Is this the future of car travel?

Gordon Murray's T.25

Currently, most families have a couple of cars - one larger, more powerful car for long journeys and another smaller car for commuting, picking up the kids and doing other small jobs. The downside of this means that families' carbon footprints are larger than ever, but a new electric car created by ex-McLaren Formula One designer Gordon Murray hopes to change this.

Part of a government funded project to develop a new all-electric and affordable urban car via a "innovative and sustainable production", the Electric Car T.27 has been touted as a possible solution to cutting traffic emissions.

The T.27 was the brain child of Gordon Murray Design and Zytek Automotive Technology and has received GBP£9 million worth of investment, half coming from the government's Technology Strategy Board.

Innovative design

Made via a manufacturing process called iStream, the construction of the T.27s sees the car parts designed by computer and welded together rather than being stamped out of metal sheets. As such, iStream plants can be just one fifth of the size of a conventional car factory.

"It's a very radical approach to manufacturing," David Bott, director of innovation platforms at the Technology Strategy Board told the BBC. "Usually you talk about high value, or low carbon, or resource efficient manufacturing - this ticks all those boxes."

Not just environmentally friendly to run, the T.27 also uses much less materials to make weighing only 600kg - half the weight of an average small family car.

"Cars don't tend to be heavy because of safety; they tend to be heavy because of luxury," added Mr Bott.

"The tubular frame of the T.27 is designed to absorb energy. It will pass all the relevant safety tests."

Expanding car industry through innovation

Yesterday, Science and Innovation Minister Lord Drayson test drove the T.27 saying, "The T27 is a great example of smart engineering and sustainable design. It's timely too, as the UK must demonstrate its readiness to exploit the emerging low-carbon vehicles market.

"The challenge is far greater than simply meeting stricter EU emissions targets. We need to expand our car industry through green innovation."

Gordon Murray, who invented the iStream process and has been refining the process since his days at F1 says the design was inspired by racing cars.

"The thinking is similar to McLaren's," he said. "It's all about efficiency and being lightweight, but in urban vehicles."

Despite the battery being the heaviest component, the car can still reach speeds of 60 miles per hour and is designed to travel up to 100 miles in between recharges.

"The iStream manufacturing process behind the T.25 and T.27 is all about sustainable, low energy process by design. The T.27 programme is a great opportunity for us and our partners to create what will be the world's most efficient electric vehicle.

"An opportunity to start from a clean sheet of paper combined with our disruptive manufacturing technology will result in a product which truly pushes the boundaries of urban vehicle design and further protecting our mobility."

"It's for commuting, picking the kids up, that sort of thing," he added. "We're not saying get rid of your station wagon but it's where car use must go - rather than having a couple of big cars in the family."

Relevant articles:

Should our transport systems be put under autonomous control?|Are high-speed trains the future?|The future of public transport

Like this article? Get the RSS feed: