GreenGT’s 400-hp Electric Racer Ready For Le Mans
The GreenGT was designed specifically for kicking butt at the 24 hours of Le Mans.
With 400 hp and a top speed of 171 mph, the electric race car concept pushes 1,475 lb-ft of torque up to 100 mph then drops it to 590 lb-ft for high-speed traction. All this and it’s powered by two 30kW lithium-ion batteries charged by flexcell photovoltaic solar panels.
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GreenGT’s head engineer Christophe Schwartz says that, “The GreenGT Twenty-4 design study could become our 2011 Le Mans Prototype electric racer or it could even become an electric road going supercar. There is a possibility to do both!”
It has an FIA-spec carbon chassis with a fiberglass body, and it weighs in at 1,895-pounds. The twin 100kW electric motors are water-cooled and mated to a differential gearbox patented byGreenGT.
Some say it is one of the most powerful electric race cars ever built. The thing gets up to 62 mph in just under 4 seconds. Sounds like a fun ride to me!
Designed by five students from the CCi du Valenciennois school, they hope to bring two GreenGTs to the 2011 Le Mans and to produce 22 road-going models within the next three years.
Source: StyleCrave Gallery: AutoBlog
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May 27th, 2009 at 6:24 pm
seriously, i want one
May 28th, 2009 at 1:29 am
I’m soooo eager to see this happens.
Do the evolution…
Not the pearl jam way, thought.
GREEN POWER, A-HOU A-HOU
May 28th, 2009 at 1:38 am
And where is it going to get energy after first few corners of race?
May 28th, 2009 at 1:40 am
popurls.com // popular today…
story has entered the popular today section on popurls.com…
May 28th, 2009 at 2:00 am
I have to second that, Ricardo. That is too cool. Imagine what they could do with a lighter, more practical street legal version. B)>
May 28th, 2009 at 2:15 am
Pity the brief article is so light on technical details…
Assuming the “30kW lithium-ion batteries” was meant to read “30kWhr”[1], that still means two 100kW motors running flat out will drain both batteries in ~18 minutes, even if you assume a 20% average load (which seems way too low for a race car) that still means flat batteries every 90 minute, the car will need to do ~16 battery change pitstops to complete the 24hrs.
Iain
[1] and that’s the most optimistic assumption I can think of, at least in rc plane sizes, lipo cells typically top out with max curent draws of over 30 times the 1 hour discharge rate, so a “30kW _peak_” pack might only have 1kWhr of energy, meaning the car would not be able to consume more than 60kW peak from the pack (so the second 100kW motor is completely superfluous) and would only run flat out for 2 minutes.
May 28th, 2009 at 2:19 am
When you say it had two 30kW batteries, what does that mean? Is it powered by two 30kW batteries that deliver 60kW maximum instantaneous power? In other words, as an example they are rated at 100 Volts can deliver 600 Amps? Or is it two 30kWh batteries that can deliver 600 Amps at 100V for an hour?
If it’s the former, I’m not particularly impressed. That’s the equivalent of what 7 Ford F250 car batteries can do (12V * 750A CCA * 7). If it’s the latter, that’s really impressive, but then the article needs an extra “h” after the 30kW.
May 28th, 2009 at 2:35 am
Awesome! Looks a little like an indy car.
May 28th, 2009 at 2:36 am
Does not compute: 2×100 Kw motors do not sum to 400 horsepower. 2×30kw batteries is even less…. not sure what the point is of putting out these specs if they dont add up. And also, if you only have 60kW of electrical power, then there is no way you will ever hit 170mph – thats only 72hp (or so) at the wheels!
May 28th, 2009 at 2:43 am
A beautiful car, but I am curious as to how they plan to get this thing to run for 24 hours at Le Mans. Does it have quick change batteries?
May 28th, 2009 at 2:46 am
Wow, absolutely amazing! One sweet looking ride!
