Automotive

Finland's Toroidion electrifies the street with 1,341-hp 1MW concept car

Finland's Toroidion electrifies the street with 1,341-hp 1MW concept car
The Toroidion 1MW was born and raised in Finland
The Toroidion 1MW was born and raised in Finland
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The 1MW makes a first impression on Prince Albert II of Monaco (Photo: Top Marques Monaco)
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The 1MW makes a first impression on Prince Albert II of Monaco (Photo: Top Marques Monaco)
Toroidion reveals the 1MW concept at Top Marques Monaco
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Toroidion reveals the 1MW concept at Top Marques Monaco
The 1MW features a flush headlight design
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The 1MW features a flush headlight design
1MW closeup
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1MW closeup
The 1MW features race-style seating
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The 1MW features race-style seating
Inside the Toroidion 1MW
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Inside the Toroidion 1MW
The Toroidion 1MW has a 1,341-hp electric powertrain
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The Toroidion 1MW has a 1,341-hp electric powertrain
Inside the Toroidion 1MW
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Inside the Toroidion 1MW
Toroidion designed its high-capacity battery for quick swapping
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Toroidion designed its high-capacity battery for quick swapping
Toroidion plans to test the 1MW before releasing all details
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Toroidion plans to test the 1MW before releasing all details
The Toroidion 1MW will be among the world's most powerful road cars if it reaches production
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The Toroidion 1MW will be among the world's most powerful road cars if it reaches production
The profile reminds us of a Corvette with a tiny cabin
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The profile reminds us of a Corvette with a tiny cabin
The Toroidion 1MW: an electric megacar
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The Toroidion 1MW: an electric megacar
The rear is the 1MW's best angle, in our opinion
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The rear is the 1MW's best angle, in our opinion
1MW closeup
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1MW closeup
1MW closeup
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1MW closeup
The interior feels slapped together and underdeveloped
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The interior feels slapped together and underdeveloped
Toriodion reveals its vision of an electric megacar
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Toriodion reveals its vision of an electric megacar
The Toroidion 1MW was born and raised in Finland
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The Toroidion 1MW was born and raised in Finland
View gallery - 19 images

Normally more of a place a car manufacturer might go to cold-test its latest sports car, Finland is sliding its name into supercar design in a rather big, bold way. The all-new Toroidion 1MW concept car was designed, developed and built entirely in Finland. The car wrestles the title of world's most powerful all-electric supercar away from the Rimac Concept One. At a full megawatt (1,341 hp), it's one of the most powerful supercars, period. Besides sheer power, the car showcases some interesting technologies with a wide range of potential applications, from a scalable powertrain to a fast-swap battery system.

Toroidion was founded in 2011 with the mission of designing a fully electric powertrain capable of competing in the world-famous 24 Hours of Le Mans endurance race, where total driving distances of more than 3,000 miles (4,830 km) are the norm. Those distances are well over 10 times the limitations of even high-range electric cars like the Tesla Model S and Audi R8 e-tron. To get around that inherent shortcoming, Toroidion relies on a rapid-swap high-capacity battery that is "as easily replaced in the pit-lane as it is in the home garage." It doesn't provide any further details about the battery pack or the swapping system, outside of saying the pack, along with the car itself, is built to a lightweight standard.

Toroidion developed the electric drive to be scalable in power, meaning that it could theoretically show up in something besides a 1,341-hp track/road megacar that's sure to run well into the seven-figure price range. We're not anticipating an affordable Model 3 competitor, but at least it could slide down to a level attainable by the run-of-the-mill multimillionaire, not just oligarchs and oil barons.

Beyond those very general details, Toroidion is holding back further information about the 1MW's engineering and performance until it tests and tunes the concept car more thoroughly. So this week's reveal at Top Marques Monaco is more of a teaser than a full-on unveiling. A 1,341-hp supercar with a scalable powertrain and swappable battery is, however, a pretty satisfying appetizer.

The profile reminds us of a Corvette with a tiny cabin
The profile reminds us of a Corvette with a tiny cabin

Unlike in the typical car teaser campaign, Toroidion has driven the 1MW out of the shadows to give us a complete look at its styling. Frankly, it might have been better off keeping us in suspense until it could really wow us with performance details because the design, unlike the potential of the powertrain, is rather flat. The 1MW concept looks as though Toroidion mashed elements of a number of existing car designs, then rounded out all the edges to make it "modern" and called it a day. Considering the company's number one mission is in developing electric powertrain technology, not so much an entire car, we'll bet that's more or less how it went down.

The 1MW flashes a profile that looks very C5 Corvette, only with a cartoon-like, too-small-for-its-body cabin. The hood and front-end are a bit better, and if we're being generous, we'd point out that the rounded, flush-with-hood headlamps are somewhat reminiscent of a Porsche 928 or Lamborghini Miura. The similarity ends there, though, as the over-rounding of the 1MW's edges and surfaces leaves an "interesting show car, would not drive in public" feel, not dissimilar from the Ermini Seiottosei. There is a point where three-dimensional curves overwhelm a car design, and the 1 MW resides well beyond that point.

