Gordon Murray Commits To Do For EVs What He’s Done For Supercars

Expect a lightweight and ultra-efficient electric car in the near future.

Gordon Murray Design T.27 - 30.6.2011

Gustavo Henrique Ruffo

By: Gustavo Henrique Ruffo

May 11, 2021 at 5:41pm ET

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You may find it strange to see the video above. It talks about the ground effect on the T.50, Gordon Murray’s latest creation. Although it relates to a combustion-engined car, make sure you watch it. It shows how much Murray’s experience at motorsports may help him create “a revolutionary, lightweight, ultra-efficient electric vehicle architecture,” as he said he would with part of the £300 million investment in expanding the Gordon Murray Group.

Murray said the T.27 had the same characteristics when he presented it in June 2011. Although there were some perspectives for the urban EV to reach production, it never did. The new investments may correct that injustice even if not as we would like to see it fixed.

Gordon Murray Design T.27 wind RAC Future Car Challenge 08.11.2011

The T.27 was an urban three-seater with a central driving position, much like the one Murray offered on the McLaren F1. It was 2.50 meters (98.4 inches) long, 1.30 m (51.2 in) wide, 1.60 m (63 in) tall, and had a 1.78 m (70 in) wheelbase. With only 680 kg (1,499 lb), it had a 12 kWh battery pack that allowed it to drive 160 kilometers (100 miles) according to the NEDC cycle.

Make the calculations, and you’ll see it could achieve 8.3 miles per kWh in 2011 – when it was presented. Ten years later, no electric car comes even close to that, although the Aptera promises 10 miles per kWh when it reaches the production lines. Aptera’s handicap is that it carries only two people, while the T.27 was designed for three of them.

Gordon Murrays T.27 City Car Powertrain packaging

Murray has not disclosed a lot about his future electric car apart from its goals – which are the same for every vehicle the designer creates. The future electric car platform would be for “urban passenger vehicles and delivery vans.”

To Autocar, Murray said the car would be “a B-segment vehicle – a little SUV with a compact delivery van derivative, for starters.” He also said it would be less than 4-m long and “a practical small car rather than a tiny city car.” So if you also hoped to see the T.27 in a new version, forget about it.

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The designer also said that GMA (Gordon Murray Automotive) would be dedicated to exclusive cars, of which no more than 100 units will be made. They will also be premium, pushing the boundaries of materials and technologies. That all suggests that GMA will not be affordable, something a practical small electric car needs to be.

Another piece of the puzzle is that Murray said he is developing an architecture for such a car, not the car itself. Such a platform may be used by a GMA partner in charge of production. It may also be a platform GMA will license. We have scheduled a talk with Murray to try to discover more about his company’s plans for EVs.

Source: Gordon Murray Design via Autocar

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