The saga that has been the building of a "wind car" for Ecotricity founder, Dale Vince, appears to have come to a climax. All of the newly invented bits of this stretched and re-engineered former Lotus Exige have been put into place and the car brought out to a bit of tarmac for an initial trial. After a little sorting out of its computer and a slow speed run, Mr. Vince rode shotgun while former Lotus Formula 1 pilot, John Miles, demonstrated for his passenger the vehicle's ability to give a roller coaster-like rush as they easily hit 100 mph while making a few passes on the old airfield runway.

Finally it was Dale's turn to take the wheel and, with the camera glued to the grin growing on the face of the eco-entrepreneur, the electric sports car had its pedal put down once again with clearly exhilarating results. His first impression of his sweet new ride? He loves the look, the sound and the performance. He believes its the fastest car he's ever been in and says the sensation of being pushed back into the seat is like "...some mad fairground ride." The positive experience seems to have pushed him closer to deciding on naming his beast Nemesis. While we're not sure about the long term plans for the vehicle, after it gets a new set of brakes and tweaks here and there, the team has plans to bring it to a proper track and conduct a bit more testing before letting it go to its new home in Mr. Vince's garage. Who knows, perhaps it will appear in next year's car-friendly TTXGP. Hit the jump to see Nemesis in action for yourself!

[Source: Zero Carbonista / YouTube]

It's been a little more than a year since we first started tracking the development of the wind-powered car by Ecotricity founder, Dale Vince. His latest video installment, part 9 of 6 (not a typo), is now available and in it, we catch up on all the latest news and are even assured that the completion of the vehicle is within sight. The former Lotus Exige is in the process of re-assembly and not only is the front end now complete, but the big battery box has also been bonded in. Right, so what's holding things up? Well, one of the project engineers is in the process of inventing the new technology necessary to make it all work once it's put together and they're discovering it's difficult to manage the rate at which such invention transpires. As Ian, the project manager states, "I can't go and beat him with a stick and say, 'You must have it done,' because it just won't work". Indeed, it probably wouldn't.

Fret not though, at the end of this episode, that includes a fascinating trip to Leeds University, Vince assures us that, "I'm confident we'll have the car running in a couple of months." We sure hope he does and we'll be here waiting to show it to you. Hit the jump for another installment of wind car inventing action.

[Source: Zerocarbonista]

The wind-powered, Exige-based electric sports car is coming along. Dale Vince, the man with the plan, has just posted the sixth in what was supposed to be a series of six videos (there will be more, though) that describes the updates to the car and other news from the Norfolk, UK idea lab. Vince doesn't like the original Exige front end so that is being changed. As for the naming issue, it looks like Ecotricity Mojo is the current top contender, but Vince isn't ready to commit quite yet.

What he and the other guys are willing to say (as they have before) is that electricity beats hydrogen cars, no way around it. They call the recent Top Gear program on hydrogen cars "a little misleading," and Vince adds:

"Just because it's on Top Gear, some people might think that makes it real. But that doesn't make it real. Hydrogen suffers from so many drawbacks that it just can't be made to work. It's in a race it can't win. The fundamental problem is one of efficiency, so for any unit of energy that you put in [...] you can do three times as many miles in the electric system than you can using the hydrogen system."

I guess if you're done baiting Tesla, you have to say something to get attention, right?

[Source: Zero Carbonista]

When he's not taunting Tesla, Dale Vince is pretty focused on building his wind-powered car. The Zero Carbonista project (previous post) is moving along and the fourth (of six) video about the project is new ready for your viewing pleasure. The front of the car is taking shape and now it needs a name. On the shortlist are: The Zero, The Storm and The Nemesis. I think the Zero Storm would be a good compromise, and I think it'll sound good with a British accent.

In the video, the biggest problem the team is facing seems to be figuring out the fingerprint entry and startup system. What's more exciting is the torque potential the designers and engineers discuss towards the end of the video. Check it out after the jump and see what the (indirectly) wind-powered Exige is up to these days.

