Thursday 27 September 2012

Nemesis car breaks electric land speed record

Nemesis car breaks electric land speed record

A battery-powered car broke the land speed record for electric vehicles at the Elvington airfield near York today.

The Nemesis hit 148.419 miles per hour, breaking the previous UK EV speed record of 137mph set by the grandson of legendary speed-merchant Sir Malcolm Campbell.

The Nemesis is the brainchild of Dale Vince, who founded the world’s first green electricity company, Ecotricity, in Stroud Gloucestershire.

Driven by local racing-car driver Nick Ponting, the heavily-modified Lotus Exige was designed and built in less than two years by British motorsport engineers in Norfolk.

It was powered by ‘green’ electricity made by Ecotricity’s network of 53 windmills around the UK.

Mr Vince said: “We built the Nemesis to smash the stereotype of electric cars as something Noddy would drive – slow, boring, not cool.

“But also to stimulate thought and debate about how we’ll be getting around when the world runs out of oil. And what we’ve been able to demonstrate is that wind-powered cars are not just feasible, but can be a load of fun.”

Last summer the grandson of Sir Malcolm Campbell, Don Wales, attempted to break his own 137mph UK land speed record for an electric car – but ran into trouble on the beach at Pendine Sands in Carmarthenshire.

Written by

Bruna Pinhoni

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