of the concept - although, like the Tesla, this features conventional lithium-ion batteries - plus a petrol engine and generator in the boot to expand the range. PML has also concluded a number of deals: with Lotus for a world series of wheel motor-equipped cars, and with a major European vehicle manufacturer. The proof of that, says PML, will be on show at the Frankfurt motor show in two weeks.
The thorniest problem is the same for all of them, and indeed for any electrically powered device that is intended to operate away from its base and the nearest three-pin mains socket. Battery life and weight are already the bugbears of laptops and mobile phones, but they are even more so for cars, where the demand for power can vary so greatly. Think how long it takes to flatten a car battery on the starter motor when the sidelights have been left on all night, and then how long to charge it again.
The Nano Titanate particle technology replaces the more usual graphite electrode, which in turn eliminates any interaction between the electrodes and the electrolyte while speeding up the movement of ions. This is the process that governs how fast the battery charges and releases its energy. There are no toxic materials or heavy metals involved and the claim is immunity from explosion or fire, a faster charge (10 minutes for 90 per cent and, in this case, a 200-mile range, compared with a conventional three or four hours), performance at extreme temperatures (think mobile phone left in freezing car) and longer life (15 years against five) because the battery doesn't physically expand and contract as it absorbs and releases energy. To sum up rather more succinctly, therefore, the technology delivers all the Holy Grails of battery technology. Altair Nano's proof of concept is in the form of several large pick-up trucks equipped with Nanosafe batteries, albeit driven by conventional electric motors through a transmission and axle.
The Lightning connects these batteries and wheel motors in a sophisticated honeycomb chassis covered with a slightly chunky carbon-fibre and Kevlar body. Its engineering, however, is a great deal simpler than it was. Out goes the big Ford V8 and its support systems, while the batteries are mounted low down to optimise the centre of gravity. It's fast, it's quiet and - at least until companies such as AeroVironment have installed "charging stations" at all major petrol retailers - all you have to do is to plug it in every night, just as you do with your mobile. One catch is that purely electrical linkage between controls and wheels might take some time to be accepted by legislators, but so did the Airbus, which has no mechanical connection between cockpit and control surfaces.
None of this will be cheap, however. The Lightning's projected retail price is about £150,000 - twice as much as an Audi R8, half as much again as a Porsche 911 Turbo and so on. The claim is that the electric torque will outperform these conventional sports cars, but they have the benefit of established status and proven residuals. The Lightning also costs three times as much as the Tesla, for which orders are already being taken.
Wolstenholme and Lightning's managing director, Chris Dell, are realistic about their situation. "I reckon we've got about two years to capitalise on the opportunity," says Dell. "There are cars on the market already but the majors are unlikely to make anything like the Lightning because at the moment it's too expensive to be produced in volume. We're utilising technology that has some real advantages and once we're able to bring that to everyone's notice, then the majors might be more willing to pick it up, especially if legislation carries on getting tougher. Once they do, prices will decrease. Meanwhile, we're seeking customers prepared to spend the money to make a statement and do their bit for the environment. Hollywood looks pretty green at the moment..." I left Peterborough with a sense that just as the computer revolution had empowered many smaller companies, the same thing could conceivably happen in a car industry that has grown too big and too unwieldy, and cannot make a profit competing with itself for too few customers. Smaller companies such as PML, Altair Nano and Lightning could well be the vanguard for new technology, simply because they are in a position to react.
I'm quite confident that Lightning will have a car running by the end of the year and that it's likely to do pretty much what is claimed. Whether anything like it will ever be affordable while there's oil on the planet is another matter. If nothing else, it might make people realise there are alternatives and, if they really want to walk as green as they talk, governments need to start encouraging them. The political challenges might prove tougher than the technology.
