back to article Supercar maker pitches 'leccy sportster with stunning spec

Swedish supercar maker Koenigsegg is probably best know in the UK for the time one of its CCXs tried to do for The Stig by spearing backwards off the Top Gear test track in Dunsfold. Now, however, it has come over all environmentally friendly and the result is the Quant – which will hereafter by known by Reg Hardware as the …

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  1. Andrew Culpeck
    Unhappy

    Commuter Vehical ?

    Just think you can commute into Westminster, not pay conjestion charge park for free and charge it on one of the charge points. Who cares what it cost, put me down for two. Or if I want to be environmentaly friendly I can commute by mobed and get stung £150. Justice dont talk to me about justice.

  2. Steve Evans

    So...

    What's its range at night when the solar charger won't be working and you also have the lights draining the batteries, oh and the stereo blasting to keep you awake?

  3. Ian Ferguson
    Happy

    I'll believe it...

    ...when I see it.

    And I'll put good money on the production model not being called the Cu... sorry, Quant.

  4. Evil Auditor Silver badge

    A new business model?

    "he [Nunzio La Vecchia] has developed a new business model based on virtual prototyping, virtual organisation and strong market orientation."

    Sounds like kind of vapour-ware...

    EA

  5. Julian Bond
    Paris Hilton

    Mobed?

    Andrew: What's a mobed? Have you got a turbo-nutter bastard 4 poster?

    I'm sure Paris could commute without leaving her bed.

  6. Brian Miller

    Flow batteries are a good idea.

    These are batteries where you change the electrolytes out with freshly charged stuff.

    The trick would be to empty the existing depleted electrolytes at the same time as filling it with excited stuff.

    I have forseen this tech making in-roads in the auto market (pun intended). It is the way people are used to filling their cars anyway with liquids. This time you just have to dump and fill.

    I doubt very much that it is charged in the conventional way. The stations would collect the depleted stuff en masse and charge it with an industrial charging installation.

    The clue to the fact these are flow batteries are that the batteries have unlimited charge cycles. You just can't do that to batteries without replacing the chemicals in them.

  7. jon

    5.2s ?

    not so much a supercar as an averagecar ;) Still, anything that has money going into 'green tech' R&D is money well spent.

  8. Paul Barnfather
    Thumb Up

    Flow Batteries?

    Could be interesting: put new electrolyte in and - hey presto - your battery is charged!

    i.e. just like putting petrol in ('cept you also drain the old "fuel" out)

    When I last checked, these things had quite poor energy density, but maybe things have moved on? On the plus side, you could store the liquid (almost) anywhere in the car, which is probably easier than cramming every available space with Li-Ions...

    Obligatory link:

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flow_battery

  9. Peter Gathercole Silver badge
    Coat

    'Supercar'

    Is Mike Mercury around to drive it? And are the boffins "Professor Popkiss" and "Doctor Beaker"? Not sure about having a monkey in a shiny new car, though.

    My coat is the anorak with the Fanderson badge.

  10. CC

    Very Strange

    The thing I can't figure out is why they didn't do this to the pre-existing CCX rather than waste the money and time on a new looking car rather than focus on the most important thing and that is the drive system, I could care less about what the car looks like.

    Another design fiasco that will never see the light of day.

  11. david
    Joke

    Well the Westwood DS5000...

    ...does 0-60 in 4 seconds. Runs of waste heat from power stations. Stored in a previously unknown material pyluronium bisulphide. It can recharge from a 3C temperature increase over ambient in 10 seconds and gives a 3000 mile endurance. The stored heat is used to drive the memory metal motors. All losses from friction are used to recharge the heatsore. It's coated in an extract of treefrog slime that means it has approaching 0 drag.

    And it is so bright red that if you stare at it for more than five minutes all the red receptors in your retina will burn themselves out.

    Or I might be making it up...

  12. Anonymous Coward
    Boffin

    redox flow accumulator

    "As to what exactly the FAES is, your guess is frankly as good as ours."

    That will be a redox flow battery (presumably they couldn't get a pleasing acronym using 'b' so called it an accumulator instead.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flow_Battery

  13. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    @Steve Evans

    This applies to all plug in EVs. As far as I can tell they all quote their range figures running without any electrics other that the motors switched on. Lights, stereo, wipers, satnav, DVD player (OK probably not in a two seater), horn, electric windows, heater and air con are all going to knock chunks out of your range. OK so most of those also effect the range of an IC car, so it's something of a moot point. Things like your lights, satnav and stereo wouldn't add up to much anyway. The whole lot added together without the heating wouldn't even make 0.5KW.

    However the one thing that doesn't affect an IC car's range is the heating. I've never really looked into it, but what is the heat output of a car heater on full blast? Surely it must run to at least a couple of KW. Presumably an EV is going to need an electric heater. So on a cold winters day you could expect the range of the typical EV to be reduced somewhat, as is the performance. Loosing 2KW is not the end of the world, but I'll bet performance car drivers will object. The loss of range may be more critical. Taking a well publicised car, the Tesla, you would be looking at a reduction in range of about 10 miles driving in chilly conditions.

    Since most EVs seem to be driven by sanctimonous green activists can we expect to see them all driving around in full snow gear next winter?

  14. Steve
    Stop

    Sounds like vapourware

    From those teezer specs they've in a stroke redefined power storage and solar cell efficiencies.

    I'll believe it when I see it on a top gear track.

  15. Alex
    Stop

    Do me a favour

    <rant>

    I am getting heartily sick of all this pie-in-the-sky leccy car hype.

    So this one produces over 500bhp and has a range of over 300miles... bollocks does it. You can't even do that with a petrol motor after 120yrs worth of dev let alone battery tech that only been around for.... ah wait - they haven't even built the bleeding battery, sorry FAECES device, yet.

    And you can charge it in 20minutes can you? From where exactly - the local sub-station, with a cable a foot wide?

    I propose a motion that from now on The Reg should only report leccy cars once they are actually in production and available for purchase rather than just a shiny photoshop lash-up.

    </rant>

  16. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Up

    Flow batteries

    are a good idea. They'll store more energy than Hydrogen per unit volume without needing expensive pressure housings. They'll last longer than "regular" batteries without depleting the world's Lithium quite as quick.

    If it's supposed to be a fixed battery, however, then it's just Bull-Flow ACcummulator Energy Storage.

    Really should have thought out that acryonym for a bit longer.

    And 30 seconds with some black paint would really make that door-handle logo less flattering.

  17. Paul
    Happy

    Flow Batteries

    Interesting concept, last information I could dig up on these beasties vanadium flow and ones with boron is part of their cycle, they still had poor power to weight characteristics. (A Little worse than lead acid). Would have thought it would be perfect though for domestic alternative energy systems.

    Anyone have any more info?

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