Today is turning into a real battle of the volts. Former McLaren engineer Jim Dowle has just announced a
barely-believable electric supercar - and now this: the SCC Aero EV.
Shelby SuperCars tends not to do things by half measures. In December it gave us the
Ultimate Aero, an update of the world's fastest production car - the cheeky Yank that quietly stole the
Bugatti Veyron's crown without anyone really noticing.
But if this, the Aero EV, proves to be an actual car, rather than the figment of a megalomaniacal engineer's twisted imagination, it will hit Dubai driveways shortly, boasting a power output of 1,000bhp and 800lb.ft of twist. That's around four times as powerful as the
Tesla Roadster, and the torque will all be there from 0rpm. So, 0-60mph takes, wait for it... 2.5 seconds. And it'll silently rock up to 208mph.
Like the P1-E, the Aero EV uses two electric motors to achieve its astonishing stats, and better yet, SCC reckons it will charge in ten minutes at a household socket for a 200-mile range. SCC will also sell versions of the car's AESP (All Electric Scalable Powertrain) to other companies with power ratings of between 200bhp and 1,200bhp, for buses and the like.
In more parity with the P1-E, SCC is making bold claims for its electric car without having actually tested it, though it's due to begin next month and the car will be ready by summer and on sale perhaps as early as the end of the 2009. We'll believe it when we see it.
Mark Nichol - 23 Jan 2009
