WORLD PREMIERES

The result of close technological collaboration between Venturi Automobiles and Michelin, the Venturi Volage, presented for the first time at the “Mondial 2008” (Paris Motor Show), marks a major step forward in the evolution of the Automobile.

This new Venturi incorporates innovations which have enabled radical changes in terms of the vehicle’s architecture, style, dynamic behaviour and, more generally, the design of a modern vehicle.

All these changes constitute several world premières which, with the presentation of the Venturi Volage, reinforce Venturi’s capability for constant innovation, as well as its position as the most advanced company in the field of electric vehicles.

POWER TRANSMISSION & ACTIVE SUSPENSION

With 4 drive wheels with active suspension, the Venturi Volage has no equivalent. “Michelin Active Wheel” technology in fact incorporates 2 electric motors per wheel (1 for suspension and 1 for drive), ie. a total of 8 electric motors piloted in real time by spearhead electronics.

Like the mechanism of a watch, all the components, motors, gear reduction units and suspensions, are miniaturized and built into the wheels.

The active electric shock absorber system allows for total adaptation to the type of road surface and driving. Combining Michelin’s experience in the area of surface liaison with that of Venturi for the chassis, the Venturi Volage represents in its road holding, drivability and silent functioning, the sum of today’s automotive technology.

THE CAR OF THE DIGITAL ERA

Playing down the mechanical aspect in favor of electronics, close to the concept of a robot, this car belongs to a new era, the digital era. Thanks to a dashboard touch screen, the driver can configure the vehicle entirely as he wishes. This total control marks significant progress in terms of management, particularly of the energy stored in the car’s batteries: the driver can, for example, decide to give preference in certain cases to range rather than power, comfort rather than speed, an important factor for an electric car.

A CHASSIS UNIQUE WORLDWIDE

The only part that the Venturi Volage shares with the Venturi Fétish is its carbon fiber bodywork. Developed by the Venturi Design Office, this body is still a unique concept worldwide, as it is the only one to have been specifically designed to be that of an electric car and thus carry batteries within its very structure.

Thanks to this innovative design, both the Fétish and the Volage benefit from an unequalled level of safety, for both the cars’ passengers and also the batteries they carry.

The ideal distribution of the Venturi Volage’s masses - 45% at the front, 55% at the rear – and its perfectly mastered weight of 1,075 kilos enable it to attain 100 km/hr (62 mph) in less than 5 seconds.

PRODUCTION MODELS

A real demonstration of spearhead technology, the car presented in its world première is entirely operational and prefigures the production of a limited series of this model, scheduled as from 2012.

Like the Venturi Fétish assembled in our workshops in Monaco, the Venturi Volage will be assembled by hand, in the form of very limited production.

The technological repercussions of these two cars positioned at the very top end of the market are to be found on other vehicles bearing the Venturi brand, enabling as many people as possible to benefit from the firm’s advances in the field of sustainable mobility.

DESIGN OF VOLAGE, BY SACHA LAKIC

“Like a light and sensual veil, the Volage’s bodywork clings close to its exceptional technical features.

Active suspensions and motors incorporated into the wheels, a flat bottom, aerodynamic tunnels: these choices and technological advances have enabled me to “design the void” usually occupied by the engine and suspensions, and thus explore audacious new paths in terms of styling.

The void is part of the Volage style; it has been designed by subtraction.

Volage has been fashioned by the wind.
The science of aerodynamics is the main tool that has been used to elaborate its shape. It is easy and enjoyable to imagine the movement of flows of air, on and across its bodywork.

Volage finds itself in a totally original and decidedly contemporary formal category. The relationship with Venturi’s other models is obvious, though it is also possible to see, in a few details, a subtle tribute to certain icons among French cars of the pre-war era, the most elegant, the ones that were way before their time.

Volage inspires passion: its powers of seduction are immense.”

...of a more powerful and lighter electric motor will be added to the mix. This motor is tiny at only 77 lbs, but it delivers 300 HP with 280 lb.ft. of torque. Mighty impressive, but then again, it better be for 100,000€. And by today's exchange rate that gives the Fetish a pricetag in 'merican bucks of about $14.2 million dollars. Or something around that.

[WorldCarFans]

Related:
Avant le Fetish: Venturi to Show Electric-Supercar Precursors in Paris [internal]

The Tesla's giving it new competition for the mantle of Best Electric Supercar of Ever, but is the Venturi F tish worried? Non! The company announced today that visitors to the Paris Motorshow this September will get to see the range of precursors leading up to the current (heh heh) electric F tish, as they shuffle by munching on les frites de la libert . We'll be there — you'll know us from the H sker D shirts amid the Fa onnable-wearing Euro press.

Related:
More on the Venturi F tish; Mechanical Resonance: The Tesla Motors Press Intro, Complete With Governator [internal]

Recently reborn Venturi tested its new H ritage GT3 car on the Paul Ricard circuit last week, as part of the FIA GT3 championship's test days. Despite gearbox problems, the Audi V8-powered H ritage — the French specialty automaker's first racer since it was adopted by new sugar daddy — appears to have tested well. JMB Racing, will run a team of three of the cars during the 2006 season. We'll see later this year whether the company's got a winner, or whether it'll remain best known for having Intel inside.

Related:
Venturi Prepares New GT3 Car [internal]

Best known these days at the builder of the F tish electric supercar, Venturi — a recently rescued French specialty car brand and former LeMans competitor — has worked up a car it hopes will rock the 2006 FIA GT3 European championship in spectacular fashion. The "Venturi H ritage GT3," which will debut at the FIA GT3 European championship test days in March 2006, sports a supercharged, 4.2 liter Audi-sourced V8 (450 hp) linked to a six-speed sequential-synchromesh-manual gearbox, and a body and chassis of carbon fiber. The Venturi will join such cars as the Aston Martin DBS9, Lamborghini Gallardo, TVR Sagaris and Lotus Exige GT3 on the approval trail.

Related:
Venturi Fetish Electric Supercar Makes Public Debut; Lotus Launches Sport Exige GT3 Racer; Spy Photos: Porsche 997 GT3; Venturi Fetish Has Intel Inside [internal]

Considering France's Venturi Fetish — the first electric supercar —- is basically a six-figure consumer electronics product, it's not hard to imagine all the chips required to manage functions like battery charging and energy storage, systems applications and communication with the home office for upgrades and related software tweaks. It's that last one that's driving a partnership of sorts between Intel and Venturi. The two companies recently announced they were pooling resources, particularly on the WiMAX wireless broadband technology incorporated into the Fetish for data communication. Intel is an industry supporter of the WiMax (Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access) standards, a kind of metropolitan-area version of WiFi. The companies hope to expand the use of WiMax in the Fetish to include communication with other vehicles — to buy and sell energy — or act as an energy node for utility companies. And, of course, for Dodgeball.

Intel Inside the Venturi Fetish makes energy sharing possible [Gizmag]

Related:
$500,000 Fetish: Venturi to Produce First Electric Sports Car; Forbes Names Fetish Electric Supercar Vehicle of the Week; Venturi Fetish Electric Supercar Makes Public Debut [internal]