[Source: Zero Carbonista via Treehugger]

The latest episode in the "wind-car" building saga is ready for viewing and Dale Vince, the man behind both this project and Ecotricity, has some interesting things to say. Although the discussion is mainly centered around the car and their attempts to make the Exige bodywork look a little more "tough," Dale also explained why he thinks there has been such a push for hydrogen. He says the oil companies like the idea of a hydrogen economy because, "...they make that at their refineries and they can ship it in their tankers, put it in their garages and it's business as usual." He adds that hydrogen-powered cars do one-third the miles of an electric vehicle for a given unit of energy.

Dale also continues to make light jabs at the Tesla Roadster. At the tail end of the video he grins and says, "Our car'll be special. Very, very special. Nothing like the Tesla." While we enjoyed the good-natured tone of the comment, we can only hope there will be an on-track race at the end of all of this taunting. Hit the jump for some British-accented electric-sports-car-making action.

[Source: Zero Carbonista]

We have been following the efforts of Dale Vince, founder of Ecotricity, and his attempt to build an electric sports car which he can power from the wind. Like several other efforts, a Lotus (in this case, an Exige) is being used as the underlying platform. Also like others, his project is taking a little longer than it was meant to but he says they are on course to have something on the road this December.

One of the things extending the build time may have been the decision to lengthen the chassis by 90mm (3.5 inches). While it's not to difficult to stretch the frame, the body work is a different matter and that is where Peter Stevens comes in. The designer of the McLaren F1 is now onboard with the project and will not just leave his fingerprints on the exterior but is also taking care of things like the instrumentation. Hit the jump for the latest chapter of the wind-powered sportscar in all its YouTube glory. You may also want to check out his Zero Carbonista blog for a few more details as well as a bit of Tesla-baiting.

[Source: Zero Carbonista]

Dale Vince of Ecotricity has posted some musings and video on his Zerocarbonista blog about the progress his team have made with his wind-power Exige we we're telling you about a few months back and things seem to be coming along quite nicely. His team seems to be more than up for the challenge of turning the gas-powered Lotus Exige into an electric vehicle capable of doing 0 to 60 mph in less than four seconds. Of course, the Exige could already meet their top end goal of exceeding 100 mph but doing that with an electric car can be challenging. Like the Tesla Roadster their prototype will unavoidably be compared to, it won't make use of a transmission. Unlike the Roadster, they will also forgo a rear differential by using a separate electric motor for each rear wheel. The motors can spin at speeds of up to 8,000 RPM so their engineer has each one going through a reduction gear that will turn a lot of that speed into power torque. Using the final 2,000 RPM figure to estimate the top speed, our in-house math wizard has calculated this baby could do 148 mph, give or take 10 mph. Probably take. Hit the jump for more.

*Update: Video now after the break!

[Source: Zerocarbonista via Smartplanet]

Ecotricity founder Dale Vince is a guy with a dilemma we here at AutoblogGreen can empathize with. He's very environmentally aware yet he really likes fast cars. His solution? Build an electric sports car. Luckily, he's got wads of cash (and previous connections with Lotus) to make this sort of dream come true and, according to a post on his zerocarbonista blog, construction is already under way.

An Exige, judging by the rendition on his blog (picture above), is probably the donor chassis for this project and is currently lying in pieces in Norfolk, presumably at the Lotus shop there. No word on whether the new hybrid and electric car group within Lotus Engineering is involved with the undertaking but it seems rather likely. Of course we are familiar with another existing electric sports car with some Lotus DNA that Vince could have put his name on a list for but the required waiting time is probably too long for a guy so committed to green he only drove about 3,000 miles last year. Of course, if those miles were traveled in the Mercedes which appears with him in his explanatory video (after the jump) than that would be like 100,000 Prius miles.