Gordon Murray is responsible for the design of the legendary McLaren F1 road car, but his latest project is a little more sedate and eco-friendly.
Gordon Murray Design and Zytek Automotive have announced an electric version of the company’s T25 city car, which will not only be the world’s most efficient car, but also have one of the tiniest dimensions on the road.
Dubbed the T27, the project is being jointly funded by the government which has matched Murray and Zytek’s investment of £4.5 million.
Zytek produce highly efficient electric power trains for a number of vehicle manufacturers on both sides of the Atlantic, and will be providing the drive for the T27 along with the batteries to give it an expected 60-70 mile range. And its not just the drive train that’s efficient either, with Murray using a so-called iStream manufacturing process which reduces the production line size, investment and in particular, the car’s overall lifetime emissions. The three-seater will also be designed from scratch and optimized for the power train, so will be extremely light (target is 750kg) and very small. If the petrol-power T25 predecessor is anything to go by, the car will be much smaller than a Mini and even smaller than the Smart ForTwo.
And the picture is of the drive train and chassis prototype by the way – expect something a little sleeker when it goes on sale in the next couple of years.
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