When looking the 1MW square in the face, the beady eyes and small oval grill lack the confident strength that any megawatt car should have. The Toriodion looks best when viewed from the other end; we like the way the large, smooth fender muscles flow into the digital display-like rear fascia. Unfortunately, a nice rear-end isn't enough to save the design.

The rear is the 1MW's best angle, in our opinion
The rear is the 1MW's best angle, in our opinion

We will give Toroidion credit for coming up with something fresh that doesn't look like any other supercar we can think of, and if it were a more basic sports car, we might just like it. But the design is just too flaccid for one of the world's most powerful and technologically-advanced concept cars.

The car's interior is equally uninspired. We like the idea of a minimalistic, race-inspired cabin construction in theory, but in this case it feels like they slapped some aluminum across the dashboard and center console and surrounded the steering wheel with a bunch of toggle switches that may or may not actually do anything. We like the curvy, skeletal metal handles on the butterfly doors, but otherwise, it's a cold, underdeveloped collection of race-inspired parts and materials.

The interior feels slapped together and underdeveloped
The interior feels slapped together and underdeveloped

While the 1MW's look leaves something to be desired, it's just an initial proof-of-concept, so hopefully it evolves into a more attractive sports coupe design worthy of what promises to be cutting edge electric powertrain technology. We look forward to seeing how Toroidion's story unfolds over time. In the meantime, you can take a look at all available interior and exterior angles in the photo gallery.

Source: Toroidion

View gallery - 19 images
10 comments
10 comments
BeWalt
Neat! However....them not stating "little" details like total vehicle mass and just a few more specs about the battery has a reason: Whatever they are doing to make that one MW happen is pushing the cells they use right up to, and most likely over, their limits.
The battery in this car will have a life cycle curve that is going down like the Eiger north face. Somewhere in the small print for this vehicle there will be a disclaimer like "user understands that actual flooring of the accelerator will result in considerable loss of battery capacity each time when done" and more, probably warnings about increase in potential fire dangers and such.
But hey, billionaires need to have some fun. Why not a car that only accelerates like mad for ten times, and then dies.
Τριαντάφυλλος Καραγιάννης
how about these guys designing vehicles that will actually MATTER, that will make a difference in the real world, instead of aiming for the deep pockets of multi-millionaires whose ego is bigger than their wallets?
True, you have to follow the money and money what these guys are after. But at some point there are other things in life
phissith
New champion arrived! Lol
Grunchy
Hmm, I don't think it looks so bad. 1 MW = holy COW! Meanwhile, besides the design critique, I am disappointed that Toroidion provided no information about 0-60, 0-100-0, whether or not it has AWD, what is the purpose of the gearshift, a general idea about pricing (7 figures? really?), and so forth.
John Banister
The most interesting photo is the ghosted-out power train photo on their site. I like the minimalist interior, but I'd rather see Tesla style minimalism. A gear shift knob on a car without a gearbox looks kind of pointless.
Mindbreaker
I like the styling, the exterior styling that is.
I suspect they are using 4 motors, one for each wheel. It would be hard to find electric motor(s) powerful enough to add up to that HP without using 4. Tesla motors seems like the obvious.
Nicolas Zart
Last I spoke to Alejandro Agag about swapping batteries for racing purposes, he told me that the safety list from the FIA was daunting. That's why Formula E didn't go that route, but the wireless induction road.
Although I like the idea of battery swapping, the safety precaution in order to make it race worthy is a very expensive endeavor. I'd be happy to see how they develop this.
Catweazle
One megawatt eh?
That means 1,000 amps at 1,000 volts.
Having had some experience with industrial strength electricity, I really don't fancy being cooped up in that if it decides to pop a power transistor!
Ardeshir Mehta
Your comments on the Toridion's styling are, I think quite uncalled for. They are just your opinion, with which I disagree. In my opinion its styling goes in the *right* direction: the Ferrari "LaFerrari" and the McLaren 650 - to give just a couple of examples - are, once again in my opinion of course, rather ugly, and I wouldn't like to be seen driving either of them. To my mind, the ideal design would have been something like a more rounded-off version of the Mazda MX-5 Miata, or something more akin to an AC Cobra; but perhaps that's expecting too much from today's carmakers, whose designs have all gone downhill since the obviously fantastic 1930s Talbot-Lago "Teardrop" and - if you're talking about larger cars - the fantastic one-off "Phantom Corsair" made in the 1930s for the heir to the founder of the Heinz ketchup company. Just google their images. Even the somewhat later-made Jaguars, right up till the E Type, were better-looking than any modern car.
Daniel Watkins
No pictures of the drivetrain? No video? argh