Electric Vehicles

I am writing this in March 2012 and I forecast that electric vehicles will dominate the worlds roads in about 25 years time.

Well, that’s unusual for me. I’m not a big fan of electric cars at all. So what has changed my mind? Quite simply it is the result of the nuclear disaster at Fukushima. Bear with me whilst I join up the dots!

At present, electric cars are, in my view, rubbish. The manufacturers have just been playing with it to cope with demand from the Green Lobby. But since Fukushima, Japan have had a major re-think on all sorts of issues. They are clearly ditching nuclear as a power source. And remember that Japan has no natural oil reserves, so they have to import to meet demand. Combine this with the Japanese being major car manufacturers. Now join up the dots and why not go “proper” electric vehicles?

Well, why not? What are the indications that things are changing? Quite simply, just 12 months on from Fukushima, the Japanese car manufacturers are now chucking money at their racing divisions. By doing this, major advances will result because that is what has always happened in motor racing history. There will then be, over time, be massive advances in technology and hey presto, it filters down to every day vehicles.

It’s not just aimed at cars either. This year on the Isle of Man, I am expecting at least 3 separate manufacturers to break the 100mph average lap speed. Now that is progress.

I have recently read a couple of press releases that have inspired this article and I have reproduced them below should be interested to read further.

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Tadashi Yamashina, Toyota Motor Corporation Senior Managing Officer and Toyota Motorsport Chairman, said: “Toyota has entered Le Mans before, but by using our hybrid technology this time will be a completely new challenge. We want to write a new chapter in the history of the Le Mans 24 Hours, as in the FIA World Endurance Championship, through our use of hybrid technology.

“In addition, we aim to learn from the experience of competing in such a challenging motorsport environment to enhance our production car technology. Le Mans is a legendary race and I would like to thank the ACO and the FIA for their constructive and positive co-operation over the last few months.

Toyota Motosport’s award-winning engineering services and all its current motorsport projects are unaffected by the announcement of the new racing programme and will continue as before. Toyota hopes the new enterprise will provide further impetus to Toyota Motorsport’s successful business development.

Toyota last competed in the Le Mans 24 Hours as a manufacturer in the late 1990s racing the GT-One, a car which famously established a new race lap record in 1999.

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A new electric race car prototype has been officially revealed by Lola Group and Drayson Racing Technologies (DRT).

The Lola-Drayson B12/69EV is a technology demonstrator that is aiming to break lap records for electric vehicles at tracks around the world.

Built around the current Lola LMP1 group B12 Le Mans chassis, the new vehicle uses a DRT electric drivetrain to generate 850Bhp, propelling it to 60pmh from standstill in 3.0 seconds. The weight of the car is 1000kg, slightly in excess of the regular 900kgs in the present LMP1.