Electric-car Nemesis at top speeds is record-breaker

(Phys.org)—Fans call it the first "electric super car" for a reason. The UK-built on Thursday smashed the UK electric car land-speed record, topping 151 mph. The Nemesis was at an airfield near York, completing two runs over a one-mile distance. First the driver set a new record-breaking speed of 148 mph and then went on to set the record of 151 mph. The previous record in years past had been 137 mph. The company behind the Nemesis, Ecotricity, noted that the Nemesis is supplied by a network of 53 wind turbines in the UK from this "green-energy" company.

The car's beginnings can be traced back to a second-hand Lotus Exige bought on eBay, which was designed and rebuilt from the ground up by a team of expert motorsport engineers in Norfolk. They built the Nemesis in less than two years, to run on battery power alone. The Nemesis can travel from 100 to 150 miles between charges. The company says the Nemesis shows consistent acceleration at all speeds.

As the electric "supercar" in the UK, Ecotricity's leader, Dale Vince, hopes that the impact will not only be in its setting a new record but that Nemesis will be changing the stereotype of an electric car as a vehicle that is eco-friendly but slow.

He said his company built the Nemesis to demonstrate how cars of the future could actually be wind-powered and more.

"We built the Nemesis to smash the stereotype of electric cars as something Noddy would drive – slow, boring, not cool," Vince said. "An out-and-out desirable sports car, capable of combustion engine-beating speeds and able to do 100 to 150 miles on one 'tank'. All with zero emissions. Cake and eat it stuff."

He believes the car situation as it stands is not sustainable. While his frame of reference is the UK, his concern can be recognized among environmentalists in many more places. "In the UK we drive about 200 billion miles a year, and burn almost 25 million tons of oil to do it…Nearly a quarter of all the car trips we make are less than two miles, and 99.6 percent are less than 100 miles."

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