Photo: SupernovaEV
Having the smallest vehicle ownership rate in the world, you could say that India should start motorize the masses first and come up with sportscars later. Well, the 60 mph / 60-mile (96 km) range of the Mahindra Reva e20 electric vehicle should be cheap and green enough for the first problem and now the Supernova here could be the country’s first EV sportscar.
The prototype made by Golden Arrow Wireless has been designed by Shashi Vyas, the company founder himself, who appears to have been inspired by the shapes of the '70s. Have a glance at those two prototypes and tell me you can’t see the McLaren M6 GT or a Dodge Charger III concept.
I’m not going to brag about the craftsmanship of these prototypes, simply because they are handmade without state of the art technologies big car companies benefit from. I do have something to say about their performance though...
The Golden Arrow Supernova looks sleek and fast, but with that much power it will only achieve a top speed of 93 mph (150 km/h) and do the 0 to 60 mph stint in 9.9 seconds. Utterly fast, but this could be a thing of perspective.
Don’t worry, there’s still a good part of the story here. According to a report from Business Standard, the Supernova will be offered with three battery choices. No, not different capacities, but chemistry different batteries: lead acid, lithium-ion and even supercapacitors.
Moreover, Vyas claimed the sportscar will be able to go 621 miles (1,000 km) on a full charge when it will enter production. And people really believe this will really happen, as there are around 250 buyers placed an order for a Supernova. The company claims it only needs Rs 2,500 crore (€327,8 million / $403,8 million) to set up the manufacturing site in Gujarat. Well, good luck with that! We’re eager to see this project come true.
I’m not going to brag about the craftsmanship of these prototypes, simply because they are handmade without state of the art technologies big car companies benefit from. I do have something to say about their performance though...
The under-100 HP sportscar
You see, they call this a sportscar, yet it is powered by a 78 hp electric motor. Seventy-eight! I know elevators with more power than that. It is only 18 hp bigger than the Reva, which isn’t quite a sales record breaker neither.The Golden Arrow Supernova looks sleek and fast, but with that much power it will only achieve a top speed of 93 mph (150 km/h) and do the 0 to 60 mph stint in 9.9 seconds. Utterly fast, but this could be a thing of perspective.
Don’t worry, there’s still a good part of the story here. According to a report from Business Standard, the Supernova will be offered with three battery choices. No, not different capacities, but chemistry different batteries: lead acid, lithium-ion and even supercapacitors.
Moreover, Vyas claimed the sportscar will be able to go 621 miles (1,000 km) on a full charge when it will enter production. And people really believe this will really happen, as there are around 250 buyers placed an order for a Supernova. The company claims it only needs Rs 2,500 crore (€327,8 million / $403,8 million) to set up the manufacturing site in Gujarat. Well, good luck with that! We’re eager to see this project come true.
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