Environmentally friendly electricity provider Ecotricity has been selling green electricity for over a decade now, but its founder Dale Vince has decided to take on a more ambitious project: to build a good looking, wind-powered electric sports car. Currently, Vince is working with a team of engineers and designers to transform a Lotus Exige coupe, with no aspect of the car going untouched.
Current development on the car can be seen on Vince's blog, Zerocarbonista, and at the moment the Exige has been stripped out and had its chassis lengthened. The housing for the 96 batteries has also been designed, and production of large components such as the transmission are being produced, while other parts of the car have been placed into the vehicle.
Dale Vince's desire to preserve the tough image of the sports car also means that a number of interesting aerodynamic aids are being developed, such as the ducts on the rear quarter panels of the Exige seen in the latest video on Vince's website. Producing a slippery and aerodynamic shape, says Vince, is very easy to do, but making the shape exciting is what demands effort. Vince is also keen to include a "Ferrari style" transparent rear boot so that the mechanicals of the car will be visible to bystanders.
At the end of the day, it is hoped that the car should have a top speed of around 100 mph (160km/h) and a 0-62mph (100km/h) time of around 4 seconds - acceleration that would rival that of many conventional supercars, and would beat the very similarly-designed Tesla Roadster. A prototype for the car is expected to be completed within the next few months, and Vince hopes a production version will follow soon after this.
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