Driving the Protoscar Lampo electric sportscar in Norway. Sorry.
Click above for a high-res gallery of the Protoscar LAMPO concept
We got our first taste of the Protoscar LAMPO back in March at the Geneva Motor Show. The all-electric sportscar has now had some time to make the rounds in Europe and was recently featured at EVS24. Ivar Kvadsheim was able to spend some time behind the wheel during the show and found that driving the 268 horsepower car "takes away a lot of the magic." That magic is how good the car looks on paper: 325 pound-feet (440 Nm) of torque, 32 kWh of li-ion batteries that provide a range of 120 miles. All this EV goodness is wrapped in white, water-based paint and a car that weighs 3,000 lbs. Sounds good, right?
Well, as Kvadsheim discovered, the LAMPO is really just a rolling EV lab that was kind of thrown together, an experiment "to show what's possible." During the Viking Rally, the LAMPO was only at 60 percent power, and Kvadsheim was told not to push it over 75 mph. There is also a delay between when you hit the pedal until the car responds. In it's defense, Protoscar is not an automaker, they just wanted to show that you can use available technology to make an EV sportscar today. Um, OK.
Gallery: Protoscar Lampo
[Source: WIRED]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
jharlan 2:43PM (5/25/2009)
You have to start somewhere.
Reply
Gary 3:33PM (5/25/2009)
It appears that a lot of electric cars from new newbie companies that are promising a lot to generate attention, but are failing to deliver... The supposed 100 MPG Raser Hummer. The Tesla whose sales have been pretty lackluster. The Aptera which looks just goofy.
Reply
jake 4:58PM (5/25/2009)
Actually Tesla's sales (they still have ~1000 on the waiting list) are pretty decent for a $100k new tech car, especially with their limited dealer network. And they're the only one selling a highway capable EV right now and from what I hear from owners they are pretty satisfied with the car, so I say they have "delivered". And they have over 1000 deposits on their Model S which isn't going to be here for at least 2 years. That's actually quite impressive.
The Aptera isn't out yet so we don't know yet if it will deliver, so don't count them out (even Leno likes the look so that's saying something). And they have a decent number of deposits.
No one was expecting the Raser to be anything special anyways (at least not in the EV/PHEV crowd).
It remains to be seen how the Fisker fares, but they have a good amount of deposits too.
Stew 7:50PM (5/25/2009)
This is why all these daily press releases on all these concepts is frustrating. 99% of them won't amount to anything more than just that - a press release.
Stew.
Reply
Nick P. 1:54AM (5/26/2009)
I think the reason you see so many concepts is that it's a very cost effective way to test the waters and raise money.
I believe that these guys may be fishing for investors or at the very least it's a good way to get some consulting business at big car companies.
I have to agree that if everyone and their brother can manage to put together a drivable sport EV prototype, GM and Toyota have *zero* excuse for failing to execute. Mass production is a totally different level of difficulty, but at least they can't say "it's not feasible".
- Nick -
Reply