The competition benefits from a $10 million prize fund courtesy of Progressive Insurance, an U.S. insurance company. To be eligible for the contest, vehicles must be developed for mass production, offer a range of at least 200 miles per charge and meet certain braking and usability standards.
The E-4 Coupe is a zero emission four-seater that was designed to offer sports car acceleration. The car can accelerate from 0 to 100 km/h in under 5 seconds, matching multiple famous performance vehicles, and can reach a top speed of over 100 mph. The first unit of the vehicle will be produced in April.
"We became involved with the design of environmentally friendly vehicles because they share many of the engineering challenges associated with motorsport – maximum efficiency, light weight, good aerodynamics and so on. We worked with Oxford University on a lightweight, highly efficient electric motor and have completed several road haulage aerodynamic programmes to improve fuel efficiency," said Simon Downson, one of the company’s co-founders.
It seems that the competition has incredibly high standards, as multiple upcoming “green” vehicles produced by automotive giants have failed to meet its requirements. These include the Ford Escape, Renault ZE and Nissan Leaf. Actually, none of the teams that take part in the contest belong to multi-national companies.
"Although there are some advantages in being part of a big company, there are many substantial disadvantages and large businesses just don't have the flexibility to get on and complete a project in a short timescale." said Nick Carpenter, Delta Motorsport co-founder.
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