Automotive

2,040-horsepower electric hypercar makes some crazy battery promises

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The Fulminea will be Automobili Estrema's first car, and while it may well debut as the most powerful car in the world, it's the battery that's got us interested
Automobili Estrema
The Fulminea will be Automobili Estrema's first car, and while it may well debut as the most powerful car in the world, it's the battery that's got us interested
Automobili Estrema
The company will build 61 of these cars in Modena, Italy
Automobili Estrema
It does have a nice fast look to it
Automobili Estrema
0-200 mph in 10 seconds should keep drivers awake
Automobili Estrema
The Fulminea's hybrid battery pack will use solid state cells in conjunction with an ultracapacitor for extreme boost power
Automobili Estrema
Sharp back end and aerodynamic-looking wheel covers
Automobili Estrema
Only 61 will be made
Automobili Estrema
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Italy's Automobili Estrema is living up to its name with absurd performance figures for its first product. The Fulminea electric hypercar promises an absurd 2,040 all-wheel-drive horsepower, and 0-200 mph (0-320 km/h) acceleration in less than 10 seconds.

As mad as those figures sound, there's no reason they can't be real. Indeed, there are a cluster of cars now in various stages of development sitting around the 2,000 horsepower mark: the Lotus Evija, the Aspark Owl, the Rimac C_Two, the Pininfarina Battista... You can more or less have as much power as you want in an electric supercar; heat and battery considerations are your only limits.

Indeed, there are so many ludicrously overpowered electrics being developed now that even though this would be the most powerful production car in the world if it launched today, our eyes are starting to glaze over when we see numbers like these.

I'm fairly sure my eyes wouldn't glaze over if I hopped in one and stomped the go pedal; either that, or they might glaze over permanently, but we now live in a world where basically no peak power promise can move an eyebrow.

The Fulminea's hybrid battery pack will use solid state cells in conjunction with an ultracapacitor for extreme boost power
Automobili Estrema

Indeed, it's the battery system that has our eyebrows working overtime. Cop a look at this: "The Estrema Fulminea will be the first street-legal hypercar to be equipped with an innovative hybrid battery pack which uses a combination of ABEE’s (Avesta Battery Energy Engineering) solid-state cells paired with ultra-capacitors ... With its hybrid battery pack of 100 kWh, the expected WLTP range will be 520 km (323 miles). Thanks to the innovative solid-state cells, the high-performance hybrid battery (with cell-to-pack technology) will reach an unprecedented energy density of 450 Wh/kg (1,200 Wh/l) with a predicted weight under 300 kg (661 lb) and a total curb weight of 1,500 kg (3,307 lb)."

Whoa, Nelly. 450 Wh/kg would be impressive even if this thing didn't have to carry around the high-powered but low-energy bulk of an ultracapacitor. If Automobili Estrema – and more to the point, its Belgian battery partner ABEE – manage to get such a thing to market in 2023 as promised, then this truly will be big news.

The company says it's building 61 Fulmineas in Italy's "Motor Valley" of Modena, where people will take one look at it and think it's a Lambo that ran out of petrol rolling downhill.

Source: Automobili Estrema

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9 comments
vince
This is exactly whay Tesla is keeping secret and under wraps for its roadster and its rocket option.
guzmanchinky
I can't wait until all of this becomes commonplace and the noise pollution and real pollution are forever a memory.
Eddy
Nothing beats the sound of a V8 to anyone even vaguely interested in performance vehicles. They will have to replace it with an electronic source controlled by engine revs.
Nelson Hyde Chick
Just another male enhancement device for the less endowed rich guys.
Karmudjun
Nice write up.
Add production aluminum ion batteries to this and the Bill Gates & Jeff Bezos of the world can get two or three for fun! They'll be able to afford it - and if Gates gets the micro fission reactors in production - then he'll be able to charge his car in minutes!
Gannet
Yeah, thanks for cutting out the crap. It's all about the solid state battery, "show us some solid evidence or we are not interested". So we now look closely at Avesta to see if there really is a story.
mark41
@Eddy: I hear an echo from the past.
Tom White
CONFIRMED the all-new Automobili Estrema Fulminea bullet capable of 320kph in under 10 seconds will be making its UK debut at Salon Privé 2021 on 1st - 5th September at Blenheim Palace Oxfordshire don't miss it!
Baker Steve
Truly bonkers. It's a pity that the term 'hypercar' has been hijacked, but I suppose it was inevitable. It was coined by Amory Lovins and his colleagues at the Rocky Mountain Institute in the US in the 1990s to describe a concept for an ultra-light ultra-low-consumption (150 mpg+) petrol vehicle.

As for the future of personal road transport, I think the New Atlas article on the Aquarius engine (https://newatlas.com/automotive/aquarius-single-piston-hydrogen-engine/) points the way ahead. Double or triple up on these and connect to a crankshaft and conventional automatic box and problem solved: directly from hydrogen to motive power with no battery or fuel cell nonsense. Heck, it might even sound good.