VIDEO: Wind-powered Lotus Exige in the works?
Ecotricity founder Dale Vince is a guy with a dilemma we here at AutoblogGreen can empathize with. He's very environmentally aware yet he really likes fast cars. His solution? Build an electric sports car. Luckily, he's got wads of cash (and previous connections with Lotus) to make this sort of dream come true and, according to a post on his zerocarbonista blog, construction is already under way.
An Exige, judging by the rendition on his blog (picture above), is probably the donor chassis for this project and is currently lying in pieces in Norfolk, presumably at the Lotus shop there. No word on whether the new hybrid and electric car group within Lotus Engineering is involved with the undertaking but it seems rather likely. Of course we are familiar with another existing electric sports car with some Lotus DNA that Vince could have put his name on a list for but the required waiting time is probably too long for a guy so committed to green he only drove about 3,000 miles last year. Of course, if those miles were traveled in the Mercedes which appears with him in his explanatory video (after the jump) than that would be like 100,000 Prius miles.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Peter 6:44PM (5/09/2008)
Seems to me that a gray market import of a Tesla Roadster would be much easier than trying to make your own. Even if it would be left hand drive.
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Doug 7:50PM (5/09/2008)
Yeah sounds like this guy should just buy a Tesla Roadster with a hardtop. I think it would be cheaper than trying to make his own. Bit of a toss up which he could get sooner, though.
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j 8:50AM (5/12/2008)
Why not develop another green sports car? Are we only allowed to have the Telsa? R&D always costs money, but it'll be worth it if consumers have a practical green sports car market. Go for it dude!
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porschedevotee 2:28PM (5/12/2008)
Why couldn't he work with Tesla as a very closely involved investor? It sounds like his goals are already being met by the Roadster, but if that isn't the car he wants (if he prefers an Exige base, for example), I'm sure it would be faster and easier to have Tesla do a one-off for him rather than do all the R&D himself, which would put him in direct competition with Tesla anyway.
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Doug 2:12PM (5/19/2008)
This guy trash talks Tesla while he's clearly riding their coat tails.
http://zerocarbonista.com/2008/05/16/another-tesla-%e2%80%93-preferably-not/
http://www.smartplanet.com/news/transport/10001191/dale-vince-announces-his-tesla-beating-electric-sports-car.htm
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nommo 7:05AM (6/12/2008)
Hmm... is he really trash talking or is that Tesla...? Have a read of the comments (including ones by Tesla VP of Sales). He seems to know what he wants and that Tesla won't be supplying it any time soon. This *is* the guy who set up the worlds first green electricity company! Some potential to own a whole EV supply chain from windmill to wheel...
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jack 3:23PM (6/24/2008)
There is already a car! It runs on compressed air,,and you can buy one. Go to U-tube and type Air car in. I challenge this guy to add generators to the air car so it can keep itself full. it would be a non-stop form of transportation... i know i could if i had his money.
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