McLaren F1 architect Gordon Murray's been hard at work on the opposite end of the automotive spectrum, designing a clean-sheet super-compact all-electric city car called the T.27 to follow his T.25 gasoline micro-machine. Now we've got the specs.
Yep, it's still little, with a footprint of just 8.2 ft in length by 4.2 feet in width, it's still got a safety cell and crumple zones despite its tiny overhangs and massive cabin, and it's still vaporware until we see one in meatspace, but rather than a gas engine, this car's all-electric. It features a rear-mounted, unitized power unit with an air-cooled 25 kW electric motor with multi-speed transmission and a motor controller/inverter/charging unit in one big box. Under the floor is a great big lithium ion battery which has been developed to deliver 80-100 miles on a charge.
With Murray's lightweight and low part count construction methods it tips the scales at 1,499 lbs so despite the low power it does 0-62 MPH in a utterly British "Less than 15 seconds" with a pseudo-useful top speed of 65 MPH. Expected first prototype should be next year some time