Science Museum show for electric supercar

Racing Green Endurance team showcase car and share tales of adventure with visitors to the Science Museum – News

Tuesday 12 April 2011
by Colin Smith

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The Science Museum is exhibiting an Imperial College London team’s all-electric supercar this week.

The Imperial postgraduates and alumni who form the Racing Green Endurance (RGE) team are showcasing their Radical SRZero supercar in the Museum’s Antenna Wing until 15 April 2011.

The battery powered car, which reaches a top speed of 190 kilometres per hour, was driven by the team last year on a 26,000 kilometre journey down the Americas.They are also talking to people visiting the museum about their adventure, which involved them driving for 140 days across two continents and 14 countries including Canada, Mexico and Chile.

In the video (above right), listen to Alex Schey from RGE talking about what the team achieved on their journey and what their next steps are.

The team are also talking about the benefits of electric vehicles as viable low-carbon alternatives to combustion engine vehicles. In addition, they hope that they will be able to inspire the next generation of engineers by sharing their experiences with young museum-goers.

Clemens Lorf, PhD student from the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the College and chief operations manager of Racing Green Endurance says:

“An important part of the Racing Green Endurance project has always been about raising awareness about electric vehicles and the positive impact that they could have on the environment. We spent a lot of time speaking to thousands of people, most of whom had never even seen an electric car before. In the UK, most people have only seen electric vehicles as milk floats, golfing carts and Gee Whiz electric cars. So, having the car on display at one of the busiest and most popular museums in the world will provide us with a great opportunity to show people just how electrifying the future of driving could be.”

Professor Jeff Magee, Principal of the Faculty of Engineering, adds: “In many ways, this car has been at the cutting edge of electric vehicle technology, so it is fitting to see the car alongside so many other devices, which were also ahead of their time. I am hoping to pop down and see the car for myself this week.”

Some of the team members are planning to apply the management and technological skills that they harnessed during their adventure to developing a new start-up company that will build components that can be used to power the next generation of electric vehicles.

The Racing Green Endurance project runs alongside the wider Imperial Racing Green initiative (IRG), which is training students to become the engineers who will develop the next generation of zero emission vehicles. The IRG project is an initiative of the Energy Futures Lab, which is the College's hub for interdisciplinary energy research.