RT
http://www.privacy-tools.echoz.com
May 28th, 2009 at 6:57 am
this is HORRIBLE reporting.
1. ‘ready for le mans’ is completely false. They’re shooting for 2011… it is 2009.
2. What’s the story with this mystical solar panel gonna do for the portion of the 24 hour race that isn’t sunny?
the list of utter flaws goes on.
May 28th, 2009 at 10:07 am
As A 24H Le Mans spectator and a lover of all things green I say ‘About time too!!’
Electric vehicles have been around for over 100 years and with the recent development of Li-Ion batteries the dream is finally becoming a reality.
Well done to all involved, I remember watching the 2 Bentley Diesel Turbo’s win the Le Mans and now the battery car is coming of age I expect to see the same for electric cars.
Andy Mahoney
HomeBrewPower – Renewable Energy Tips & Projects
May 28th, 2009 at 10:13 am
Regarding the comment from ILoveEVs the motor rating will be 100KW Constant run rating, a motor is capable of delivering in excess of 6 times it’s rated power for short periods of time. There are 745Watts in a Horse Power unit (HP)
Also you can not have 60WK of electrical power, power is measured in Energy & Time so the unit of power would be 60KWA of battery power. Again this is measured very differently when we are talking about a EV.
Great article
Andy Mahoney
HomeBrewPower – Renewable Energy Tips & Advise
May 28th, 2009 at 11:35 am
Obviously the article was meant to read “30kWh” not just “30kW”. The battery changes at the pits would be very quick given an efficient battery exchange system. It’s acceleration is by far epic. Electric cars have massive potential to be very powerful race cars which in the future with a little more improved energy storage and reclamation technology implemented, could be the dawn of complete and utter racing awesomeness.
May 28th, 2009 at 11:53 am
That looks just wonderful, and sounds brilliant, until I try to work out the energy use and the like. I’m confused! How is this going to work again? As has been pointed out, there isn’t enough battery capacity, or motor power to achieve what we’re being told. What haven’t we been told?
May 28th, 2009 at 1:29 pm
I say pave Le Manns with them new WIRELESS charging materials and make all the cars electric so we can have real life slot cars!
May 28th, 2009 at 1:56 pm
The design is absolutely stunning. I sat agog for a full minute, just drooling over the lead photo.
I have the same concerns as everyone else about battery capacity, but I’m surprised no one has mentioned the active aerodynamic brakes above each wheel. The article mentions nothing about them!
May 28th, 2009 at 1:56 pm
If you read one of the linked articles, 30kWh is posted…
May 28th, 2009 at 4:39 pm
If you look at the specs on the french website (http://www.green-gt.com/index.htm) it says that the car is powered by hydrogen produced from solar panels which they fail to mention in this article
May 28th, 2009 at 6:26 pm
Great article. We’ve been very impressed with what these guys have done so far and look forward to seeing what it will do in one of the last bastion of gas engine Uber race.
The Electricnick.com team.
May 28th, 2009 at 9:08 pm
The article really needs more information. I’m guessing that this car will set the record for most pit stops in a 24 hour race. Seriously, can the thing do more than 5 laps between battery changes?
May 29th, 2009 at 1:43 am
They are stylists, not realists. What do you expect.
May 29th, 2009 at 2:10 am
Good lord,
This isn’t a real car. It’s an artist’s rendering, a 3-D solid model of what one might look like by four people from a design school:
http://www.isd-valenciennes.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=27&Itemid=35
“…I just want to rectify a very important thing, this project was made by a team work composed by Baptiste Viry, Julien Sarreméjean and me for the design and Mathieu Bouis and Romuald Lemoine for the 3D modelling…”
It isn’t engineered, wind tunnel tested or anything else. It’s a solid model, probably done in CATIA5.
“…design “study” seeks to revolutionize the face of motorsport with an FIA-certified EV comprised of a carbon fiber chassis and a fiberglass body. “In theory,” a pair of 100 kW water-cooled electric motors…”