For the first time in the history of extreme car racing, an electric buggy is going to be burning rubber, to compete and win, against some of the toughest cars on the racing circuit. Rally car driver, Alister McRae, is no new newbie to this deadly rally. For the past two years, he and his Anglo-Dutch team have successfully run their petrol-powered ProDakar McRae Buggy 4×2 on this treacherous circuit. But for the upcoming 2012 race, they plan to do the impossible, and that is to field an electric vehicle.
Their electric McCrae buggy, which has been specially designed for this race, has a unique energy management system, wherein this electric vehicle can charge its battery to 90 percent in a mere 15 to 30 minutes. This feature promises to keep this lone buggy in the race during those rough and tough patches.
A McRae press release explains the functioning of this unique little car as:
The new evolution will be powered by a 54KW/h Lithium Ion battery pack through a PM motor with 2000Nm (but it will be limited to 120 NM) of Torque and 200 KW power rating with a weight less than 40 KG … An aerodynamically optimized body is been developed in conjunction with energy recovery shock absorbers that will turn kinetic engine from the ruts and bumps in to electrical energy.
For the uninitiated, the Dakar Rally is the big, bad daddy of all the car races you may have ever witnessed. While it was first held in 1978, and ran from Paris to Dakar, Senegal, in 2009 it was moved to South America due to fears of terrorist attacks along the route. Today, it is considered the world’s most extreme car race in the world because its 9,000 kilometers race route is mostly off-road, meandering through the bad lands of Argentina, Chile and Peru.
This is precisely the reason all eyes are on the McRae electric buggy, for if it does well on this toughest test of vehicle endurance, then perhaps it will make us users take a closer look at the potential of electric cars in general. While the race is still a year away, you can watch the video preview of the buggy’s attempt right here:
Via: Treehugger
