When you think of road-racing sports cars, Porsche or Aston Martin might come to mind. They’re typically built with an internal combustion engine — essentially the main type of engine you’ll see in high-performance sports cars. Green4U Technologies and Panoz are changing that notion with the unveiling of an all-electric race car.
The car was first displayed last week at the Green4U Technologies’ display in the 24 Hours of Le Mans Village. The decision to display it at Le Mans, according to Green4U chairman and co-founder, Don Panoz, was based on the race’s extensive history — it’s the oldest active sports car endurance race.
“The development of an all-electric race car that can compete with the best internal combustion engine race cars places Green4U at the forefront of electric vehicle technology,” Jack Perkowski, Green4U CEO and co-founder, said in a statement.
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The key in designing the EV (electric vehicle) car was creating a battery that could go as far as the normal petrol or hybrid race car. Not only this, but the battery must be able to be replaced in a similar amount of time that it would take for a normal car to refill its tank.
“In the case of the holy grail, which is to have an EV car — which are going to be cars of the future, more and more of them — that can compete in competitions with competitors of Porsche or Ferrari, Aston Martin, whatever, and to be able to do it with EV power was a challenge and thank goodness for our people,” Panoz said.
Panoz and his team of developers didn’t stop with an all-electric race car — they also have early renderings of a street-legal sports car based on the GT-EV model.
“I like the challenge of doing something that no one else is doing, and I don’t see any profit in wasting my time doing what everybody else is doing, ” Panoz explained.